Abstract

OSPINA-GOMEZ, Yésica  and  BEDOYA-GALLEGO, Diana Marcela. Psychological effects caused after the breaking of the bonds with the primary support group due to the imprisonment phenomenon. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2019, vol.36, n.1, pp.171-185. ISSN 1668-7027.

The results of a research whose objective was to understand the psychological effects of breaking bonds with the primary support group because of prisonization are presented with the purpose of contributing in the formulation of researches related to the mental health of inmates in prison from a family perspective. For this purpose, the research aimed to deepen the most significant issues of a group of inmates (male and female) from the Complejo Penitenciario y Carcelario Medellín - Pedregal (COPED) related to family breakdown, being abandoned by the partner, insufficient or inexistent support networks outside the prison and the consequences or psychological reactions caused by them. It is important to mention that the participants in the research were identified by using chain sampling or network sampling. It is also important to note that being a qualitative research, indepth interviews were conducted and later coded and categorized, based on the categories of analysis, namely family background, prisonization and psychological effects. This process favors the transferability of results, based on the in-depth description of the phenomenon in its context (Martínez-Salgado, 2012). In consequence the research process enabled the identification of signs and symptoms that remained in the subjects of research beyond all adaptation processes, and it is because of this characteristic that such symptomatology may not be explained by the theories regarding the psychological effects as a consequence of internment, that is to say, prisonization itself, as they derive from a process of adaptation and assimilation of the culture in prison. In this regard, this research arguments the relevance of the involvement of the family group in the penitentiary processes, seeking to have a positive impact on the functioning of inmates in prison and also on their resocialization and later on their life in freedom. Therefore, it is necessary to acknowledge that the contact with the closest support group becomes an essential resource that, properly included in the support process for the inmate, leverages the development of prosocial competences, whilst reestablishing the self-image and preserving the family image create in persons deprived of liberty a commitment with resocialization, besides being the bridge that keeps them anchored to the outside world. This approach promotes the reformulation of the current understanding of the effects associated to the prisonization as immanent status of imprisonment; this idea is based on the fact that the particular conditions of inmates (Echeverri,2010) and the conditions of the institutional context of prison (Crespo, 2017), may not be assessed or intervened in isolation, while, as evidenced on the research herein, a person that is deprived of liberty experiences a series of physical and psychical impacts that are beyond the normalizing processes of adaptation, becoming problems that when transcending the prison premises, need to be understood as a public policy matter.

Keywords : Imprisonment; Psychological effects; Primary support group; Prison culture.

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