How Riots in Prison Can Be Prevented and Controlled
An analysis of the three most notorious riots in the US shows differences in the revolts but also reveals significant similarities in the conditions that helped triggered the riots.
This could help control and perhaps prevent riots in the future. Prison riots involve a seizure of control, violence, and inmate demands for changes in the prison. Since the first prison riot in the United States in 1774, some 300 prison riots have been reported in this country in the past two centuries (Fox, 1972). Not surprisingly, prison inmates stage disturbances and riots and take hostages to air grievances. These disturbances and riots often erupt as acts of desperation among inmate leaders who have come to believe that it is a last resort to get a hearing from prison officials, policy makers, and the public about unfair policies or deplorable conditions in prisons. After riots like New Mexico and Attica shook the criminal justice community, corrections practitioners began to take stock of lessons they could learn to help prevent similar tragedies from occurring. Large, crowded institutions are ripe for rioting, and this includes most American prisons today. The prison at Santa Fe was filled beyond capacity at the time of the 1980 riot. Approximately 1,136 men were housed in an institution designed for 900 (Remembering, 1991).
The prison riots at the Attica State Correctional Facility in New York in 1971 and at the New Mexico Penitentiary in Santa Fe in 1980 are considered two of the most deadly riots in U.S. prison history. The 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville is considered the longest prison takeover in the United States. These three riots have been selected to illustrate the origins and circumstances of prison riots. Having occurred over three decades in U.S. history, they also demonstrate changes over time. Although the riots do not have the exact sam...