Adaptation to Prison and Inmate Self-Concept

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to advance penological research by examining the process of prisonization more fully than has been done in the past. In order accomplish this, the importation and deprivation models have been expanded by incorporating a more inclusive set of independent variables as predictors of prisonization. Second, this research offers a more complete model of prisonization by including measures of self-concept and the self-identities that inmates maintain in prison institutions. Measures of deprivation in the current study were more important predictors of the degree of prisonization than were measures of importation. The measures of self-conception used in this research did not significantly contribute to an understanding of prisonization.