tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/prison-violence-31643/articlesPrison violence – The Conversation2021-10-05T13:33:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1692332021-10-05T13:33:50Z2021-10-05T13:33:50ZEcuador prison riot: 118 killed as gang violence spirals out of control in Latin America’s jails<p>One of the more distressing things about the savage riots that engulfed the Litoral prison in Ecuador on September 28 was that, several days after the violence was brought under control, the final death toll was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-58733202">still unknown</a> and many of the victims had still to be identified.</p>
<p>The most recent reports are that at least 118 inmates died in the fighting, at least six of whom had been beheaded by other inmates. By any standard, these are shocking figures and represent the worst death toll resulting from inter-prisoner violence in Ecuadorian prison history. The previous record was as recently as February, when <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/24/ecuador-increases-death-toll-prison-riots">79 prisoners were killed</a> in a series of riots in several prisons across the country. </p>
<p>In between these record-setting riots, another <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ecuador-deadly-prison-riots-1.6113924">22 prisoners were killed</a> at the Litoral prison in July. This means that in less than a year, 0.5% of the Ecuadorian prison population, which is a little under 40,000, has been murdered in these three sets of riots alone. </p>
<p>Inter-prisoner violence resulting in mass killings is not uncommon in the region. In 2019, over 50 detainees were killed in a riot in a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-49157858">prison in Para Province</a>, Brazil, including 16 who were decapitated. Many more were killed in other riots across the prison system as a whole in that, and in preceding years. In other words, while the number of deaths during a single incident in the recent riots in Ecuador is shocking high, it is merely another gruesome milestone in the increasingly deadly violence that plagues prisons in many South American countries.</p>
<h2>Gang violence</h2>
<p>What is at least as shocking as the deaths themselves is that nobody can truly be claimed to be shocked that they are taking place. The causes are well known. In most instances, they are the product of <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2012/09/22/a-journey-into-hell">conflicts between rival gangs</a> and groups, these groups usually being linked to criminal gangs operating within the countries more generally. </p>
<p>While the violence that takes place is often sparked by particular incidents occurring within the prisons, rarely is this the sole reason. The prison is a tinderbox waiting to be ignited by sparks flying from the frictions between the factions: prisons have become merely another “theatre” in which rival criminal gangs jostle for influence. And those sent to prison have little practical option but to join a faction – to support it, and to be “protected” by it. Not being associated with a gang is likely to place a detainee at greater risk than being a member. Neutrality is rarely an option.</p>
<p>There is something already deeply dysfunctional about a prison system (and there are many) in which inmates appear to have easy access to guns and grenades and other such weapons. Much is made of the prisons in Ecuador suffering from serious overcrowding – and this is certainly the case: the prisons are at <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/ecuador">roughly 133% of their capacity</a>, making conditions even more difficult than would otherwise be the case. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the most recent riots, the government has announced plans to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/death-toll-ecuadors-worst-ever-prison-riot-rises-118-2021-10-01/">reduce the numbers of inmates</a> in its jails. Though very welcome news, seeking to release the elderly, women, those with disabilities, those with terminal illnesses and those able to be deported is hardly likely to make much of a dent in the overall problem of overcrowding. And it will have very little impact on the prevalence of gang warfare that is rife in prisons. Relatively few of those to be released are likely to be housed in the high-security prisons such as the Litoral penitentiary. Transferring those involved in the recent violence to spaces created in other establishments is at least as likely to spread such violence as it is to contain it.</p>
<h2>Loss of control</h2>
<p>It is the unfortunate truth that prison authorities have significantly less authority over the day-to-day life in prisons than they would have us believe. As a result, while introducing heightened measures of internal control might dampen down violence in the short term, experience suggests that this cannot be maintained for very long and the net effect is to prompt even more violence in the longer term. So what can be done?</p>
<p>Some suggest the answer lies in holding members of different gangs in different prisons, as opposed to different wings in the same prison as is usually the case. But this is unlikely to be a practical option, as it would usually mean holding some detainees further from their families and dependents, making them even more reliant on their gang membership and factions for day-to-day support. </p>
