Prison Insurgency Theory

It is commonly expected that prisons are violent places, given the nature of the individuals housed within them. Some prison violence takes place at the individual level, which consists of violence between inmates or between inmates and correctional staff. Besides interpersonal violence, prisons across the United States and the world have also experienced collective violence (i.e., group violence) or riots. There are estimates of over 1,000 prison riots having occurred in the United States in the 20th century. From just 1950 to 1960 more than 100 riots transpired in American prisons. However, some of the most infamous riots, readily known to the public because of their extreme amounts of violence, took place from 1970 through 1993. Among these were the uprisings at Attica in New York, Joliet in Illinois, the New Mexico State Penitentiary in Santa Fe, and Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio.

Penologists have examined many of these events and provided multiple theoretical explanations for their occurrence. One such explanation is the prison insurgency theory. This theory views the prison riot as being similar to an action of civil disobedience or unrest (i.e., a collective uprising against the state or civil authority). This theoretical explanation of prison riots blends elements of authoritative action/inaction and breakdown/disorganization of prison conditions with tenets of social revolution theories.

Penologists who study prison riots agree that no two riots are exactly alike. In fact, prison riots can take on many different forms and have multiple lasting effects upon a correctional institution. Because the conditions that produce prison riots are present in some prisons but not in others, the best way to investigate the underlying causes of prison riots is to look for commonalities or similarities between these unique events. It was in that light, that prison insurgency theory sought to explain the etiology of prison riots.