Erasing minds: behavioral modification, the prison rights movement, and psychological experimentation in America's prisons, 1962–1983

TY - JOUR

T1 - Erasing minds

T2 - behavioral modification, the prison rights movement, and psychological experimentation in America's prisons, 1962–1983

AU - Colley, Zoe

N1 - ©The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with the British Association for American Studies.

PY - 2023/2

Y1 - 2023/2

N2 - This article explores the development of behavioral modification programs inside penitentiaries during the 1960s and 1970s, with a focus upon how such tactics were used to crush dissent and silence incarcerated people who challenged the prison regime. First, it explores how psychology became an influential force in the operation of many penitentiaries from the 1950s. Second, it considers the role that psychologists and psychiatrists played in developing brainwashing techniques to punish those prison activists who sought to expose the dehumanizing and brutal treatment of incarcerated people. Finally, it uses the example of the behavioral modification unit at Marion Federal Penitentiary to show how the federal government was complicit in the use of psychological torture to silence prisoners’ complaints.

AB - This article explores the development of behavioral modification programs inside penitentiaries during the 1960s and 1970s, with a focus upon how such tactics were used to crush dissent and silence incarcerated people who challenged the prison regime. First, it explores how psychology became an influential force in the operation of many penitentiaries from the 1950s. Second, it considers the role that psychologists and psychiatrists played in developing brainwashing techniques to punish those prison activists who sought to expose the dehumanizing and brutal treatment of incarcerated people. Finally, it uses the example of the behavioral modification unit at Marion Federal Penitentiary to show how the federal government was complicit in the use of psychological torture to silence prisoners’ complaints.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85146939474

U2 - 10.1017/S0021875822000123

DO - 10.1017/S0021875822000123

M3 - Article

SN - 0021-8758

VL - 57

SP - 84

EP - 111

JO - Journal of American Studies

JF - Journal of American Studies

IS - 1

ER -