Unethical Environments

Abu Ghraib presenceprison and the Stanford Prison Experiment
Name
Institution
Date
Competing values at Abu Ghraib prison and the Stanford Prison Experiment
There was the abuse of the power at Abu Ghraib prison. U.S soldiers abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison located outside Bagdad in Iraq. The dehumanizing acts occurred when the United States led terrorism war (Blackwell, 2004). The soldiers staged humiliating sexual acts that initiated an outrage in the Arab world. In Stanford prison, the guards stripped prisoners naked, chained them, hooded them, failed to give them food and beddings. They locked them in isolated confinement and forced them to clean toilet bowls using bare hands. The prisoners received smocks in form of dresses to look feminine without underwear’s, and nylon stocking caps for wearing. Their Identification cards failed to identify them individually. The smocks limited their movements. The guards were untrained and at times had the prisoners simulate sodomy actions on each other. The guards forced the prisoners to masturbate as they took their photographs and videotaped. They arranged male detainees in one pile and jumped on them. They punished the male detainees by forcing them to carry sandbags on their heads. They attached wires on their toes, fingers, and penis to simulate electric torture.
The Stanford prison experiment
Stanford experiment is similar to Abu Ghraib prison experiments. There were evident deindividuation and dehumanization.

Psychologists designed the experiment to study deindividuation effects in the presence of power struggle. College men carried out the investigation within two weeks and paid 15 dollars each day. Some acted as guards while others took the role of prisoners. The mock prison was completed using iron bars; space was left for solitary confinement. The cells did not have windows and natural light. There were video cameras and microphones for the guards to monitor all conversations. Philip Zimbardo designed the experiment serving as the superintendent in the mock prison.
The volunteer college men were arrested from their homes and brought in the cells. The cells occupied nine prisoners, three guards watched over them and exchanged for eight hours in each shift. The aim was to watch the dehumanizing acts that degraded the dignity of human beings (Zimbardo, 2018). The second day the experiment began with chaos from prisoners who rebelled any instruction. The guards failed to instruct them to maintain order. They stripped them naked in the cells, embarrassed them publicly, and beat them merciless. One traumatized prisoner was discharged after three days. Most prisoners and guards had lost their identities such as names, ages, fingerprints, and addresses.
In both cases, it was possible to avoid the situations if cameras and videos were installed earlier. Moreover, CCTV cameras are much effective to record and view what was happening in the cells. The Stanford Prison Experiment also turned chaotic because there was no control from the superintendent. The psychologists should have educated the mock prisoners what to expect and how to control their emotions. However, they failed to advise and instruct them because they wanted to identify what happens in cells and get right results (Zimbardo, 2018).
Finally, if I were part of the experiment, I would have reported the mishandling guards to the top officials. In the second experiment, I would request the counselor to give advice first before performing the experiment.
References
Blackwell, J. (2004). Final report of the Independent panel to review DOD detention Operations. Abu Ghraid Report, 1-126. Link: http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/dod/abughraibrpt.pdf
Zimbardo, P. (2018). The story: An overview of the experiment.Stanford prison experiment. Retrieved from http://www.prisonexp.org/the-story/