Chris N. Nelson
Culture shock is the natural human experience of dealing with a change from one culture to another. For instance, if one goes on vacation from the United States to France he will experience culture shock, as the French culture is certainly different from the American culture. This is also true with a person going to prison, and then true again when the person gets out of prison and returns to the free world. I believe that culture shock may very well be the leading factor in why people return to prison.
Here is what happens to a person upon going to prison. First, there is the culture shock with the prison culture being the new culture. The newly arrived prisoner will rely upon his/her memories of the “good ol’ days” and returning to them as something of a mental or psychological safety net in dealing with the rough periods of culture shock.This initial phase will last for between 12 and 14 months on average. After the first year or so, doing time gets to be a matter of sticking to routines mostly and is nowhere near as difficult as the first year. Then, when the prisoner is about a year from getting out, he/she starts to look at things in the free world. Low and behold, the “good ol’ days” or anything like them are nowhere in sight, and guess what? Another round of culture shock rears up its ugly head. Then the prisoner is released, and the reality of just how much time has really passed him/her by hits with its fullest force. Not only are the “good ol’ days” gone, the closest friends and often times family members have changed so much that the prisoner is alienated to the degree of truly suffering culture shock. This time, however instead of psychologically relying on the safety net of being able to return to the “good ol’ days” the only stable and safe culture to lean on is this prison culture. When times really get tough, he/she knows they can always return to prison and a place where they know what the rules are and what is expected of them. The good news is that this lasts for approximately a year. The bad news is that people being released from prison are not being told to expect this, or given the adequate tools to deal with it, thus we are having many – far too many – people returning to prison.
There are numerous studies of the psychological effects of culture shock. I encourage everyone reading this to research this and discover the facts for yourself. What is most alarming is the fact that the prisoner recidivism statistics published by the Alaska Sentencing Commission some years ago (the only ones I'm aware of for Alaska) show much more than just a casual connection between prisoner return rates and culture shock. More than 80% of prisoners released from Alaska prisons returned within 12 months, of those 90% returned within 6 months of being released. All of the studies I've come across which deal with culture shock say that it is the first six months that are the most difficult to deal with, and that it takes roughly one year before a person starts to feel comfortable and as though they fit in to and are a part of, a new culture. Prisoners being released from prison are most likely to do exactly as a person dropped off in France would do when cultural differences and confusion makes things unbearable – they'll do whatever it takes to return to the culture they’re most familiar with, even if that culture is prison.
Yes, there are those of you out there who will answer this with a mere pointing at the halfway houses in Alaska. My reply to you, in advance of your stating case, is that you should look at who is filling Alaska halfway houses before you go too far. People convicted of DWI and misdemeanor offenses are being housed in Alaska halfway houses. People about to be returned to the free world, and especially those most likely to need a halfway house type of environment for a successful return to society are not able to find the bed space. Additionally, the halfway houses in Alaska have recently adopted policies of rejecting any prisoners with any sort of a violent offense or violent backgrounds. The bottom line is that Alaska halfway houses are not halfway houses, but rather private, for profit, jails for DWI and misdemeanor offenses.
I am but one prisoner and really don't have all the answers, nor do I claim to have them. However, I would encourage anyone interested in the matter to bring this culture shock issue to the attention of our elected and appointed officials. And for the really ambitious folks, I would love to see some sort of an informational packet put together and distributed to prisoners. I am a firm believer in the idea that identification and understanding of the problem is a major part of the solution(s).