Incarceration in a total institution is detrimental to the health of residents Discuss
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Introduction
Incarceration is a form of imprisonment and is defined as "the state of being imprisoned" (Ansme.com, 2003). There are many definitions as to what a 'total institution' is however. Samuel E. Wallace (1971) claims total institutions arise from areas when the regular institutions in society such as the church, the law or care-giving centres begin to exercise total control over the residents. He believes they can be clearly identified by these features: the communication is restricted and controlled by the institution such as visiting and phone calls, that those inside often are termed "inmates" and that these people are now watched over by staff and their movements monitored and controlled. Here a separate social world comes into existence and therefore the residents' status and identity are challenged and altered through his relationship to other inmates. Here we can perhaps start to see the reasoning behind the belief that incarceration does affect the health of the resident.
The idea of an institution is generally perceived to be that of a mental institution or asylum, such as the famous Bethlem, described in the book, Scenes from Bedlam by David Russell (1997). Though this is indeed a form of total institution, others, such as Erving Goffman, write of other institutions that may be considered as total...