Chapter 7 includes a well-known quote from the Shawshank Redemption by Ellis Boyd Redding (‘Red’, played by Morgan Freeman) who attempts to explain the process of institutionalization:
He’s just institutionalized (…) The man’s been in here fifty years, Haywood, fifty years. This is all he knows. In here, he is an important man. He’s an educated man. Outside he’s nothin’, just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn’t get a library card if he tried (…) these walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on ‘em. That’s institutionalized. They send you here for life and that’s exactly what they take. The part that counts anyway.
Taking into consideration your learning from Chapter 7, as well as the quotation above, consider:
1. In your opinion, why do some people in prison become institutionalized?
2. How do coping strategies such as institutionalization have an impact on people during their custodial sentence?
3. What does the process of institutionalization tell us about the prison environment?
4. Does institutionalization help or hinder a person’s ability to successfully (re)integrate back into society?
5. What could be done to reduce the likelihood of people becoming institutionalized?
(chapter 7 of the book is in a file I included)