![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
Abstract
The author attempted to form a communication group among male and female inmates in a northern New England correctional facility, but the group collapsed within a period of four sessions. The failure of this effort is discussed with the hope of providing insight into the process of group formation within a prison setting. Emphasis is placed on understanding the special problems and needs of groups in prisons and the lack of insight among this penal institution's administration and staff to comprehend the disrupting impact they had on the inmates of this group. This disruptive impact is described as the institution's insensitivity to the need of the group for cohesion in order for it to withstand the forces (individual and institutional) operating to rend the group apart. Suggestions for improving the likelihood of the group process succeeding as a therapeutic modality within a prison environment are presented.