<p>The real need is to try to break that dependency, by providing alternative routes through prison life – or alternatives to prison life – than those that reinforce dependency on gangs and cartels. There is no point being naive about the difficulty of doing this. The gangs that drive the prison violence are usually deeply embedded in the communities from which the detainees come. They have a long and powerful reach, exercising power over families, friends and others who are vulnerable, meaning that some detainees may be in no position to resist the demands and instructions of others.</p>
<p>The causes of, and solutions to, extreme and systemic violence in prisons rarely lie only in prisons. Important as prison reform is, on its own it is never going to be enough. Systemic and organised prisoner violence on this scale needs to be recognised for what it is: a reflection and replication of the violence between lawless groups within the broader community. Unless and until that can be addressed, prisons that are overfilled by those caught up with illegal gangs and cartels will remain at risk of erupting into communal and deadly violence. And the state that puts them there must take responsibility for that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169233/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Malcolm Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gang violence is a serious problem in Latin American society – not just its jails.Malcolm Evans, Professor of Public International Law, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1039672018-10-02T22:40:51Z2018-10-02T22:40:51ZWhat a widely attacked experiment got right on the harmful effects of prisons<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238466/original/file-20180928-48631-11k1uah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Even the most humanely designed prisons have negative effects on the people living and working inside.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of the few scientific studies to enter the public consciousness through <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/08/archives/a-pirandellian-prison-the-mind-is-a-formidable-jailer.html">mainstream news</a>, <a href="http://www.prisonexp.org/quiet-rage/">documentaries</a>, <a href="http://www.prisonexp.org/book/">popular books</a>, <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil#t-841723">a TED talk</a> and <a href="http://www.stanfordprisonexperimentfilm.com">a major motion picture</a>. </p>
<p>Recently, it has been making headlines in a very bad way. </p>
<p>In 1971, Stanford University psychology professor Philip Zimbardo <a href="http://pdf.prisonexp.org/ijcp1973.pdf">sought to evaluate the prison’s impact on human behavior</a>. He randomly assigned normal, healthy, emotionally stable male college students (without criminal records) to be “prisoners” or “guards” in a fake prison. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238786/original/file-20181001-195282-nfewn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238786/original/file-20181001-195282-nfewn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238786/original/file-20181001-195282-nfewn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238786/original/file-20181001-195282-nfewn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238786/original/file-20181001-195282-nfewn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238786/original/file-20181001-195282-nfewn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238786/original/file-20181001-195282-nfewn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238786/original/file-20181001-195282-nfewn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Newspaper advertisement for participants for the Stanford Prison Experiment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(PrisonExp.org)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within six days, Zimbardo ended the experiment. The “guards” were torturing the “prisoners,” and the “prisoners” were rebelling or experiencing psychological breakdown. </p>
<p>In news articles, the Stanford experiment has been <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/6/13/17449118/stanford-prison-experiment-fraud-psychology-replication">“debunked” and “exposed as a fraud.” Its findings have been declared “very wrong”</a> and “<a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4273976/stanford-prison-experiment-lies-acting-good-evil/">fake</a>.” It has been <a href="https://medium.com/s/trustissues/the-lifespan-of-a-lie-d869212b1f62">further criticized</a> for experimenter interference, faked behaviour from participants and for research design problems, among other things. </p>
<p>These serious critiques have generated <a href="http://www.prisonexp.org/links/#responses">much discussion</a> in academic circles and in news articles about what, if anything, we can learn from the experiment. </p>
<p>And yet, as someone who studies prisons, I’m struck by how much the Stanford Prison Experiment got right. A wealth of other research suggests prisons have serious detrimental effects on prisoners and prison workers alike.</p>
