You’re kicked out of a place that provided free shelter, food, library, and prescription medication if needed. No transportation, no job, no money, two-week temporary housing vouchers, paying for mandatory drug tests and some food stamps. Is this a stressful situation? Yes. As we have learned about in class, chronic stress can only cause elevated risks of stress-related diseases such as heart disease. According to the Denver Post article, this is a situation that many people face after being released from jail. This type of situation is not solved within two hours so it would be chronic stress that parolees experience. Not only would their glucocorticoid levels be extremely high from these stressful situations but they are also receiving many more stimulants than they are used to receiving from within the prison walls. As the case for inmates that have served several years, their synapses have changed or learned responses for a different set of stimulants as they habituated themselves within the prison. Along with stressors mentioned above, they are receiving many stimulants from the outside world that they have been shielded from for many years. Being able to interpret these stimulants as stressful or non-stressful can be another burden to these former inmates.
11% of parolees end up back in prison because of, as the article alludes to, the difficulties these parolees face in meeting all of their requirements. A former inmate and parolee mentioned that he would have thought he would be better off in prison. One of these factors is the level of stress they receive and the inability to handle stressful situations. This leads to the tax payers money being spent for their rent and food which they could not provide for themselves outside because it may have been too stressful. The article later describes the fact that providing Cognitive Behavior Therapy for newly released offenders and parolees in how to deal with stress and the outside environment could help parolees deal with their situation. There is therapy for those who are mentally ill, but what about those who are not mentally ill but simply need to learn how to deal with stressors in their lives outside of prison. Giving people the tools to deal with stressful situations such as parolees may give them the ability to make their lives better and not feel that their only option is to return to the four walls they are used to, prison.
Reference:
Hey Awesome article you found Christiana! I found this to be similar in a lot of ways to veterans that have just come back from war. During an experience that extracts you from "typical" culture and life your brain endures so many changes. This is why so many veterans have difficulty returning home from war and re-integrating back into society. What they experienced whether inside a jail or away at war though very different situations has completely modulated the perception of stressors and stress responses. As for those who are in jail do you think another possibility aside from cognitive behavior therapy to newly released inmates? The one idea I thought of was implementation of practices that maintained an inmates ability to respond appropriately to stressful situations. The brain is plastic and CBT would help these synaptic changes but what if we could prevent them from such drastic changes in the first place? Do you think that there would be a higher integration rate if something like this were to occur?
ReplyDeleteWell the innate idea of going to prison is taking away the privelege of citizens who have done something wrong, therefore restricting them from practicing and experiencing many things that we normally do in everyday society. So, preventing this change of stress response due to lack of stimulation or stressors would be to create a mini society where they could interact just as they did in society. There is a podcast that discusses the story of how one drama teacher puts on a production of a Shakespeare play within the walls of a prison. The inmates reveal of how it makes them feel human again. I would think this is due to the different stimulation they are getting within the prison walls, as well as the ability to socialize after the play with members of the audience that come out to the crowd. For the brief 10 minute "after-production" socialization they are able to interact with people in a different way.
DeleteThese brief instances of stimulation, provide different stimulants than what the inmates are used to. Perhaps because they are brief they are not overwhelmed. If we introduce more of these situations to inmates in order to prevent their ability to handle situations that they will encounter again outside the prison walls are we affording them the priveleges that were taken away as a consequence to breaking the law. By preventing these drastic changes of environment, would that entail affording the inmates to interact in ways that they would in society? Can you prevent the drastic changes without changing the intent of a prison?
here is the link to the podcast:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/501/the-view-from-in-here
I have to agree with KelseyP, this is really interesting. Having an uncle that is a defense attorny and cousin who is a parole officer for those that have recently been released, the return rate is very high, and prevention of these synaptic changes as Kelsey stated could prove very useful since once synapses and nuerons are damaged they don't regenerate. If your still interested in this topic I found a couple articles (citations below) that I found very insightful. The first talks about the pros and cons of prison life and its affect on the nerves in the brian prior to release from prison and the second has statistics about the employment and earnings of ex-cons and how low it is which as you pointed out really impacts the idea to go back to the familiarity and through that "comfort" of their past prison life. Great job again and hope these articles shed a little more light on the topic for you if you choose to read them.
ReplyDeleteMiller, H. A., & Young, G. R. (1997). Prison segregation: Administrative detention remedy or mental health problem?. Criminal Behaviour And Mental Health, 7(1), 85-94. doi:10.1002/cbm.146
Needels, K. E. (1996). GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL AND DO NOT COLLECT? A LONG-TERM STUDY OF RECIDIVISM, EMPLOYMENT, AND EARNINGS PATTERNS AMONG PRISON RELEASES. Journal Of Research In Crime & Delinquency, 33(4), 471-496.