Effect of Incarceration on Well Being of Prisoners: A Study among Convicted and Undertrials

Well being is state of physical, psychological, emotional and social happiness as a whole. Present study intends to assess the effect of imprisonment on the general well being of prisoners. Two groups of prisoners: convicted and under trials were selected by purposive sampling technique from Birsa Munda Central Jail, Hotwar, Ranchi, India. Among eighty six prisoners thirty six were convicted and fifty were under trials. Both the groups of criminals were matched on various socio-demographic parameters such as: gender, age, education, religion, marital status, residence and occupation. All participants were assessed on PGI General Well Being Measure (Verma & Verma, 1989). Obtained responses were scored by using standard scoring procedures and subsequently statistically analyzed by using Chi-square and t- test. In current study both group have shown poor general well being. Though, the prisoners of under trial group were more impaired on well being measure in comparison to convicted criminal’s group.