Understanding and Reducing Prison Violence considers both the individual and prison characteristics associated with violence perpetration and violent victimization among both prison inmates and staff. Prison violence is not a random process; rates of violence vary across prisons and the odds of perpetrating violence or experiencing violent victimization vary across inmates and staff. A comprehensive understanding of the causes of prison violence therefore requires consideration of both individual and prison characteristics. Building on large dataset comprising 5,500 inmates and 1,800 officers across 45 prisons located across two of the United States (Ohio and Kentucky), this book showcases one of the largest and most comprehensive studies of prisons carried out to date. It considers both the implications of the study for theories of prison violence and the implications of the study for preventing violence in prisons. It will be of interest to academics, practitioners, and policy makers alike.

Understanding and Reducing Prison Violence considers both the individual and prison characteristics associated with violence perpetration and violent victimization among both prison inmates and staff. Prison violence is not a random process; rates of violence vary across prisons and the odds of perpetrating violence or experiencing violent victimization vary across inmates and staff. A comprehensive understanding of the causes of prison violence therefore requires consideration of both individual and prison characteristics. Building on large dataset comprising 5,500 inmates and 1,800 officers across 45 prisons located across two of the United States (Ohio and Kentucky), this book showcases one of the largest and most comprehensive studies of prisons carried out to date. It considers both the implications of the study for theories of prison violence and the implications of the study for preventing violence in prisons. It will be of interest to academics, practitioners, and policy makers alike.

Preventing Prison Violence introduces the idea of ‘prison ecologies’ – a multi-layered perspective to understanding prison violence as a ‘product’ of human, environment (social and physical), systemic, and societal influences – and how an ecological approach is helpful to prevention efforts. Interpersonal violence is a global concern and a significant cause of death around the world. In prisons, the human, financial, and health burden of violence presents a significant social issue – as well as a ‘wicked problem’ that does not permit of simplistic solutions. Recent innovations in data capture means that questions about violence, gang-affiliations, and prisons that could not be answered previously can now be explored. The central theme of this book is that prisons are ‘ecologies’ – spaces where people, resources, and the built environment are interrelated – and that violence is a product of a complex of interpersonal and environmental factors that increase the likelihood of assault – but also provide opportunities for solutions. Drawing on psychology, geography, indigenous knowledge, gang culture, and predictive modelling, this book expands beyond the conventional individual-focused ‘assessment-intervention-prevention’ approach to research in this field, towards a holistic and ecological way of thinking that recognises individual, organisational, and cultural factors, as well as the role of the physical environment itself in the facilitation and prohibition of aggression. Providing a comprehensive resource for those who are interested in making prisons safer; firmly based in contemporary research and theory, Preventing Prison Violence will be of great interest to students and scholars of Penology, Violence and Forensic Psychology, as well as to professionals working in criminal justice settings.

Drawing on a range of research and media sources to provide an international perspective on the topic of prison violence, this book focuses on the impact of such violence on the individual both while he or she is incarcerated and upon his or her release from prison, as well as on society as a whole. With a special emphasis on comparisons of violence among incarcerated populations in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, Prison Violence: Causes, Consequences and Solutions explores the various systems that exist to combat the problem, whilst also considering public perceptions of offenders and punishment, as influenced by media and coverage of high-profile cases. Providing a comprehensive analysis of prison violence on national and international levels, this book examines the extent of the problem, theoretical understandings of the issue and concrete solutions designed to prevent and handle such violence. As such, it will be of interest to policy makers as well as scholars of sociology, criminology and penology.

The award-winning “radically original” (The Atlantic) restorative justice leader, whose work the Washington Post has called “totally sensible and totally revolutionary,” grapples with the problem of violent crime in the movement for prison abolition A National Book Foundation Literature for Justice honoree A Kirkus “Best Book of 2019 to Fight Racism and Xenophobia” Winner of the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice Journalism Award Finalist for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice In a book Democracy Now! calls a “complete overhaul of the way we’ve been taught to think about crime, punishment, and justice,” Danielle Sered, the executive director of Common Justice and renowned expert on violence, offers pragmatic solutions that take the place of prison, meeting the needs of survivors and creating pathways for people who have committed violence to repair harm. Critically, Sered argues that reckoning is owed not only on the part of individuals who have caused violence, but also by our nation for its overreliance on incarceration to produce safety—at a great cost to communities, survivors, racial equity, and the very fabric of our democracy. Although over half the people incarcerated in America today have committed violent offenses, the focus of reformers has been almost entirely on nonviolent and drug offenses. Called “innovative” and “truly remarkable” by The Atlantic and “a top-notch entry into the burgeoning incarceration debate” by Kirkus Reviews, Sered’s Until We Reckon argues with searing force and clarity that our communities are safer the less we rely on prisons and jails as a solution for wrongdoing. Sered asks us to reconsider the purposes of incarceration and argues persuasively that the needs of survivors of violent crime are better met by asking people who commit violence to accept responsibility for their actions and make amends in ways that are meaningful to those they have hurt—none of which happens in the context of a criminal trial or a prison sentence.

