Just 3 months in prison leads to reduced self-control and reduced attentional performance suggesting that released prisoners may be less able to sustain focus on higher-level goals and more prone to impulsive risk-taking behavior.
While this was a pilot study…the preliminary findings are societally relevant and also hint at the likelihood of criminal recidivism. Hopefully, more research will be done regarding the impact of the prison environment on brain function and self-control, as well as the influence of the prison environment on reoffending. Ultimately, this may lead to the recommendation that prisons be transformed into enriched environments to increase, or at least preserve, prisoners’ self-control.