<h2>What the research says</h2>
<p>Living and working in prison is <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1023%2FA%3A1009514731657.pdf">extremely stressful and demoralizing</a>. </p>
<p>Some people are better at repelling these effects than others. Even so, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215036616301420#!">prisoners</a> and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/modern-prison-paradox/social-effects-of-prison-work/80EECCDD9ED05BE17408B9989A758C56">prison workers</a> suffer from high rates of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673602077401">depression,</a> <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/j.1440-1614.2005.01589.x">anxiety,</a> <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/449299">suicide,</a> <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cbm.653">PTSD</a> and other devastating conditions. For many prisoners, these conditions continue after prison and can be <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/681301">worsened by the transition into the free world</a>. </p>
<p>We have long known that prisons are damaging places for both prisoners and prison workers. In his 1956 book, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8390.html"><em>Society of Captives</em></a>, Princeton sociology professor Gresham Sykes explained that incarceration deeply injured prisoners’ dignity and self-concept. He also described how prison officers became “corrupted” by the prison environment with its contradictory imperatives, impossible-to-enforce rules and necessary compromises. </p>
<p>In the 60 years since Sykes’ book, research in diverse prison settings <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1462474511422172">has confirmed</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1747-4469.2012.01307.x">expanded upon</a> many of his findings.</p>
<h2>The role of prison design</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238787/original/file-20181001-195278-jebfd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238787/original/file-20181001-195278-jebfd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238787/original/file-20181001-195278-jebfd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238787/original/file-20181001-195278-jebfd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238787/original/file-20181001-195278-jebfd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238787/original/file-20181001-195278-jebfd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238787/original/file-20181001-195278-jebfd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238787/original/file-20181001-195278-jebfd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1086&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Storstrøm Prison, which opened in Denmark in 2017, is said to be the world’s most humane prison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(C.F. Møller/Torbin Eskerod)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These insights extend beyond contemporary prisons in the United States. Prisons in <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1462474513504799">Norway</a>, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1362480612468935">Sweden</a> and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1462474517737273">Denmark</a>, known for their humaneness, also cause harm. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://prisonspaces.wordpress.com">smart designs can lessen</a>, but not destroy, the prison’s negative impacts. But <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814717196/">since the 1970s</a>, in many Western countries, the main goal when designing prisons has been containment and security, not prisoners’ physical and mental health.</p>
<p>Popping up in the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s, supermaximum security prisons (Supermaxes), which contain prisoners in solitary confinement in small concrete cells for <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300211467/237">23 hours a day</a>, are a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011128702239239">particularly harmful</a> design. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/broken-system-why-is-a-quarter-of-canadas-prison-population-indigenous-91562">Broken system: Why is a quarter of Canada's prison population Indigenous?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Prisoners <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/prisoners-solitude-and-time-9780199684489?cc=ca&lang=en&">react differently</a> to these Supermax prison regimes. Some are able to withstand the conditions, others break down within hours of their arrival. We do not yet fully understand why people react differently, but we do know that Supermax prisons have an array of <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-criminol-032317-092326">negative impacts on prisoners’ mental health</a> including <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011128702239239?casa_token=dhS6f9U28G8AAAAA:fMHmV9kgKpUlFgW20LHXjr-kYVUk44hkiIIJ1dPtJTfVlRoZiaH-ZkTeopbYrcYrNrLO-yqnCxQG">hallucinations, self-harm and permanent psychological damage</a>. </p>
<h2>Not just prisoners</h2>
