Why do we still have prisons.....?
“At the end of only six days we had to close down our mock prison because what we say was frightening. It was no longer apparent to us or most of the subjects where they ended and their roles began. The majority had indeed become “prisoners” or “guards”, no longer able to clearly differentiate between role-playing and self. There were dramatic changes in virtually every aspect of their behaviour, thinking and feeling. In less than a week, the experience of imprisonment undid (temporarily) a lifetime of learning; human values were suspended, self-concepts were challenged, and the ugliest, most base, pathological side of human nature surfaced. We were horrified because we saw some boys (“guards”) treat other boys as if they were despicable animals, taking pleasure in cruelty, while other boys (“prisoners”) became servile, dehumanised robots who thought only of escape, or their own individual survival, and of their mounting hatred of the guards. “
McLeod, S. A. (2016). Zimbardo - Stanford Prison Experiment. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html
Should that be the ideology and ethos behind prisons then those in government are fully aware of the detrimental effects not only upon the prisoners but also their guards. There can be no claim that one is unaware of not only the effects upon both those groups but upon society as a whole as prisons are always equated with a microcosm of the wider society. Bosses are guards as workers are prisoners. Prisons will not change until the wider society changes and the guards are happy being not only in control but sadistic bastards to boot. We are all in prison
