Psychological Problems of Penitentiary System of Nigeria

Abstract

The article is devoted to social and psychological problems of the prisoners’ personality of “Oba” and “Ibara” prisons in Nigeria. Interactionism is used as a basic methodological approach and it allows to take into consideration the interaction of the personality in small and big social groups. The methods of research are: the personal questionnaire, and qualitative and quantitative analysis. The social and psychological factors influencing the personality of a prisoner were singled out as an outcome of the questionnaire survey. After cluster analysis we subdivided the factors into internal (a factor named "Uncritical self-esteem" – "Critical self-esteem") and external. The last ones are divided into factors connected with the prison ("adaptation to prison" – "disadaptation in prison", a time factor) and factors connected with the prisoner's attitude towards the social norms ("Factors of social adaptation" - "Factors of social disadaptation").