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The Value of Dignity in Prison: A Qualitative Study with Life Convicts
Ines Testoni1,2, Francesca Marrella1, Gianmarco Biancalani1
1Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology (FISPPA), University of Padova, 35122 Padova, Italy.
Background:
This research is based on the perspective of dignity according to Chochinov; thus, the life imprisonment of detainees is assimilated to a severe disease.
Methods:
Ten male prisoners were interviewed trough Chochinov's Dignity Therapy, and the results were analysed using thematic analysis.
Results:
Two areas of thematic prevalence emerged, namely, value of freedom, self-consciousness and education and their failure in jail, and life sentence as annihilation of life meaning and of the values of generativity and family.
Conclusions:
Life imprisonment has been described in its negativity by several respondents as a punishment worse than the death penalty. It has been compared to death itself, to a terminal illness, to torture and to a pain that grows over the years, with the awareness that despite the passing of time, you will not have the opportunity to return to your loved one and to a free life. In fact, prisoners live out their condition within a space in which any value that gives meaning to life risks being destroyed.
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