PY5008 Revision- Prison Riots PDF

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Lecture notes on prison riots...

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There’s a Riot Going On: What can the Stanford Prison Experiment & the BBC Prison Study tell us about how things can go dramatically wrong in custodial settings? The Strangeways Prison riot, 1990 •

25 days, 1st-25th April, 1990

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Longest prison riot in UK penal history.

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Began when prisoners took control of the prison chapel

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Spread quickly through the prison.

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Cost of repairs: £55 million.

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One prisoner died, 147 prison officers and 47 prisoners injured.

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The riot sparked disturbances in 25 other British prisons

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`Strangeways’, HMP Manchester, is one of the UK’s largest high security, category A men's prisons, with capacity for over 1,200 inmates - rebuilt after the 1990 riot.

How it started: perceived unjust requirements (collectively defined), identification, rolenonconformity, dehumanisation, frustration-to-aggression, collective action •

`Designed to hold 970 prisoners, this had increased from 1,417 in January 1990 to 1,647 on April 1st : 925 convicted adult prisoners, 500 remand prisoners and 210 convicted young offenders.

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Prisoners felt complaints about conditions were being ignored. Remand prisoners were only allowed out of their cells for 18 hours per week, and Category A prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 hours a day.

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26 March 1990: prisoner Barry Morton was taken to the `punishment block’ and stripsearched, after a visited by his mother; it was believed she had given him drugs. During this he sustained a black eye and swollen nose; the next day he was released back into the main prison along with prisoner, Tony Bush. Later that day, Bush & Morton climbed onto the prison’s roof for a twenty-four hour protest. On 31 March a 30-minute sit-down protest (of about 300 inmates) in the chapel occurred; it ended when a prison officer promised to listen to grievances. The same evening a prisoner was assaulted by officers in front of other inmates, and injected with Chlorpromazine (tradenames: Largactil;Thorazine), a sedative known as the `liquid cosh’. Prisoners then decided to stage a further protest in the chapel the following day, 1 April’. This quickly escalated into violent protest and the riot had begun.

The Attica Prison Rebellion & Riot, 1971, New York, USA •

Sept 9th 2,200 inmates rioted over 5 days; 42 staff taken hostage; 27 demands met, except amnesty from prosecution. State police took back control.

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43 died (10 prison guards & civilian employees and 33 inmates). The deaths of 1 guard & 4 inmates were attributed to the actions of the prisoners.

How it started: a perceived unjust requirement (collectively defined), identification, rolenonconformity, a violated expectation, frustration-to-aggression, & opportunism.

`On Thursday, September 9, 1971, 5 Company lined up for roll-call. Hearing rumours that one of their companions was to remain in his cell after being isolated for an incident involving an assault on prison officer Tom Boyle after he was hit in the face with a full soup can by inmate William Ortiz, a small group of 5 Company inmates protested that they too would be locked up and began walking back towards their cells. The remainder of 5 Company continued towards breakfast. As the protesting group walked past the isolated inmate Ortiz, they freed him from his cell. They then re-joined the rest of 5 Company and proceeded on their way to breakfast. A short time later, when the command staff discovered what had occurred, they changed the usual scheduling of the prisoners, but did not tell prison officer Gordon Kelsey, the correctional officer in charge of leading 5 Company to the yard. Instead of going into the yard after breakfast as they usually did, the prisoners were led there to find a locked door, puzzling them and the correctional officer Kelsey. Complaints led to anger when more correctional officers led by Lt. Robert T. Curtiss arrived to lead the prisoners back to their cells. Officer Kelsey was assaulted and the riot began’. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica_Prison_riot Positive consequences Following the Attica riot, the New York State Department of Corrections instigated in its prisons: (1) a grievance procedure, whereby inmates could object to actions by a staff member that violated published policy (2) a system wherein the warden and senior management meet once a month with elected prisoner representatives (3) the receipt of parcels by inmates year-round Psychological models of prison disorder •

(1) Hartung & Floch (1956) – grievances model o

18 prison riots occurred in the USA in that year

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Two sets of factors contributing to `brutal/violent’ riots and/or, `collective’ protests:  (a) Deficient conditions, legitimate grievances 

