Prisons, Violence

Prison violence occurs when prison inmates or personnel use, or threaten to use, physical force in violation of prison regulations and/or criminal law. Prison violence does not include the routine use of force by correctional officers in response to rule violations or disruptive behavior by inmates, although correctional officers sometimes “tune up,” or beat inmates who refuse to obey orders or threaten officers. Inmate violence may or may not involve the use of weapons. In maximum security prisons for men, fistfights are rare. Inmates frequently fashion homemade knives called “shivs” or “shanks,” or shape other objects such as broomsticks into weapons for self-protection. Incarcerated women are just as likely to fight as men, but they are unlikely to use weapons.

Inmate violence may be routine or nonroutine in nature. Routine violence among inmates occurs as a result of disputes over drugs, sex, or gambling debts. Prison gangs are often involved due to competition over the control of the distribution of illegal drugs in prison. Racial or ethnic tension often leads to gang violence, including sexual assault and murder. Inmates who are victims of sexual assault are often placed in “protective custody” to prevent further injury. Sex offenders, especially those who victimize children, are often victims of violence at the hands of other inmates. The prison informant, or “snitch,” may also require protective custody to avoid harm. Nonroutine violence such as riots, a form of collective violence, occurs infrequently, but when it does, serious injuries, many of them fatal, may result. Prison officials have authorization to use exceptional means, including deadly force, when facing serious threats to the safety and security of the prison.

The causes of prison violence depend on its source. Riots often occur during periods of rapid social change and corresponding rising expectations for inmates concerning better prison conditions and increasing prisoners' rights. Routine inmate-on-inmate violence occurs due to alienation (power-lessness), prisonization (adaptation to the prison subculture), and overcrowding. In the 1960s, prison gangs formed as self-defense organizations during a period of heightened racial tension. Judicial reform and the expansion of prisoners' rights in the 1970s made prison management more difficult. The failure by prison administrators to adapt to these changes created a power vacuum that prison gangs soon filled. Violent prison gangs, such as the Mexican Mafia and the Aryan Brotherhood, began to dominate prison life during this period.

The amount of prison violence has decreased in recent years. Increasing professionalism in the management of prisons contributed to this reduction, as unit management places case managers and correctional counselors in direct supervision of inmates. Furthermore, prison expansion has reduced overcrowding, and court decisions no longer permit correctional officers to rely on inmate trustees to maintain order through intimidation and violence. Correctional officers who use excessive force are now considered to be in violation of an inmate's civil rights. As a result, prisons have developed use-of-force policies that restrict the use of force by correctional officers.