<p>Prison staff are also affected. The history of American imprisonment is also filled with examples of people with good intentions becoming “corrupted” by the prison. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238785/original/file-20181001-195250-111qb4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238785/original/file-20181001-195250-111qb4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238785/original/file-20181001-195250-111qb4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238785/original/file-20181001-195250-111qb4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238785/original/file-20181001-195250-111qb4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238785/original/file-20181001-195250-111qb4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238785/original/file-20181001-195250-111qb4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this April 12, 2016 photo, a visitor makes a photograph of a cellblock at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. The nearly two-century-old penitentiary is now a historic site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pennsylvania’s <a href="https://www.easternstate.org/">Eastern State Penitentiary</a> opened in 1829. Progressive Philadelphia penal reformers designed Eastern to be more humane than other prisons, with prisoners’ physical and mental health in mind. They implemented a routine — combining work, education, mentorship and outdoor exercise — to benefit both prisoners and society. Finally, they sought to protect prisoners’ identities so they could reenter society without stigma.</p>
<p>Within five years of the prison’s opening, however, the penal reformers, now prison administrators, had betrayed their humanitarian goals. </p>
<p>They <a href="https://ashleytrubin.com/current-projects/the-deviant-prison-book-project/">bent the rules</a>, out of necessity or convenience, so the prison functioned smoothly. In the process, they sacrificed the regime’s humanitarian and prisoner-focused elements.</p>
<p>Eastern’s administrators <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807856314/laboratories-of-virtue/">authorized torture</a>, including what we now call waterboarding, held misbehaving prisoners after their sentences had expired <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/lsi.12158">until they apologized</a> and justified these actions as beneficial to prisoners. </p>
<p>These gaps between theory and practice, including the use of torture punishments, were common at <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/crisis-of-imprisonment/6D7012F71C47B46BF7BCAAD05534FBCB">other American prisons</a> in the 19th century and into the 20th. <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814766385/">Other penal reformers–turned-administrators</a> engaged in similar malfeasance despite their apparently genuine commitment to humanitarian values. </p>
<p>The situation was even more dire at prisons that were explicitly <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=17521">designed to be punitive</a> and <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312680473">lacked Eastern’s humanitarian motivations</a>. </p>
<h2>Beyond the Stanford experiment</h2>
<p>Even including these past failures, modern prisons rarely devolve as quickly and decidedly into a den of overt torture and serious mental breakdown as seen in the “Stanford Prison.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238783/original/file-20181001-195269-vfcbsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238783/original/file-20181001-195269-vfcbsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238783/original/file-20181001-195269-vfcbsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238783/original/file-20181001-195269-vfcbsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238783/original/file-20181001-195269-vfcbsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238783/original/file-20181001-195269-vfcbsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238783/original/file-20181001-195269-vfcbsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/238783/original/file-20181001-195269-vfcbsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this Sept. 10, 1971 file photo, inmates wearing cloaks and football helmets stand behind bars in a corridor leading to D block as they begin negotiatiations with New York State officials after a prison uprising at Attica State Prison, in Attica, N.Y.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bob Schutz, File)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It does happen — <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/10/torture-at-abu-ghraib">the Abu Ghraib torture scandal</a> and the retaking of <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/178182/blood-in-the-water-by-heather-ann-thompson/9781400078240/">Attica Prison following the 1971 riot</a> are graphic illustrations of how prison can unleash the worst of human nature with terrible consequences — but such extreme cases remain rare. Prisons’ negative effects are typically less dramatic and do less to capture the public imagination. </p>
<p>There is something about prisons that is damaging. But what is it? </p>
