Study on Inmate Assaults clears up some Myths about Institutional
Conditions
by insideprison.com, May 2006
A recent survey conducted by researchers at the University of
Houston found that the vast majority of inmate assaults in Texas
prisons can be explained by the personal characteristics of offenders,
not the prison's living conditions, its managerial characteristics,
its program philosophy, or its staff's ethnic composition. Such
a finding brings us closer to resolving the debate between the
two differing theories of violence causation within prison, that
offenders "import" their characteristics into institutions
(importation hypothesis), or that institutions "deprive"
their inmates of the motivation necessary to behave prosocially
(deportation hypothesis).
An outline of the different variables used in the study and their
respective effects on prison violence are listed below.
Rehabilitation commitment. Neither inmate-on-inmate nor
inmate-on-staff assaults decreased when institutions scored higher
on the "rehabilitative index," and objective assessment
used to measure a particular institution's commitment to offender
rehabilitation.
Staff Salaries. Even when the average monthly salary of
staff members (before deductions) was increased, there was no
significant difference in prison violence, flying in the face
of labour unions' claims that underpaid officers are less effective
in their duties. Nor was there a significant effect of the ethnic
composition of staff. However, there were slightly more
inmate assaults when staff members were predominantly male.
Jail characteristics. Reforming jail design became popular
in the 1970s as architects began constructing open-concept jails
where inmates could be more closely supervised, and could act
more interactively with staff. The three different categories
of jails analyzed in the study were the older "podular remote"
and "linear" designs, and the newer "direct supervision"
design. Comparisons of these various designs showed no effect
of increasing or decreasing inmate violence.
In addition, the age of the facility was also taken into account,
with expectations that the older the jail, the worse the conditions,
and the more frequent the assaults. Such was not the case. Age
of the facility had no effect on assault rate; in fact, more inmate
assaults occurred in newer facilities, again contradicting
correctional policy-makers advocating the use of more "humane"
prison facilities. The authors speculate that assaults increase
in newer, more modern facilities because older jails have had
time to "stabilize" over the years, providing a more
predictive environment for prisoners.
Inmate characteristics. The only significant variable
that did cause a discernible increase in violence among
inmates was inmate characteristics. The proportion of inmates
classed as maximum-security increased levels of violence, as well
as the place of residence of those inmates, with offenders coming
from urban centres demonstrating more violence than those coming
from rural areas.
As psychologists have stated for over a decade now, antisocial
personality, antisocial attitudes, and antisocial peers, coupled
with an offender's prior antisocial history, are the best predictors
for future misconduct, both at the community level and at the
prison level. However, some unique variables within these characteristics
are particularly predictive of prison misconduct, namely:
- being a member of a gang while incarcerated
- being male
- having a history of violence
- dropping out of programs
- having a history of mental illness
- having recently being disciplined by staff
See our Classification
Section for more information of classification and placement
decisions within prison.
references
Kellar, Mark, and Hsiao-Ming Wang. 2005. Inmate Assaults in Texas
County Jails. The prison Journal. Vol 85(1)
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