Crimes Inside Prison: Causes, Violence, and Reform Failures

The Theory and Purpose of the Prison System

The modern prison system exists for the intended purpose of preventing criminals from continuing to perform harmful or destructive acts. The penal system is meant to bring justice by reducing crime, and ideally ending it altogether. Those criminals who are a menace to society are to be removed from the general population and placed into an environment where they cannot continue to cause harm. Because criminals have been removed from society, prison also prevents new crimes from taking place through two important side effects. First, negative influences are taken out of the lives of impressionable youths and vulnerable adults who might otherwise have been drawn into criminal behavior. Second, an example is made of the criminal — the fear of punishment is supposed to be sufficient to prevent others from following the same path. In the ideal prison system, punishment would be reserved for those who had earned it, and all decisions would be based on the overall best interests of all innocent parties. Ideally, prison would be a way to show criminals the error of their ways while protecting the rights of all parties involved.

Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal society. The smooth theories behind the structure of the penal system turn out, on closer inspection, to be quite flawed. One must examine the origins of those flaws in order to have hope of improving the system. One may first look at the motivations of the criminals the prisons are built to contain. Every action is taken with the purpose — conscious or subconscious — of either receiving some sort of pleasure or gain, or of avoiding some kind of pain or loss. Crimes committed in order to experience pleasure, such as rape, are called Expressive Crimes. Those done in order to achieve gain, such as robbery, are known as Instrumental Crimes (Haag, 1994). Both types of crime are weighed, in the criminal's mind, against the risks involved — the so-called cost of crime is the risk of punishment. The risks of being caught and sent to prison deter some, but most criminals recognize that the chances of being caught, convicted, and sentenced heavily are actually very low per incident, and therefore continue with their illegal behavior.

Perhaps it is the arrogance of the criminal-minded that keeps the prison system from successfully eradicating undesirable behavior from society. Or perhaps it is the failure of the system for not catching enough criminals and thus keeping the price of crime low. Perhaps the relatively comfortable conditions of some prisons, as frequently depicted in the media, actually make incarceration an attractive alternative to staying within the law. Alternatively, perhaps the problem is far more disturbing than any of these suggestions. Perhaps it is not the fault of the incarcerated individual that the vicious crime cycle continues.

The prison system itself may be the root cause of the continued cycle of delinquent behavior and out-of-control crime rates that plague America — or at least a major perpetrator of this condition. The prison system is designed to dehumanize and demoralize the individuals within it, whether they carry billy clubs or are held behind bars. Corruption appears almost inevitable, based on the vast amounts of research and data collection that exist on this subject. Rather than curbing crime, many argue that prisons are actually encouraging it. "Corrections officers and inmates alike have found themselves victimized by a system intent on housing criminals in huge, military-style facilities, where incidents of rape, assault and battery, intimidation, and abuse of the mentally ill have become accepted daily occurrences" (Foley, 2000). Theoretically, the prison system as it currently stands will never succeed in eradicating crime outside prison walls because it fosters crime within them.

How Prisons Foster Criminal Behavior

According to many reports, inmates are trained to be criminals in prison rather than guided to become model citizens. Criminals are placed into the penal system with the hope that time away from society will reform them, or at least keep them out of trouble. The reality, however, is far from fulfilling that hope, and may be doing quite the opposite. The prison system appears to train criminals and encourage criminal behavior both during incarceration and after release into society. Relatively minor offenses will get even a first-time offender sent into a hostile environment with hardened, serious criminals. Additionally, the dehumanizing manner in which prisoners are treated by prison employees becomes a form of conditioning that encourages criminal responses and behavior patterns among those who might otherwise have learned from their mistakes.

One concerned report of the California penal system reads: "We have thousands and thousands of prisoners who should be socializing, working jobs, going to school, and being rehabilitated. Instead, these people are spending months in isolation, and violence has been accepted as the common fare" (Foley, 2000). The prison system is not taking steps to rehabilitate prisoners — only to punish them. Some would argue this is fair, that once a person has committed a crime he has waived his right to be assisted in areas where he falls short, such as moral reformation. However, the system is not simply failing to provide rehabilitative services. The problem is not mere inaction. Instead, specific actions are taken that actively corrupt prisoners. "Beating, raping, intimidating, enslaving, and infantilizing people produces not caring, nonviolent people, but angry, hostile, often violence-prone ones" (Brigade, 1990). This is the reality for inmates in the prison system.

