PsPsychologists working in prisons apply psychological principles within a correctional setting to deal with a complex web of problems. The main function of sentencing an offender to prison is to protect society by removing the criminal from the streets and punishing him for his acts. This function is referred to as the function of ‘incapacitation’. This function seems to be in sync with the image of a prisoner who is seen as cold, abusive, harsh and dangerous. However, for a psychologist even prisoners need to be treated humanely, need to reformed and re-integrated with society. Prison psychologists not only help inmates adjust to prison life but also aid in their rehabilitation. Many of these inmates are released and become a part of normal society. Psychologists try to develop intervention programmes that help inmates assimilate into …show more content…
These classification systems categorize inmates based on a number of factors so that they can be assigned to an appropriate institution, housing area, work assignment and program. During the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries, segregation of prisoners in the United States was based on factors such as age (adult versus juvenile), gender (male versus female), number of offenses (first versus repeat), and special needs (mentally ill). Some classifications simply occurred on the basis of how much space was available. These early classification systems were based on subjective criteria that often produced unreliable results. In these earlier systems, inmates were classified with the aim of deciding the “appropriate” form of punishment. This led to a number of negative consequences including prejudice, personal favouritism, inadequate documentation etc. These ‘subjective classifications’ were subsequently discarded in much of the western world because of the many problems associated with