Catalysts for Prison Violence

Catalysts for Prison Violence

There are many catalysts that are reported as being typically identified as problems inherent in American prisons. Many feel these problems are the catalysts of any and all violence found in American prisons. Without considering and acting on these problem areas, there can be no realistic hope of lessening the amount of prison violence, or the potential of its occurring. These problems include crowding, antiquated architecture, budgeting, poor facility management, mandatory sentencing, antiquated inmate classification, poor security, inherent inmate friction, absence of proper training, and low pay (Levinson, 2002).

In prison sociology two well-established, but contrasting perspectives are the deprivation model and the importation model. The deprivation model holds that the prison environment and loss of freedom cause deep psychological trauma so that for reasons of psychological self-preservation prisoners create a deviant prison subculture that promotes violence. The importation model emphasizes what prisoners bring into the institution, their histories, personal attributes and social networks, including links to criminal, groups (Homel & Thomson 2005).

Currently there is growing recognition of the significance of specific features of the social and physical environments of the prisons. How a prison is organized in time and space, how individuals interact with and help shape a dynamic environment, and the role of specific situational factors in precipitating or regulating violence. Factors found to be related to violence in clued pre-existing prisoner characteristics, structural or situational factors, management practices, and outside environmental influences. Poor prison management resulting in dysfunctional forms of control emerges as a major cause of interpersonal violence, and by implication modification of these practices (especially the removal of arbitrary coercive controls) is effective in reducing violence (Homel & Thomson 2005).

Today the United States has over 2 million people in prison, more than any other country in the world. This translates to 715 prisoners for every 100,000 persons. Of these about 50% of the inmates in federal prison are there for crimes related to drugs and around 20% of inmates nationwide in state prisons are there for drug related offenses (Behrens, 2010). Many feel this is due to the nation having too many laws. Politically the problem has been framed as a "war," as in the "war on drugs." The war on drugs turned 40 in 2011 and so far little real progress has been realized. In fact a case can be made that things are worse now than they were in 1971. A greater proportion of American citizens are in jail and drug related violence is widespread not only in this country, but others as well. Our prisons are overcrowded and as conditions for prisoners deteriorate, rape and brutality have become the norm.

The rise of the prison-industrial complex has given prison construction seemingly unstoppable momentum. Since 1991 the rate of violent crime in the United States has fallen by about 20%, while the number of people in prison or jail has risen by 50%. Spending on corrections since 1980s increased 5 times, and there are more than 1000 vendors that sell corrections paraphernalia. The industry has an annual projected growth rate of 5 to 10% (Schlosser,1998). There is a lot of the incentive for more prisons.