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Se presentan los resultados de una investigación que tuvo como objetivo comprender los efectos psicológicos generados tras la ruptura de los lazos con el grupo primario de apoyo debido al fenómeno de prisionalización, con el propósito de contribuir en la formulación de investigaciones que se interesen por la salud mental del interno en prisión desde una perspectiva de familia. La investigación fue cualitativa de tipo estudio de caso; contó con la participación de 5 internos del Complejo Carcelario y Penitenciario de Medellín – Pedregal (COPED), a quienes se les realizaron entrevistas en profundidad, que posteriormente fueron codificadas y categorizadas. El desarrollo de la investigación permitió diferenciar los efectos psicológicos generados por el estado de prisionalización, de los efectos psicológicos producto de la ruptura con el grupo primario de apoyo. Asimismo, permitió identificar las condiciones internas y externas que favorecen o impiden el sostenimiento de un contacto estable con el grupo familiar, mientras se está en estado de prisionalización. De esta manera, se concluye que la adaptaón a la cultura carcelaria propicia un restablecimiento de los efectos psicológicos generados por el estado de prisionalización. Sin embargo, no acontece igual respecto a los efectos generados por la ruptura con el grupo primario de apoyo, máxime cuando las condiciones de internamiento dan lugar a que el penado tome la decisión de exacerbar la distancia con su grupo familiar. En ese sentido, los efectos psicológicos derivados de la ruptura con el grupo primario de apoyo tienden a complejizarse en relación con el tiempo de estancia en prisión.
The results of a research whose objective was to understand the psychological effects of breaking bonds with the primary support group because of prisonization are presented with the purpose of contributing in the formulation of researches related to the mental health of inmates in prison from a family perspective.
For this purpose, the research aimed to deepen the most significant issues of a group of inmates (male and female) from the Complejo Penitenciario y Carcelario Medellín – Pedregal (COPED) related to family breakdown, being abandoned by the partner, insufficient or inexistent support networks outside the prison and the consequences or psychological reactions caused by them.
It is important to mention that the participants in the research were identified by using chain sampling or network sampling. It is also important to note that being a qualitative research, indepth interviews were conducted and later coded and categorized, based on the categories of analysis, namely family background, prisonization and psychological effects. This process favors the transferability of results, based on the in-depth description of the phenomenon in its context (Martínez-Salgado, 2012) In consequence the research process enabled the identification of signs and symptoms that remained in the subjects of research beyond all adaptation processes, and it is because of this characteristic that such symptomatology may not be explained by the theories regarding the psychological effects as a consequence of internment, that is to say, prisonization itself, as they derive from a process of adaptation and assimilation of the culture in prison. In this regard, this research arguments the relevance of the involvement of the family group in the penitentiary processes, seeking to have a positive impact on the functioning of inmates in prison and also on their resocialization and later on their life in freedom.
Therefore, it is necessary to acknowledge that the contact with the closest support group becomes an essential resource that, properly included in the support process for the inmate, leverages the development of prosocial competences, whilst reestablishing the self-image and preserving the family image create in persons deprived of liberty a commitment with resocialization, besides being the bridge that keeps them anchored to the outside world.
This approach promotes the reformulation of the current understanding of the effects associated to the prisonization as immanent status of imprisonment; this idea is based on the fact that the particular conditions of inmates (Echeverri, 2010) and the conditions of the institutional context of prison (Crespo, 2017), may not be assessed or intervened in isolation, while, as evidenced on the research herein, a person that is deprived of liberty experiences a series of physical and psychical impacts that are beyond the normalizing processes of adaptation, becoming problems that when transcending the prison premises, need to be understood as a public policy matter.
