Seminar in criminology -Discussion 11 - Essay Example

Law Discussion 11: Criminology Gresham Sykes’ study on how inmates have to adapt to a life of imprisonment resulted to findings which seem similar to the documentary titled “Prison Life”. Sykes main aim was to prove that it was not only the physical pains that come with a prisoner’s confinement. He wanted to show that there were psychological pains of confinement which had a damaging effect as much as the pains that came from physical mistreatment of inmates. For example, in the documentary, the inmates from Santa Rosa Correctional Institution all have different psychological pains to talk about.

For example, one of the oldest inmates, who is 53 years, Jack Hill says that prisons are likely to make an inmate breakdown psychologically (HD Documentary, 2014). Another 30 year old inmate by the name Armando Doctor, seems to have more psychological pains than the other inmates (HD Documentary, 2014). For example, he says that he was aggravated and angry and that is why he was cutting himself several times.In Sykes study, he revealed that the attacks directed on an inmate’s sense of individual worth were similar to issues of incarceration.

Though Sykes (2014) study was carried out many decades ago when life in prison was so much more brutal and degrading to the inmates, the prisons in this century in the U.S are more improved. Nonetheless, the deprivation of liberty, heterosexual relations, goods and services, security and autonomy as studied by Sykes (2014) are still present as noted in the documentary. A clear illustration of such deprivations which are discussed by Sykes (2014) is evident in the documentary, where the prison staff indicates that they do the best to ensure that no inmate has sharp objects or weapons in their possession, as it could result to an attack on enemy inmates or the prison staff.

Hence, it is clear that even though prisons were intended to protect the society from violent people, prisons themselves can also be a place of death for the inmates themselves.ReferenceHD Documentary. (2014). Prison life: Hardest prisons correctional maximum security [You Tube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSZ2U5UwJBgSykes, G. (2014). Inmate subcultures. In J. Wooldredge & A. Thistlethwaite (Eds.), Forty Studies that Changed Criminal Justice: Explorations into the History of Criminal Justice Research.

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