not sure about how isolation works with prisoner's mind set and i cannot speak of how others might have felt but as far as my experience goes i can say that i have been psychologically stronger after i came to america. I came a university  where there were no nepalese, indians etc. Yes i agree that i had a hard time at the beginning to adjust and what not but eventually it made me a stronger person, coming from a culture/home where i was encapsulated in my own comfort zone, where i could get what i wanted at the snap of my finger I did have to do a whole lot of adjustment and go through shocking revelation of how hard life really is but that i believe contributed to my strength.

PS. i dont think that home field advantage has an advantage anymore, eg. look at the playoff games where non home teams have been kickin some butt. I think the team that can kick ass on the road are generally more favored to win it all. whatever happened to Patriots and Falcons who were said to be invincible at home. :)
go packers!