Violence in Prisons - Research Paper Example

Their situation is made worse by the fact that they are placed in confined environments in their hundreds while the manpower to watch over them is hugely outnumbered. Within the inmate population there is therefore high prevalence of violence incidences. Inmates also experience violence from the guards and vice versa. Prison violence therefore is not a surprising phenomenon not only in the United States but also in the rest of the world. This paper shall therefore elaborate on the different types of prison violence, reasons for this violence and the various solutions to solving prison violence menace.

Byrne et al. (2008) state that prison violence comes in various forms namely violence of a prisoner towards another prisoner, prisoner violence on officers and officers violating prisoners. Prisoners in the United States have for a long time developed a gang rule culture which is attributed to be the biggest cause of prisoner violence on a fellow prisoner. Gangs have been seen have a form of territorial control in prisons where members of gangs have better access to facilities and inherent protection rights from gang members.

These gangs recruit people to join them where there are rituals while joining which are not necessarily as rosy considering the privileges that accompany their membership in the harsh prison environment. Incidences of sexual harassment and rape have been reported as quite common during recruitment (Jones and Pratt, 2008). It also important to note that in a single prison there can be a number of gangs which obviously compete for the available privileges and resources, for example the cells to occupy and the kind of chores to engage in.

This competition breeds violent acts towards members of other gang members. This escalates the prevalence of prisoner to prisoner violence. In cases of extreme violent conducts prisoners even murder