Strategies for Coping with the Challenges of Incarceration among Nigerian Prison Inmates

This paper investigated the strategies for coping with the challenges of incarceration among inmates of Port Harcourt Prison, Nigeria. The population was 2,997 inmates of the prison while the sample was 250 inmates drawn through stratified random sampling technique from the same Port Harcourt prison. Six research questions were posed and data for their investigation were collected through the administration of copies of an instrument designed by the researchers on the respondents. The instrument was titled "Prison Inmates Coping Strategies Questionnaire (PICSQ)". It was designed in the pattern of a modified 4-point Likert type scale and contained a total of 25 items that elicited information on how prison inmates cope with the challenges of incarceration. A pilot study of the instrument was conducted with 30 inmates of Ahoda Prison, Rivers State, Nigeria. The reliability co-efficients of the 6 sub-sections of section B ascertained through the Cronbach Alpha method were 0.81; 0.79; 0.76; 0.80; 0.75 and 0.83 respectively while the overall reliability co-efficient was 0.78. The research questions were answered with mean and standard deviation and the results show that involvement in religious activities, formation of surrogate families, engagement in educational and vocational training as well as emotion-focused strategy are ways of coping with the challenges of incarceration among prison inmates while maintaining contact with family members/friends and engagement in aggressive behaviour are not coping strategies. These results were discussed and some recommendations were also made. One of the recommendations is that counselling psychologists and other psychological care givers should be employed in prison service to assist in the reformation of the inmates as well as assisting them to cope with the challenges of their situation.