Title: Do Prisons Really Make Offenders Worse? | Psychology Today
Headings: Do Prisons Really Make Offenders Worse?
Stanton E. Samenow Ph.D.
Do Prisons Really Make Offenders Worse?
Prison may be a turning point toward a responsible future.

Content: Inmates who abstain from criminal activitiesin prison remain cordial, to other inmates. Not wanting to be tagged as "snitches" or informants, they participate in a variety of activities that do not violate the rules. And they have no interest in committing new crimes. Some develop disgust (that they do not express publicly) with their fellow inmates who are perpetually devising new schemes, con games, and manipulative maneuvers. They report that others leave them alone and do not try to pressure them into involvement in more violations and crimes. They have found that, usually, the other inmates respect them. In short, just as he did in the free world, an inmate chooses the people with whom he develops close associations. He makes decisions about the type of person he wants to be. He decides what temptations he will resist. By no means is it inevitable that he will become a more hardened criminal or a more dangerous person because he is serving a sentence in a correctional institution.