One of the first ways in which the corruption and failings of the penal system can be observed is through the crimes committed by inmates while serving time behind bars. Far from providing a crime-free environment where inmates can recover from exposure to drugs, violence, and crime on the street, exposure to crime within prison walls is a long-lived historical tradition. Looking back to the nineteenth-century prison system, one can see that problems rampant among inmates today are, in general, not new issues. "Charlestown prisoners labored assiduously at tasks of their own devising — tasks which, though illegitimate, nonetheless required both labor and skill. Such tasks often carried more attractive material incentives than the ones imposed in the prison workshops. They included the practice of purely criminal trades, similar to those for which they had been imprisoned, as well as legitimate trades, in some cases the very same trades they were meant to practice in the workshops, but done clandestinely and for their own private gain" (Goldsmith, 1997).

However, even in these early reports, it can be seen that the prison system may have been treating prisoners unfairly in many ways. The "crimes" attributed to inmates while imprisoned include activities that might more accurately be described as altruistic than immoral. Shared self-teaching and informal education was widespread among prisoners. Some of the reported education did involve illegal trades, such as "counterfeiting bills and coin; teaching the art of picking pockets, and actually picking the pockets of strangers; preparing false keys and other instruments for breaking houses and stores" (Goldsmith, 1997). Even these crimes may not have been entirely unjustified, as the victims were generally tourists who paid a fee to observe the prisoners. Punishment for committing crimes while in prison included loss of food rations, solitary confinement, bondage, and the use of a clog and chain. Yet, looking at the crimes being committed, one has to wonder what underlying conditions drove the misbehavior. Food, blankets, shoes, clothing, and other contraband items — necessary to fulfill the most basic human needs — were taken for personal use or distributed among other prisoners. Further evidence that prisoners cannot be historically blamed entirely for such behavior is the well-documented involvement of prison employees in criminal affairs within the prison. "In the acquisition of liquor more than any other activity, prisoners were aided by alliances with lower-ranking prison staff, and outsiders, particularly delivery men, whose business brought them into the prison... More serious, and more numerous, were the cases in which prison officers themselves supplied the prisoners with liquor" (Goldsmith, 1997). Although these historical reports do not address the full spectrum of factors regarding crimes within the prison, they do establish a long history of corruption within the system that fosters crime.

Gangs, Contraband, and Drugs Behind Bars

A major concern regarding crime today — both inside prisons and on the streets — is the formation of prison gangs. "Prison gangs are flourishing across the country. Organized, stealthy, and deadly, they are reaching out from their cells to organize and control crime in America's streets... prison disturbances soared by about 400% in the early nineties, which authorities say indicated that gangs were becoming more active... As much as 60% of the prison population belong to gangs" (Danitz, 1998). Authorities acknowledge that many prison gang members were gang members on the outside before incarceration, but in other cases, even authorities admit that inmates are joining gangs for "survival" and "protection."

This raises a troubling question: what are inmates needing protection from? Is time behind bars not supposed to allow for contemplation about past mistakes in an atmosphere conducive to psychological healing? In reality, prisoners need protection from the way the prison system functions, from other inmates, and from prison employees. "Protection remains an important factor. When a new inmate enters the prison system he is challenged to a fight... The outcome determines who can fight, who will be extorted for protection money, and who will become a servant to other prisoners. Those who can't join a gang or afford to spend $5 a week in commissary items for protection are destined to be servants... The environment is set up so that when you put that many people with antisocial behavior and criminal history together, someone is going to be the predator and someone the prey, and that is reality" (Danitz, 1998).

Prison gangs also become involved in racketeering, black markets, drugs, and racism. Gangs in prisons tend to be more low-key and better organized than street gangs, often because after street gang members are arrested, they realize that their high-profile and careless attitude made them easier to catch. Imprisoning gang members thus teaches them to be smarter, slyer, and more dangerous — only the fittest survive prison competition. Gang investigators claim that gang leaders pass secret messages through coded letters and artwork. However, some prisoners' rights advocates argue that the policies put in place to control these communications amount to unfair censorship. Prisons may also use gang labeling to justify more severe punishments: "They isolate and place them in lockdown status to discourage membership" (Danitz, 1998). Meanwhile, prisoners who join gangs while incarcerated but serve short sentences are able to serve the prison gang on the streets once released, gangs maintaining a "blood in, blood out" philosophy. It is also difficult to determine how much crime can actually be attributed to prison gangs. Rising crime rates are cited as proof that gang activity is increasing, but according to the leader of an infamous Chicago street gang, the reality is more calculated: "The gangs have an understanding with each other. We talk to each other to ensure that we don't have a confrontation. We try to keep the static down" (Macko, 1997).

