NCJ Number
146425
Date Published
1992
Length
280 pages
Annotation
Relying on documentary and research evidence, this book examines the history, nature, origins, and outcomes of prison riots and official responses to them in Great Britain and the United States; it also assesses their significance and implications for penal policy and practice.
Abstract
Prison riots stem from pervasive features of social control in society and in associated strategies of penal policy. Most often prison riots in the United States and Great Britain have been confrontations between prisoners and their guards. The traditional riot pattern involved ad hoc prisoner responses without specific demands. Prison riots in the 20th Century have featured complaints about prison conditions. In the second half of the 20th Century, the trend is toward prisoners rioting for socialist and consciousness-raising reasons. These later riots often challenged the dominant rehabilitative ideal of imprisonment. As the philosophy of rehabilitation through imprisonment was discredited and declined in the last quarter of the 20th Century, prison riot characteristics have changed. They have featured the grievance of identifiable prisoner groups, such as women prisoners, black prisoners, Irish republican prisoners, mentally ill prisoners, and prisoners on remand. It remains to be seen whether the trend toward a more public and pluralistic debate about prison conditions evidenced in Santa Fe, Hull, and Strangeways will lead to improved prison conditions in Great Britain and the United States. 504-item bibliography and a subject index