Since chronophobia is considered the most common psychiatric disorder in prison inmates, sooner or later almost all prisoners suffer from it to some degree and it occurs in every potential neurotic who goes to prison.
After the novelty of prison has worn off and the real length of the sentence is felt, chronophobia sets in and the prisoner may go into a panic, usually while in his cell, and fears his enclosure and restraint, but this apparent claustrophobia arises from fear of time, as represented by the prison.
Following early anxieties, the chronophobia of the prisoner may become essentially a phlegmatic, indifferent automaton who serves the rest of his sentence by the clock and lives wholly in the present, one day at a time.
Chronophobia is characterized by panic, anxiety, and claustrophobia which is exhibited by prisoners having difficulty adjusting to long prison sentences.