Among the crimes for which gangs in prison are admittedly responsible are graffiti-tagging their cells, holding academic classes on the history and functionality of their gang, and negotiating special privileges for gang members across multiple gangs held in the prison. Gang members are also responsible for sexual abuse of other inmates, though the sexual abuse situation in prisons is linked to many factors beyond gang activity alone. Gang leaders will often enjoy more "luxury" in their daily prison life than other inmates, procuring extra food, television, cell phones, and even personal servants while behind bars. One gang leader's cell was raided, revealing that he had collected "a cellular telephone, four cellular phone batteries, 13 bottles of expensive designer cologne, a Casio mini-color television, a calculator, an electric iron, two hot pots and... a portable washing machine" (Macko, 1997). All of these items are, of course, contraband and a crime to possess. Other gang leaders share such contraband. "In 1995, Stateville officials uncovered hundreds of pounds of food that was stolen by the members of the Gangster Disciples from the prison kitchen. The food included hamburger meat, huge rolls of sliced turkey, a large number of canned hams, and boxes of frozen seafood. Big Lowe used the food to run a thriving cell-house restaurant" (Macko, 1997). More serious charges against prison gangs include riots, such as the one in Trenton in recent years: "During the riot, inmates allegedly attacked officers with makeshift weapons including padlocks swung inside of socks, broom handles and clothes irons" (Dopp, 2005). Prison administrators there admit the system is not designed to rehabilitate: "I'd love to tell you we create ex-gang members. That's not the case... Prisons and gangs go hand in hand" (Dopp, 2005).

One of the most common contraband concerns in prisons is drugs. This is not surprising, as a vast majority of inmates have been incarcerated on drug-related charges. Drug use is rampant in prison. In British prisons, for example, "Glasgow in particular has an injecting culture... 15% of those tested positive for opiates. This implies that 22–45% of inmates are using heroin inside the prison" (Gore & Bird, 1998). Similar studies suggest that American prisons are active drug environments. However, there is a lack of properly conducted studies on the extent of drug use in prisons. What is known is that intravenous drugs, such as heroin, pose a serious health risk due to blood-borne viruses including HIV/AIDS. Due to the risks of needle use in particular, many concerned parties argue that the failing "war on drugs" approach should be replaced with programs that have some positive results. "They should give priority to getting prisoners 'off injecting' before getting them 'off drugs' and to rehabilitation of inside users of opiates. Underestimating the numbers taking opiates through random mandatory drug testing risks serious under-resourcing of prisoners' health care. Moreover, the policy of random mandatory drug testing is not delivering reductions in opiate use. Worse... [it may] create a new market for heroin in prisons because heroin has a shorter half-life than cannabis and thus is less likely to be detected by random testing" (Gore & Bird, 1998). The vast majority of methadone patients who become incarcerated do not have their prescriptions continued in prison, leading to further drug use instead of continued rehabilitation. Additional factors also put prisoners at high risk for contracting Hepatitis B or HIV/AIDS, and needle usage compounds that risk.

Other drugs are a concern for prison authorities, as is any form of contraband. The presence of contraband is considered a very serious offense in prison because it undermines the authority of the institution over the inmate. "People in society and correctional officers need to understand that immediate control over the prison system is often an illusion at any time... Contraband equals power" (Danitz, 1998). Much of the concern with gangs centers on the contraband electronics, supplies, food, and drugs that they introduce into prison society. Many prisons have outlawed cigarettes along with other drugs and alcohol, so cigarettes have become a highly valued trade good. "Texas should never have outlawed smoking in the prisons, adding cigarettes as trade-goods contraband to the prohibited list... you will see that the first thing that developed was a gang because someone had to control the contraband — that is power" (Danitz, 1998).