Prison violence

Prison violence refers to physical assaults, sexual abuse, riots, and other forms of aggressive behavior that occur within correctional facilities. It represents a significant challenge for prison administrators, affects the safety and rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals, and raises broader questions about the conditions of confinement.
Violence in correctional settings occurs worldwide, and in several forms.
Prisons try to avoid and deal with such situations by being proactive. Steps that are taken include placing violent convicts and gang leaders into solitary confinement, balancing the cells by critically examining each inmate to see where they are likely to reside peacefully, reducing blind spots, and conducting officer training and education. However, prison violence is often overlooked and ignored, which can lead to severe injuries and fatalities.

Acts of violence

Prison violence encompasses multiple forms of harm that occur within correctional facilities, including inmate-on-inmate, inmate-on -staff, staff-on-inmate, and self-directed violence. Research indicates that violence rates in prisons are far greater than in the general population, though accurate measurement is challenging because of underreporting.

Inmate-on-inmate violence

Physical assaults between incarcerated individuals represents the most commonly observed or reported form of prison violence. Incidents range from spontaneous altercations to premeditated attacks, and from individual to gang-related conflicts and large-scale riots. In 1999, it was reported that one in five inmates, or twenty percent of inmates, at fourteen U.S. state prisons had been physically assaulted by another inmate. Gang activity contributes substantially to inmate-on-inmate violence in many correctional systems. Rival gang affiliations, competition for control of prison economies, and requirements to maintain reputation or "respect" within the institutional hierarchy drive many violent incidents. Weapons used in these attacks are frequently improvised from available materials, known as "shanks" or other makeshift implements.

Inmate-on-staff violence

, medical personnel and other prison employees face risk of assault in their work environment. Factors contributing to inmate-on-staff violence include inadequate staffing levels, provocative staff behaviour, and the inherent tensions of the custodial relationship. The psychological and physical toll on correctional staff can be substantial, contributing to high rates of job-related stress, burnout, and turnover in the corrections profession.

Staff-on-inmate violence

Less frequently documented but equally concerning is staff-on-inmate violence, which may involve excessive use of force or abuse of authority. Independent oversight mechanisms, body-worn cameras, and improved accountability have been proposed and implemented in some jurisdictions to address this form of violence.

Sexual violence

Sexual violence, including rape and coercion, affects both male and female prisoners and often goes unreported due to stigma and fear of retaliation.

Instrumental and expressive violence

Broadly, there are different motivations and patterns of violence.

Instrumental violence is premeditated; it is planned out, calculated, and implemented to achieve specific goals such as establishing dominance, maintaining reputation, enforcing debts, or controlling territory and resources. This form of violence is often rationalized within prison subcultures as necessary for survival and respect.
Expressive violence occurs more spontaneously, driven by immediate emotional states such as anger, fear, frustration, or perceived threats. It is the non-rational release of tension. This reactive aggression may result from interpersonal conflicts, perceived disrespect or the accumulated stress of confinement.
Self-directed violence

Self-directed violence, including both non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempts, represents a significant concern within correctional facilities and occurs at elevated rates compared to the non-incarcerated population. Many incarcerated individuals enter facilities with pre-existing mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety that are made worse by the stress of confinement. Inadequate mental health screening, limited access to treatment, isolation practices, witnessing or experiencing interpersonal violence, substance withdrawal and hopelessness about sentences or life circumstances all contribute to the prevalence of self-directed violence. While it is distinct from interpersonal violence, self-directed violence is often interconnected with the broader violence ecosystem: exposure to sexual victimization and threat of harm can lead to self-injurious behaviours and suicidal ideation.

Causes of violence

Prison violence results from an interplay of individual, institutional, and environmental factors. Understanding these causes is essential for developing effective prevention strategies.

