Total Institutions

• Some people remain in jail for long periods of time, sometimes they become senior citizens before their time of release.Because of this they experience extreme cases of institutionalization, especially if they've become senile.
• Being in an institution for a long period of time may also distance seniors from thir families.
• Elderly care homes can be considered a form of total institution. Though they benefit older people by providing around the clock care, there are negatives as well. Things like, elder abuse, strict schedules, and conflicts with other residents may be an issue.

Affects on Seniors

• Adults who are put into a total institution, such as a jail or rehab centre, may leave important aspects of life behind like careers or family. This can have negative effects on the person's emotions, and social interactions.
• Life long morals can be altered into new, positive morals that can aid in the person's rehabilitation so they can eventually live a normal, happy life.
• In some cases adults will reject any form of rehabilitation because they beileve that they are above the law. This sort behaviour often leads to adults eventually finding themsleves back in jail.

Effect on Adults

• Therapy reduces agressive behaviour.
• Can be around people similar to them and make connections to eachother.
• Inmates/people, fit into society better.

Pros

• Bad morals are replaced with good ones.
• Inmates share common morals with society after treatment which causes them to be a better fit in after their sentence.

• Solitary confinement can lead to a lack of social interaction.
• If put in jail for an extended period of time they may forget how to interact with new people in the outside world.

Social

Pros

Cons

• Pre-existing good morals may also be removed which may go aaginst the intention of the institution.
• In total institutions, for example, some morals that may interfere with their services are removed or supressed in order to mould them into obedient beings that will do what they are told.

Moral

Cons

•Resocialization is defined as radically changing an inmate's personality by carefully controlling his or her environment.

• Juvenile detention centres: Juvenive detention centres can be considered total institutions because they share similarities like; cells, counselling, depersonalization, and resocialization.
• Older children placed in foster homes may often not agree with being there and may feel like the restrictions they face are similar to those of someone in a total institution (i.e: inmates in a jail, adolescents in a juvinile detention centre.)
• Adolescents in highschool may also feel as if they are being treated in a manor that is similar to that of a total institution. For example, teachers monitor students daily and their overall progress closely. This measurment of success puts stress on the students and gives them a feeling of not measuring up to the expectation.

•Resocialization is a two-part process. First, the staff of the institution tries to erode the residents' identities and independence. Second, the resocialization process involves the systematic attempt to build a different personality or self.

• Prisons
• Military Camps
• Psychiatric Institutions
• Reform Schools
• Rehabilitation/Treatment Centers

Resocialization

Examples

Process of 'Resocialization'

Effect on Adolescents

A total institution is one in which there is a “barrier to social intercourse with the outside,” which often takes a physical form. In addition, in the total institution every part of life is conducted with a group of others in the same place and under the same authority, all directed by a very specific schedule. These activities are all designed to attain the goals of the institution in which they take place. Erving Goffman says that the main principle of total institutions is the “handling of human needs by the bureaucratic organization of whole blocks of people”. In other words, the total institution is characterized by the fact that those who are subservient to it must follow the rules laid out by those in power – rules which may be beneficial or detrimental, but are in any case justified in the name of bureaucracy.

Definition

• Teaches inmates/students/recruits how to act properly in their new role.
• Become emotionally stronger when they are re-socialized.
• If allowed treatment within the institution it can be beneficial.
• When good behaviour is displayed rewards may be given. (prison)

• Erases bad/aggressive behaviour.
• Able to recognize distorted thinking patterns.
• Helps to identify negative self-talk and promote positive self-talk.

Pros

• Experiences a decrease in self confidence, independence and self-esteem.
• Mental illness makes the inmates time more difficult, especially when denied treatment.
• Good aspects of personality may become erased.
• Separation from loved ones outside of the institution may lead to mental illness.
• Is demoralizing to inmates/people.
• Become institutionalized after a long periods of time and cannot function properly in society.

Emotional

Pros

• Inmates/people, lose their self-identity.
• Demoralizing to inmates/people.
• In some cases, may cause inmates/people to go mentally insane, (automatism).
• Standardized activities and planned schedules may cause people to forget how to do things themselves.
• Rank system in the military puts some above others, making others feel less important.

Cons

Cognitive

Cons

• Students who are adept and conforming to school rules are given certain privileges, and those who cannot are punished. The tracking system, in many ways, may also be seen a structure that awards privileges to those in higher tracks and punishes those in lower tracks. Indeed, the privileged students are much more likely to graduate earlier than those students who are punished and must remain behind.
• Foster/adoptive homes may act as a total institution in the way that children are placed there by means that are out of their control. In cases like this it is in the child's best interest, however the child may not think so, thus contributing to a sense of not fitting in or belonging.

• School can be considered a total institution because of the fact that the school, like the total institution, has a physical barrier to the outside world, during the school day, the lives of students are orchestrated by very specific rules that usually do not allow for individual discrepancies – and all for the purpose of attaining the school’s goal of “learning.”
• School may be demoralizing for students. Each child comes into the school with the background of their family and their cultural heritage. At times, the school may completely reject the student’s conceptions of life and of themselves, especially if their upbringing and family values are very different from the mission and morals of the school.

Children Cont.

• Learn how to contain violent behaviour and physical abuse by finding a positive outlet.
• Better immune system due to better nutrition in some cases.
• Develop healthier habits (i.e: rehabilitation after substance abuse).
• Fine tuned physical abilities (military/schools).

Effect on Children

• Contained to a cell and maybe cannot get the physical activity the body requires.
• When nutritious food is not provided the person's health can suffer.
• Improper medical treatment for injuries that may impede recovery. (ex: a fight breaks out and broken bones are not treated correctly).
• Spread of disease among inmates via physical/sexual contact, and contact of body fluids.
• Physical weakness makes inmates, especially those new to the prison more vulnerable.

Pros

Total Institutions

Physical

Cons