Corrections criminology / Sean O'Toole and Simon Eyland --World correctional population trends and issues / Mike Bartlett --Prison populations in Australia / Kyleigh Heggie --Australian coomunity corrections population trends and issues / David Daley --Prisonography : Sources of knowledge and perspectives about prisons / Lucien Lombard --Commissions of inquiry and penal reform / David Brown --Security in correctional systems / Ron Woodham --Privatisation in the corrections industry / Sean O'Toole --Human rights in corrections practice / Brian Tkachuk and Eileen Skinnider --"Good corrections" : implications for leadership and organisational performance / Ole Ingstrup --Inspecting prisons / Richard Harding --Causes and prevention of violence in prisons / Ross Homel and Carleen Thompson --The over-representation of indigenous persons in custody / Bill Anscomb --Risk and responsibilities in women's prisons / Pat Carlen --Managing an ageing prison population / John Dawes --Prisoner health / Michael Levy, Tony Butler, Tony Falconer --Managing mentally ill offenders released from jail - the US experience / Dale Sechrest and Don Josi --Offenders with drug and alcohol dependencies / Maria Kevin --A framework for minimising the incidence of self-harm in prison / Greg Dear --Beyond what works : a retrospective of Robert Martinson's famous article / Rick Sarre --Bridging the gap between prison and the community : post-release support and supervision / Stuart Ross --Prison industries in a time of science-based prison programming / Judy McHutchison --The effect of post-release housing on prisoner re-integration into the community / Eileen Baldry --Ethics and the role of the correctional officer / Anna Grant --Measuring prisons and their moral performance / Alison Liebling --Professionalising the correctional officer : the US perspective / Don A josi and Dale K Sechrest --Human resources analysis of the Australian corrections industry / Sean O'Toole --Towards crime prevention / David Biles --What future for the prison? / Paul Wilson.

The articles in this collection examine recent research on the causes, prevention and control of prison violence. Experts discuss new work being done on inmate, staff, and management culture, the links between prison and community culture and violence, and identify best practices and ‘what works’ in reducing violence and changing offender behaviour.

By conservative estimates, more than 16,000 violent crimes are committed or attempted every day in the United States. Violence involves many factors and spurs many viewpoints, and this diversity impedes our efforts to make the nation safer. Now a landmark volume from the National Research Council presents the first comprehensive, readable synthesis of America's experience of violence-offering a fresh, interdisciplinary approach to understanding and preventing interpersonal violence and its consequences. Understanding and Preventing Violence provides the most complete, up-to-date responses available to these fundamental questions: How much violence occurs in America? How do different processes-biological, psychosocial, situational, and social-interact to determine violence levels? What preventive strategies are suggested by our current knowledge of violence? What are the most critical research needs? Understanding and Preventing Violence explores the complexity of violent behavior in our society and puts forth a new framework for analyzing risk factors for violent events. From this framework the authors identify a number of "triggering" events, situational elements, and predisposing factors to violence-as well as many promising approaches to intervention. Leading authorities explore such diverse but related topics as crime statistics; biological influences on violent behavior; the prison population explosion; developmental and public health perspectives on violence; violence in families; and the relationship between violence and race, ethnicity, poverty, guns, alcohol, and drugs. Using four case studies, the volume reports on the role of evaluation in violence prevention policy. It also assesses current federal support for violence research and offers specific science policy recommendations. This breakthrough book will be a key resource for policymakers in criminal and juvenile justice, law enforcement authorities, criminologists, psychologists, sociologists, public health professionals, researchers, faculty, students, and anyone interested in understanding and preventing violence.

In this controversial and compassionate book, the distinguished psychiatrist James Gilligan proposes a radically new way of thinking about violence and how to prevent it.

An authoritative and thought-provoking argument for offering free college in prisons—from the former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Anthony Cardenales was a stickup artist in the Bronx before spending seventeen years in prison. Today he is a senior manager at a recycling plant in Westchester, New York. He attributes his ability to turn his life around to the college degree he earned in prison. Many college-in-prison graduates achieve similar success and the positive ripple effects for their families and communities, and for the country as a whole, are dramatic. College-in-prison programs have been shown to greatly reduce recidivism. They increase post-prison employment, allowing the formerly incarcerated to better support their families and to reintegrate successfully into their communities. College programs also decrease violence within prisons, improving conditions for both correction officers and the incarcerated. Liberating Minds eloquently makes the case for these benefits and also illustrates them through the stories of formerly incarcerated college students. As the country confronts its legacy of over-incarceration, college-in-prison provides a corrective on the path back to a more democratic and humane society. “Lagemann includes intensive research, but her most powerful supporting evidence comes from the anecdotes of former prisoners who have become published poets, social workers, and nonprofit leaders.”—Publishers Weekly