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Justin Davis
Professor Erin Fisher
Eng 123
13 November 2015
Emptying Mass Incarceration
Our Prison system is immensely expensive and bloated. Whats worse is that it tends to
feed back into itself making any reduction in incarceration a very slow fix. There needs to be a
way to empty the system, to move people back into society and help them get away from their
past and the horrible choices they made previously. To do this better prison environments with
rehabilitation principals and proper reentry infrastructure needs to be put in place.
Reentry starts with the state of the individual, meaning that their psychological state,
whether improved or damaged in prison, will consequently effect the success of their reentry.
"Effects of Long Term Incarceration" is a Canadian prison system perspective on the
psychological impacts of long-term imprisonment that speaks to some of the problems that can
arise. The article focuses mostly on issues such as a deprivation in the prison system. Deprivation
of liberty is accomplished through solitary confinement which dehumanizes the inmates.
Deprivation of autonomy through the dictating of every aspect of their life, this leads to an
inability to make decisions for themselves which can complicate their reentry into society as an
independent adult. Depravity of security brought on by the constant presence of danger around
them in prison arousing acute anxiety. Finally, deprivation or heterosexual relationships which
has a profound impact on both female and male inmates such as identity problems and
victimization of other inmates. The article also talks about the deterioration of a prisoners
psychological state in general but explains that the findings are not consistent and can not be

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connected directly to long-term imprisonment. Prisonization and Coping theory both have
similar consistency problems but the effects should not be ignored because they are not seen
across the board. The effects of long-term imprisonment on women is also discussed and while
the psychological damage is just as prominent if not more so it comes from different sources like
an absence of family and hopelessness from lack of control and responsibility. This source
overwhelmingly shows the psychological damage that can take place in prison and will help me
explain things we need to be cautious of or fix pre-reentry.
One example of an attempt at changing the damaging culture within prisons comes from
an interesting look at rehabilitation practices in Scottish prisons. Learning, Rehabilitation and
the Arts in Prisons: A Scottish Case Study by Tett, Lyn, et al. investigates the role of the arts in
prison rehabilitation through a case study involving over 200 prisoners. The studies show a shift
away from negative attitudes towards learning like the literacy training that was taking place
already and built a culture that bread a desire for instruction. The teaching also enabled prisoners
to work together gaining a sense of group responsibility as they all worked towards a
collaborative greater good. Finally, it increased their confidence and self-esteem leading to a
state where they saw they were capable of change. While theres no evidence of the long term
effects, the study showed that participation in the arts program improved the prison climate,
helped with literacy, and moved the inmates towards positive growth. This article is a great
example for my essay of one way in which we can fix some of the psychological damage we are
seeing in the first source.
Establishing a more rehabilitative positive environment is a step in the right direction but
its not the end of the complications and cant be guaranteed to help everyone. Unwinding Mass
Incarceration speaks to the subtlety of balancing the punishment and removal of those who pose

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a threat to society with the problem of mass incarceration. Lobuglio and Piehl take a cautious
and thorough approach to reforming our Criminal justice system, noting the dangers of quick
fixes that have been attempted before they attempt to answer the problem with a more intentional
focus at getting prisoners reintegrated into society. They acknowledge the reasons for criminal
histories but bring up that those who have grown past their failures are trapped by their past with
no help to get out. Past relationships and life situations can trigger impulse decisions that ruin
hard sought opportunities, but cognitive behavioral programming could help them resist those
impulses. A need for infrastructure to assist reentry into society so that released inmates have
something to stand on, and while these programs tend to be expensive they argue that in the long
run its worth it. Overall they show that it will be a long and complicated process to unwind mass
incarceration, and the issues they bring up are only part of the problem, but it is definitely
possible if we have strong leadership and community involvement. I plan to use this source to
show specific ways of how we keep ex-prisoners down after they have already served their time.
Along with fixing laws that keep ex-prisoners down theres also a need to help them get
back on their feet so that they can actually reenter society rather than getting stuck in a limbo we
call parole. In When Prisoners Return To Communities: Political, Economic, And Social
Consequences Joan Petersilia, Ph.D., a Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the
University of California, Irvine, goes over the various problems with prisoners reentry into
society including problems with parole which has been increased by the immense amount of
people released every year numbering close to 600,000. With parole overwhelmed and
underemphasized about two thirds of those on parole will end up back in prison. She also
discusses how determinate sentencing, while restricting discrimination in the system also took
away the ability to earn your way out of prison and sends people out into society when theyve

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reached the end of their term even though they may not be ready for reentry. Mainly the article
elaborates on the systems failings for those reentering society such as a lack of needed
supervision thanks to the failing parole program, political alienation from laws that restrict
people with a criminal history, the stresses of not finding work because of their record so no
money or security, and no help for mental and physical health issues. She concludes that a
proper parole system could effectively help with a large portion of the issues accompanying
reentry giving parolees accountability and direction to the help they need. I plan on utilizing this
in my essay to show ways that we can help make parole a useful tool again, one that can help
build people up to be the citizens they can be.
Surely the concepts are simple enough but to implement them requires changing
infrastructure, laws, public opinion, and budgeting. Theres a lot of work to be done but its a
valuable cause when someones ability to live their life is on the line. Even if we dehumanize the
situation theres still the fact that our bloated prison system is a drain on our society and national
budget, something has got to give and rehabilitation and reentry programs have been shown to
work. As weve seen in these articles there is a need for a better prison environment, or at least
psychological care; reasons to think over the laws that effect ex-inmates after theyve finished
their time; and a necessity to make parole meaningful and more effective. Some of these fixes,
and especially all, could help ensure that when people leave prison they stay out of prison
becoming a contribution to society rather than a drain on it.

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Works Cited
"Effects of Long Term Incarceration." Effects of Long Term Incarceration. John Howard Society
of Alberta, 2009. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
<http://www.johnhoward.ab.ca/pub/C35.htm#depriva>.
Lobuglio, Stefan F., and Piehl, Anne M. "Unwinding Mass Incarceration." Issues In Science &
Technology 32.1 (2015): 56-61. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2015.
Petersilia, Joan. "When Prisoners Return To Communities: Political, Economic, And Social
Consequences." Federal Probation 65.1 (2001): 3. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14
Nov. 2015.
Tett, Lyn, et al. "Learning, Rehabilitation And The Arts In Prisons: A Scottish Case
Study." Studies In The Education Of Adults 44.2 (2012): 171-185. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2015.