Abu Grhaib

I didn't want to write about Abu Grhaib because I thought it had been talked about to death. But Dennis persuaded me to because I reminded him of the "Stanford Prison Experiment" of 1971.

In the summer of 1971, a psychologist at Stanford University, Philip G. Zimbardo, wanted to know the answer to three questions:

What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph? (The Stanford Prison Experiment: A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment)



To answer these questions, Zimbardo decided to conduct an experiment. He would create a makeshift prison and have volunteers to be the "guards" and the "prisoners". To accomplish this, Zimbardo placed an ad in the school news paper advertising his prison experiment and asking for volunteers. The students would be paid $15 a day for the duration of the experiment. He had 72 students to sign up. From these, he selected 24 and gave them all a battery of tests to weed out those with physical or psychological disabilities. They were also all given the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. This test has proven to be effective in detecting both socio-paths and psycho-paths.

All the students were cleared to participate in the experiment.

Now, to make their "prison," the basement of the Psychology dept. was converted into this prison. Doors were taken off storage rooms and replaced with bars. These rooms were 9' by 9,' big enough for three cots. A janitors closet was converted into solitary confinement. The hallway was the "prison yard"

As for other staff, a former inmate was to play technical advisor and parole officer. Limbardo was the superintendent.

With the staff assembled, it was time for the experiment to begin. It started on a Sunday morning when a squad car rounded up the soon to be prisoners. These "subjects" were arrested on "armed robbery," violation 211 of the California Penal Code, and "burglary," a 459 violation of the penal code. They were thrown up against the car, frisked, read their Miranda rights, put in handcuffs and put into the back of the squad car to be taken to the Palo Alto jail to await "classification." Before being transported to their "Prison" the prisoners were blindfolded. This served two purposes, one to disorient the prisoners and give them the feeling of the unknown future and to hide the fact that it was a make shift prison that could easily be escaped. Once at the prison, the prisoners were strip searched, deloused and made to put on their prison uniform. This uniform was just a smock, but it had an emasculating effect of the prisoners. Something that the advisor said real prisoners feel.

As for the treatment of the prisoners, they were only told to use their best judgment, within limits.

At first neither "guards" or "prisoners" treated the situation like it was real and it was thought it would be a loss. But it didn't take long for the guards started acting like guards and prisoners start acting like prisoners.

Head counts were done frequently, around the clock. At night, prisoners had to wake up and stand at the bars to be counted. It didn't take long for the prisoners started misbehaving. At first the guards used minor punishment, such as push-ups, which the researchers thought was being too lenient until it was pointed out to them that even in Nazi concentration camps, guards routinely used push-ups for small infractions. As with the Nazis prison guards, the Stanford guards routinely put a foot on the back of the prisoner while doing push-ups, or had another prisoner sit on their backs.

When the prisoners, fed up with the head counts, started putting their mattresses in front of the bars. the guards called in reinforcements to help put down the rebellion. The guards went in and removed the unruly prisoners and put them in what they called the bad cell. Those in the bad cell weren't allowed bathroom privileges or bathing privileges, or even food, while the other prisoners, the good ones, kept their privileges. Because of the rebellion, the "re-inforcements" that were called in decided to stay, increasing the guard to prisoner ratio. And the guards worked in shifts.

After a day or two separated like that, the guards took the bad prisoners and put them in with the good prisoners. The advisor said this is often done in prisons to establish mistrust among the prisoners. The good prisoners thinking the bad ones must have done something to get back their privileges. Soon, the prisoners were turning on each other instead of the guards. They were given a visiting day, for their families to come and visit. By this time the prisoners were so institutionalized that even when the family members suggested that the "Prisoners" just quit, they said that they couldn't.

Even Limbardo got in on the act by suggesting some of the boys just couldn't "take it," to which the fathers said that their boys could take anything. One parent even suggested getting a lawyer.

Some of the prisoners, from lack of sleep and the psychological games the guards played on them, began to break down and sob uncontrollably. One prisoner was eventually released when he had a complete breakdown. After 6 days, the situation broke down to the point that the experiment was called to a halt. the prisoners were taken in front of a "parole board" some even willing to give up the money due them, just to get out. The head of the parole board, the ex-con/technical advisor, was going to refuse parole to these prisoners, until it was pointed out to him that it was all an experiment, it wasn't real. He got so lost into the situation that he lost touch with reality. At one point even Limbardo himself got lost in his role. Half way through their experiment, they had to release one prisoner because of a mental breakdown. Well, it was rumored that that prisoner that was let go, would come back and break the others out. Limbardo became so involved in protecting his prison that when one coworker came by and asked him what the independent variable was in the experiment, Limbardo got angry. How could he come ask such a question when they were waiting for a prison break?

This experiment, which showed how ordinary people can become so enthralled in their roles they lose perspective. Incidentally, this experiment took place in August 1971. In September, Attica State Prison, in New York, was over ran by prisoners, in protest of their conditions, took over yard D and held 43 prison personal as hostages. Four days later, when the National Guard attacked the prison, 10 hostages and 29 inmates were killed.



Its no wonder Abu Grhaib happened. You had inexperienced personnel in a wartime situation, guarding detainees that they were told may have information that could stop the attacks on American soldiers. The situation was ripe for problems. And Limbardo proved it 30 yrs previously.