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Psychological Well-Being In Prison Essay

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Psychological well-being is heavily impacted by the damaging effects of being incarcerated within a prison. There are many individuals who have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for crimes that they did not commit and many face psychological hardships due to the harshness of life within the prison walls. Within the United States, there has been well over 2,795 documented wrongfully convicted individuals between the years of 1989 and 2021, with a shocking number of over 25,000 years served collectively by innocent defendants (National Registry of Exonerations, 2021, cited in Thomas & Hoyt, 2023). Thomas & Hoyt (2023) examine the psychological experiences of wrongful convictions as well as self-reported trajectories of distress throughout …show more content…

Ensuring that an individual is in fact guilty of a crime is so important to avoid causing psychological damage onto individuals and then releasing them back into the community. These individuals find it difficult to readjust back into the community and often must seek mental health services to help heal from severe psychological symptoms. Johnson & Engstrom (2020) reported psychological themes such as PTSD, hyperarousal, avoidance of stimuli, flashbacks, depression, sense of loss, institutionalized behaviors, and more in their study when asking participants about mental health symptoms. It is important to remember that these were reported themes and not actual diagnoses set by the authors. While these symptoms were reported by the participants themselves, it is not appropriate for the researchers to claim these are diagnoses for the wrongfully convicted …show more content…

These individuals may have traumatic experiences, experience anger or resentment, and more. There are many criminal psychologists that work with released individuals, but a individual who has been exonerated and released may be hesitant to work with a criminal psychologist and seek out their own private clinical counselor to help them with the healing process. This is the reason why it can be beneficial for clinical counselors to understand these issues and the psychological impact of both wrongful and rightful

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The book “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain” by David Eagleman is a summary of how David Eagleman, a neuroscientist, thinks is the best way to reform the criminal justice system in the United States. Eagleman argues that sentencing for crimes should not be based on the crime itself but rather the person who is committing it ability to reform. Throughout the book Eagleman gives examples and explains how a person who consciously commits a crime is not completely at fault since there many factors that influence a person’s conscience mind. He cites the examples of stress and drugs as two factors that could alter a person’s personality and contribute in making a person commit a crime.

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Wrongful convictions are one of the major problems that the justice system faces. Much worse is that there are people whom the judicial system has sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit. A wrongful conviction is a terrible injustice that is magnified when an innocent person spends years in prison or death row. The number of exonerated ex-offenders is steadily rising, however growing awareness of the injustices occur every day in American courts, it helps raise profound doubts about the accuracy and fairness of the criminal justice system. Cheryle (Hayes)

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But, there is much research and funding lacking for those who spent time in prison, but never did the crime in the first place. A current task at my internship is to create a post exoneration questionnaire to seek out those who have bene freed and find out what they would have needed after being released that they did not receive – this includes housing, compensation for time lost, assistance with jobs, assistance with mental health issues, and catching them up to speed with what went on in the world while they were wrongfully behind bars. Those who are wrongfully convicted and exonerated don’t even get a bus ticket or twenty dollars right away – their compensation takes a while to kick in and they are navigating foreign territory. Beyond this, much of their life has changed beyond the prison bars, families have grown and loved ones have moved on, often times their house and possessions are gone.

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The Mental illness: These offenders suffer from a wide variety of mental illness from depression

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Source 1 Hiromoto, L., Keltner, C., Frizzell, W., Chien, J., & Sparr, L. (2022). PTSD and trauma as mitigating factors in sentencing in capital cases. The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 50(1), 22-33. III. The perpetuation of violence A.

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What can be done The monitoring, prevention and treatment of mental disorders, as well as the promotion of good mental health, are part of the public health goals in prisons. According to World Health Organization (2017), even in resource-limited countries, measures can be taken to improve the mental health of prisoners and prison staffs, which can be adapted to the country’s cultural, social, political and economic environment (WHO, 2017). In the British prisons, some practices and policies have also been implemented, which reflect the positive impacts of prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing. Provide prisoners with appropriate mental health treatment and care.

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Victims’ feeling of recovery is dependent on the degree of distress they experienced from the crime. a. Victims of lighter crimes were more readily to cooperate in the process versus those of high distress victims. After conferences or mediations, the high distress victims were far more likely to remain angry and fearful of the offenders (Daly, 2015). b. Victims from graver crimes may not view the restorative justice system as beneficial. While 78% of the low distress crimes seemed to have recovered a year later after the offense, 71% of high distress victims had not recovered (Daly, 2002).

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I feel that I need to make additional research on the influence of self-forgiveness experience on those people who committed crimes. Gaining self-forgiveness through psychological counselling might have positive impact on the restructuring of a criminal identity. Let’s imagine that a person (for example, Jake) committed a crime and asks for my help, because he suffers from remorse and the pain that he caused. He killed a person, and now the fells regret for what he did. He also admits that he hurt the family of this person.

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