Overcrowding

is a significant problem many prisons face because handling a large number of volatile inmates at once can lead to many altercations. Other factors, such as a shortage of guards and inmates possessing weapons, can create further opportunities for violent incidents to occur. Trying to assert authority and strict rules on these violent offenders is extremely difficult due to the fact that these people do not respond well to restrictions and being told what to do. Having to focus on so many dangerous people at once is just not possible because there will always be someone not being watched over at any given moment; this is most likely when inmates choose to strike. Overcrowding is a very common issue in American prisons that leads to prison violence because the prisons will be understaffed.

Staffing levels

Prison violence and prison suicide in England and Wales have been increasing year on year while staffing levels have been falling. Reduction in the number of staff is blamed for this and the Ministry of Justice has admitted that staff cuts are a factor. It was felt urgent action was needed. The government has provided money for increased staff, but staffing levels are set to remain below 2010 levels.
Mark Day of the Prison Reform Trust spoke of a “hidden emergency unfolding in our prison system” and said increasing prison violence should not become the new normal the lives of people living and working in prisons depended on that. Frances Crook, of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said:

Indirect supervision

Indirect supervision is when a correctional officer is placed in an enclosed booth and must constantly watch over the inmates through a bird’s eye view. The physical interactions that officers have with the inmates is minimal, for most of the communication comes through an intercom system. Inmates are placed in their own cells and officers have physical barriers to ensure their own safety. When havoc is wreaked, a call for a response team is placed over the intercom. This type of supervision is strong, but has some drawbacks, such as the creation of blind spots. These are created through indirect supervision because the guards standing watch can have objects blocking tiny spots or they may just not be looking in the right direction at the right time. Indirect supervision is an impersonal and more distant form of supervision that helps with officer safety, but leaves blind spots for “…inmates to conceal illicit activity from security staff”.

Direct supervision

Direct supervision is a more personal type of design because officers are assigned a cell block to patrol. Through this layout, the guards actually speak to cellmates one-on-one. The minor altercations that take place throughout the day is directly handled by the patrol officer, but this single officer cannot prevent a violent attack from happening. As soon as their back is turned or their attention is focused on someone else, the perpetrator can still commit violence. In this form of supervision officers are left more vulnerable, but it also leads to, “…decreased tension and stress of staff and inmates…”. Direct supervision is more of a hands-on form of management, where “…major incidents are not as numerous and minor incidents result in higher numbers…”.

Weapons used

Most inmates look to get into an altercation armed with some sort of homemade weapon. The weapons they use to attack their victims are made to be very destructive and can easily be both hidden and accessed. They use objects such as shanks, clubs, daggers, razors, and saps to serve as weapons. A shank is a homemade knife, and is used to stab the person they are planning on fighting with, typically created by sharpening a common object. Clubs are considered “…objects such as pitchers, hot pots, and broom handles…”. They are put into use by throwing or hitting their target with these objects. A sap is typically a padlock enclosed in a sock, but really any hard object can be placed inside. Their prey is hit, typically over the head, with this weapon. Razor blades are very commonly used to commit prison violence. When an inmate knows there is a possibly of facing an attack, they will often place razors inside their mouths so that they can spit the razor out of their mouth and slash up the other person’s face. Since this tactic has been caught onto, many times a person will first punch whomever they are fighting in the face so that if a razor is in there, their mouth will get cut.

Weapon creation

The prison store, supplies provided by prisons, and objects visitors bring are typically where the weapon creation process begins. They get a hold of items, “…such as disposable razors and toothbrushes”. Then, these materials get manipulated and transformed into a weapon of destruction. They may sharpen it or harden it using other items. In other instances, “Items that appear innocuous have been converted into weapons”. Inmates also use everyday items in their natural form in dangerous ways that is clearly not used as they were originally intended. Often, when an inmate uses this form to create their weapons, it is used on officers because the items do not look questionable so it is easy to catch the corrections officer off guard. Some will, “…fashion the metal post of a bunk bed or the edge of a cell door into a spear…that could be flung from inside a cell and penetrate a man’s neck or liver”, which is called the bone crusher. Some inmates will go to great lengths to create weapons and many different ways to create these weapons has been discovered.