The U.S. incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, with over 1.8 million individuals behind bars. While many see prison as synonymous with justice, a psychological lens reveals that incarceration often exacerbates the very problems it claims to solve. According to psychologists Bloom & Bradshaw (2022), for example, U.S. prisons rely on a culture of punishment that actively undermines rehabilitation by retraumatizing incarcerated people, most of whom have extensive histories of early and chronic trauma. These punishment-based systems increase recidivism and export harm back into communities when incarcerated people are released.

This article explores the psychological consequences of incarceration and the need for genuine reform, including approaches that emphasize empathy, learning, and supportive relationships. We highlight three evidence-based insights into the prison system, and offer three actionable steps for a more humane and effective approach.

1. Isolation Harms More Than It Heals

Prisons in the U.S. are frequently located hundreds of miles from incarcerated individuals’ communities, producing isolation from family and social support networks that are central to psychological well-being and rehabilitation. This separation is compounded by the widespread use of solitary confinement, which has been shown to diminish cognitive functioning, impair emotional regulation, and increase risk for self-harm (Haney, 2020).

The harms of such isolation do not end at the prison gates. Because approximately 95 percent of incarcerated people, including those subjected to solitary confinement, are eventually released, the psychological damage produced by carceral isolation reenters communities, constituting a profound and ongoing public health crisis (Reiter et al., 2020).

2. Prisons Reflect and Perpetuate Systemic........

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