A Social-Psychological Analysis of Prison Riots: An Hypothesis

A distinction is made between the brutal & collective type of prison riot. The paper deals mainly with the collective type, but outlines the usual causes of the brutal type as being due to (1) poor, insufficient, or contaminated food; (2) inadequate, unsanitary or dirty housing; (3) sadistic brutality by prison officials; or (4) some combination of the three above. The overwhelming majority of past riots have been attributed to this type of causation. The collective type riot first occurred in 1952. In past decades the informal inmate-structure was elevated to semi-official self-gov, inmate-assistants & inmate-clerks of key officials discharged many of the major custodial & admin've duties of prisons. Conditions in some prisons were drastically changed when the inmate-assistants & clerks were replaced by paid Civil Service Personnel & the system of inmate `self gov' was annihilated & nothing put in its place. In addition, the nature of the maximum security prison & its air of hopelessness & the commingling of divergent types of personalities made for the collective type of riot, the real leaders of which are cool professional criminals who are rarely visible. Therefore, the major error of prison authorities was in pursuing an incorrect policy regarding the dissolution of inmate semi-official self gov. They suggest admin'rs take an active but unobtrusive part in developing inmate-leaders, since some form of inmate self-gov (official or unofficial), is necessary for the maintenance of peace in a modern maximum security prison. A. S. Blumberg.