In 1971 a psychology professor at Stanford University, Philip Zimbardo, conducted an experiment that involved students volunteering to participate as guards and prisoners. The goal was to study the psychological effects of perceived power. It did not go well, as this movie clip-trailer illustrates.
I bring up the Stanford Prison Experiment because it looks like many of the psychological elements that we saw in the Stanford Prison Experiment are playing out again. Only this time, we don't have makeshift prisons created out of plywood, and the prison guards aren't Stanford students operating under "controlled" conditions. We have private for-profit companies operating giant prison centers, with well paid guards who are often as ill-equipped as they are poorly trained. Their education levels, I can assure you, are not at the level of a Stanford student.
In most instances, the "prisoners" in today's immigration centers have minor immigration violations or are only "guilty" of seeking asylum in the United States, which is a legal right everyone who lands on America's shores can claim. Yet, they are treated and housed as if they are convicted felons.
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| A guard escorts an immigrant detainee from his segregation cell back to the "general population" at California's Adelanto Detention Facility in 2013. |
To date, several children have already died while in custody while thousands more have been forced into solitary confinement in U.S. detention centers simply because guards don't like or understand the prisoners. Specifically, the vast majority of those:
... in ICE custody are not facing criminal charges, and their detention is not intended to be punitive. They are in custody for civil immigration violations such as overstaying their visas or being in the country illegally. Some are awaiting deportation or court dates. Some are asylum-seekers.What's worse, the whole spectacle is playing out in front of the approving eyes of America's Trump-inspired bigots and a political class that's too gutless to act against a megalomaniac president who is as morally depraved as he is intellectually challenged.
You can read more about what I'm calling "America's Stanford Prison Experiment, 2.0" by clicking here.
- Mark
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