The Violation of Human Rights in Prison - Essay Example

?Q1. Discuss with your mates how Zimbardo’s findings apply to similar, real-life events happening today. Be sure to find and present examples ofthe concepts introduced in the experiment in your discussion. There are several findings from the ‘Stanford Prison Study’ conducted by Philip Zimbardo that apply to several similar, real-life events happening today. Firstly, we see the autonomy given to the guards who were given no guidelines as to how to react to the prisoner’s revolts. We see how the guards strategize and deal with the continuous prisoner’s rebellion against their authority and they effectively eliminate and dismember this unity by separating the ‘good’ prisoners from the ‘bad’ prisoners and giving preferential treatment to the bad prisoners resulting in the creation of confusion amongst them. This promoted a environment of mistrust amongst the prisoners. A similar tactic is used by real guards in real prisons which aims to break prisoner alliances. An article in The New York Times about ‘Racial segregation in Prison’ highlights the advantages of this tactic which in effect incorporates elements of racism which pit’s Blacks, Chicanos, and Anglos against each other. It also shows how this segregation regulates some control over keeping heightened violence in check. By the division and conquering in this way, guards deflect a lot of the aggressive focus from themselves. Other real life incident’s that can be related to the continuous revolts of the prisoners to break free of the oppression and abuse of the unchallenged power of the guards is the ‘San Quentin Six’ alleged prison escape attempt at San Quentin in 1971. (The Lucifer effect, Philip Zimbardo). Also there was the ‘Attica Prison Riot’ that followed shortly afterwards in New York. The prisoner’s riot was based on their demand for better living conditions and to be treated as human beings. (Attica prison riot, Web). This incident is so much similar to the various revolts the prisoner’s conspired to do against the guards in just six days of the Stanford study we observed. Even in this short span they suffered continuous humiliation in form of extended push-ups, jeering, longer solitary hours and uncalled for punishments such as unnecessary scrubbing of the toilet pans, all of which aimed to dehumanize the inmates turning them into objects. Another recent real life example of what happened in the ‘Stanford Prison study’ can be related to the violation of human rights that occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison under the authority of the American armed forces which took place post the 2003 Iraq war. (Abuse at Abu Ghraib, CNN). This was mainly because the soldiers were pushed into the role of prison guards, without any stringent guidelines as to how to deal with the prisoners. Many of the specific acts of degradation were comparable to those that occurred in the Zimbardo prison experiment. (Psychologist world, Web) Work Cited. The New York Times (Nov, 14). Racial Segregation in Prison. Retrieved from: < http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/opinion/14sun3.html> . Phillip Zimbardo. The Lucifer Effect. Retrieved from: < http://www.lucifereffect.com/about_content_quentin.htm>. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Attica prison riot. Retrieved from: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica_Prison_riot>. Rebecca Le Lung ( 2004, May) .‘Abuse at Abu Ghraib.’ CNN News. Retrieved from: . Psychologist world. ‘Influence of Social roles.’ Retrieved from: Read More