Encouragement Communication with Prisoners and Their Support System

The prison system in the United States house the most number of prisoners in the world. Due to the war on drugs, mandatory minimum prison sentences have accelerated the number of incarcerated citizens over the last 30 years. For research purposes, this paper will focus on those in the prison system. The clear majority of those incarcerated will be released back to their community once their sentence is completed. The reentry to society is a crucial step to becoming a productive member of the community once again. Most formerly incarcerated individuals have issues with reentry and depend on a support system. However, communication with a support system during incarceration is beneficial to rehabilitation and improving the self-perception of the prisoner. The importance of relationships with any individual, formerly incarcerated or not, is a fundamental human need as social beings. This paper will discuss the importance and impact of encouragement through communication and giving between prisoners and their support system during incarceration. The notion is that humans are given forms of encouragement through acts of communication. Encouragement, for this paper, will be defined as a form of positive social support. Communication through meanings of encouragement and giving by way of letters, packages, money, time, support, and affection can have an instrumental impact on prisoner’s overall well-being and positive selfperception. Therefore, gaining insight on encouragement and giving positive communication with prisoners then contrasting to those without can be instrumental to prisoner success with rehabilitation. Participants will be given a Likert Scale survey asking a range of questions from frequency of communication, rate of how participants view their self-perception, and overall level of support system satisfaction. The proposed hypothesis is, prisoners with a support system who actively communicate encouragement to them will have an increased positive self-perception and well-being.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/arts_and_letters/1002/thumbnail.jp