4) Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS)

4) Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS)

The Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS) is a combination of mental illness symptoms that have been found to be evident in many currently imprisoned and recently released ex-felons. These symptoms are caused by "prolonged incarceration in environments of punishment with few opportunities for education, job training, or rehabilitation" (Gorski).

PICS is a combination of mental disorders, grouped in four types of symptoms (Gorski).

"(1)       Institutionalized Personality Traits resulting from the common deprivations of incarceration, a chronic state of learned helplessness in the face of prison authorities, and antisocial defenses in dealing with a predatory inmate milieu,
(2)       Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from both pre-incarceration trauma and trauma experienced within the institution,
(3)       Antisocial Personality Traits (ASPT) developed as a coping response to institutional abuse and a predatory prisoner milieu, and
(4)       Social-Sensory Deprivation Syndrome caused by prolonged exposure to solitary confinement that radically restricts social contact and sensory stimulation.
(5)       Substance Use Disorders caused by the use of alcohol and other drugs to manage or escape the PICS symptoms" (Gorski).


Formerly incarcerated citizens who experience PICS often go through 6 stages (Gorski).

"·        Stage 1 of this Post Release Syndrome is marked by helplessness and hopelessness due to inability to develop a plan for community reentry, often complicated by the inability to secure funding for treatment or job training;
·        Stage 2 is marked by an intense immobilizing fear;
·        Stage 3 is marked by the emergence of intense free-floating anger and rage and the emergence of flashbacks and other symptoms of PTSD;
·        Stage 4 is marked by a tendency toward impulse violence upon minimal provocation;
·        Stage 5 is marked by an effort to avoid violence by severe isolation to avoid the triggers of violence;
·        Stage 6 is marked by the intensification of flashbacks, nightmares, sleep impairments, and impulse control problems caused by self-imposed isolation.  This leads to acting out behaviors, aggression, violence, and crime, which in turn sets the stages for arrest and incarceration" (Gorski).

It is becoming increasingly more evident that PICS is a contributing factor to high recidivism rates. Around 60 percent of people who are currently incarcerated have been so before. (Gorski)