Poor, insufficient or contaminated food

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inadequate insanitary or dirty housing

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sadistic brutality by prison officials

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some combination of the first three

 (b) Sociological & social psychological components  the nature of the maximum fortress-style custody prison  the aggregation of different types of inmates within one prison  the destruction of semi-official informal inmate self-government by new prison administration o

Harting & Floch’s remedy:

 Recognise a prison is a social institution, a community of prisoners  Instigate some form of inmate self-government, whether unofficial (extralegal) or official  Self-governance as an incentive for & a stake in a smooth-operating prison •

(2) Useem & Kimball (1987)- social-psychological integrative model, focusing upon `identification’ o

Identification – key social-psychological process:  Seeking to explain collective action  By non-individualising  But neither just as a response to contextual, structural variables

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Two types of identification proposed:  (a) people’s dispositions to model their behaviour after others (the desire to imitate the behaviour of others- e.g. inmates or guards)  (b) people’s disposition to take the welfare of others into account

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(3) Boin & Rattray (2004) - threshold theory o

Riots as the product of:  Prolonged `administrative’ breakdown sustains and makes possible `institutional’ breakdown which in combination reach a point, a threshold, in which routine incidents can trigger fully fledged riots  Boin & Rattray say Useem & Kimball’s model does not pay enough attention to administrative breakdown as a necessary condition for riots-as-system failures to occur  Threshold theory proposes riots are the outcomes of interactions between prison structural and cultural pathogenic properties and processes

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Conclusions from `threshold’ analysis:  A state of administrative breakdown facilitates the declining spiral of institutional erosion.  Institutional breakdown creates a highly complex and tightly coupled environment which motivates prisoners to engage in collective violence.  When prison staff remain [demotivated] oblivious and inactive in the face of institutional deterioration, breakdown becomes a possible end stage.  Prison riots are the products of administrative and institutional decline, intertwining processes that typically stretch over considerable periods of time.  This exploration of necessary conditions suggests that prison managers may be able to audit their prison in terms of `riot vulnerability’

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(4) Theories of collective behaviour - minimax; emergent norm; value-added o

Minimax or `game theory’ (Borel, 1921): people try to minimize their losses and maximise their benefits

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Emergent norm theory (Turner & Killian, 1957): a crowd’s attention is drawn to those that behave in a unique manner, which emerges as the new norm; then pressure to conform to the new norm from within the crowd/group reinforces it

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Value-added theory (Smelser, 1962): (6 factors necessary)  An existing problem creating need for change  Needs/expectations not being met by existing system  Spread of a generalised belief about cause & solution  Precipitating, dramatic incident/trigger inciting action  Leaders emerge & mobilize action  Failure of social control

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(5) Haney, Banks & Zimbardo (1973) – role conformity (Stanford simulation) o

These ordinary people when put in this extraordinary situation behaved in ways they never would have imagined of themselves:

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The guards become bullying, coercive, and punitive

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The prisoners are: ineffectively complaining, compliant, disturbed and withdrawn.

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Riots cannot be explained just in terms of `bad apples’, whether prisoners or officers

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`Bad barrels’ and `bad barrel makers & maintainers provide conditions in which collective action is enabled.

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Conformity and nonconformity go hand in hand in prison riots

(6) Haslam & Reicher (2011) – social identity & resistance (BBC Prison study) o

Did not believe role conformity was sufficient to explain what occurred in the SPE

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Nor did they believe that the prisoners in the SPE were destined to fail in their attempts to resist the guards

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They thought the power of the situation, that tyranny, could be over-come

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The prisoners in the first three days were focused on advancing their individual needs

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On the 4th day a new prisoner was introduced, an experienced trade union negotiator

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He provided leadership to such an extent he was withdrawn on day 5

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The guards meanwhile did not develop a group identity, being reluctant to exert or agree on their powers, while the prisoners became more cohesive as a group

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On day 6 the prisoners occupied the guard’s quarters; and the two groups decided to work together

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On day 9 the study was halted as systems of control were emerging that were potentially problematic....