<p>Even the most humanely designed prisons have negative effects on the people living and working inside. And that is the deep truth we are still seeking to understand and the Stanford Prison Experiment effectively illustrates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashley Rubin receives funding from the American Philosophical Society and the University of Toronto. </span></em></p>A wealth of research suggests prisons have serious detrimental effects on prisoners and prison workers.Ashley T. Rubin, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/697292016-12-01T15:16:04Z2016-12-01T15:16:04ZPrison deaths: a case of corporate manslaughter?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148271/original/image-20161201-25689-u75v26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C86%2C919%2C580&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stillburning/45952930/in/photolist-54wcU-9YWDD-9c76mG-f76hrm-4sxUyx-7Uw74o-biasAp-rqcxWb-38tKX4-2TV735-qakxXS-5oRB6V-agzJSX-fjuWmc-c39bH9-g581G6-fju7xT-QG69-6c9GBw-fjuWcB-9ExVUP-9Adug5-aBM9Lm-9qUnKU-fjuXLD-pVG6pw-fjK83N-cSa55w-9awyiy-572Gk-9bapth-9LDn8K-7PCMyo-fNn9F8-sULDu-q2caqT-crYDM1-6FU8Qh-dKxnBE-4oKCRd-8NKxpH-54waY-5d9JoR-7UKSVn-qyHkrQ-fjv31c-7UP5Nf-fjK8Kj-fjuXvi-312W4">Still Burning/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Attention has finally fallen on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/12/staff-shortages-british-prisons-bedford-pentonville-truss">crisis of safety in British prisons</a>. It <a href="https://oucriminology.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/bloodbaths-and-prison-staff-considering-the-actual-state-of-our-prisons/">shouldn’t be a surprise</a> to anyone. Some argue that prison has always inherently been, and remains, a place of degradation which is <a href="https://oucriminology.wordpress.com/2016/11/29/prisons-systematically-generate-suffering-and-death-thinking-beyond-reform/">systematically generating suffering and death</a>. A place where the victims are overwhelmingly prisoners – a fact that might be obscured by <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37990433">the loud voices of the Prison Officers’ Association</a>. </p>
<p>On the other hand, there is something peculiar in this present crisis. It feels like a perfect storm of rising prisoner numbers, cuts in staffing, widespread demoralisation among prisoners and staff, all combining to deliver evidence of a record year for killing and self-inflicted deaths. </p>
<p>In this context, but specifically following the news of the fatal stabbing of Jamal Mahmoud at HMP Pentonville in November 2016, Emily Thornberry, the local MP, <a href="https://kingscrossenvironment.com/2016/11/02/emily-thornberry-mp-calls-for-duty-of-care-investigation-into-pentonville-death-and-for-prison-to-be-closed/">called for an investigation</a> into whether an appropriate “duty of care” had been extended to the deceased during his time at the jail. Indeed, <a href="https://kingscrossenvironment.com/2016/10/27/death-at-pentonville-prison-should-be-investigated-for-corporate-manslaughter/">one commentator noted</a> that Mahmoud’s death had come “as little surprise given the substantial rise in violence at the troubled local prison over recent years”, violence which had been documented in <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1uJ52A5kUjwdnpYWkF2MkZOZVk">“report after report”</a>.</p>
<h2>Caught in the Act</h2>
<p>Such a call seems appropriate and timely. In 2011, the <a href="http://www.corporateresponsibilitynetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/CCA_guidancecorporatemansluaghte.pdf">Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007</a> (CMCHAct) was extended to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/28/corporate-homicide-law-prison-police">prison service</a>, so that a prison itself, through the actions or inactions of its senior management, can be held to account for deaths within its walls. </p>
<p>A prosecution under the Act requires a failure in the way in which the organisation is managed or organised which amounts to a gross breach of its duty of care. This in turn requires evidence that the failure fell “far below what can reasonably be expected”. That may include consideration of the “attitudes, policies, and systems of accepted practices” of the organisation, while a substantial element of the failure must be at senior management level.</p>
<p>Now there is no doubt that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14774003.2003.11667628?journalCode=tphs20">the Act was introduced</a> ostensibly and primarily to deal with the failure of common law manslaughter to hold large, complex, profit-making companies to account for multiple fatality disasters. In this respect, it has <a href="https://oucriminology.wordpress.com/icccr-online-series/corporate-killing-with-impunity/">hardly been a success</a>. Thus, at the time of writing, over eight years after the CMCHAct came into force, there have been 19 successful prosecutions under the Act – none, arguably, against a company of the size and complexity that could not have been prosecuted under the pre-existing common law.</p>
<p>But is there a case for testing the Act in the context of deaths in prison? I would argue that there is, on at least two counts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148274/original/image-20161201-25645-185usq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148274/original/image-20161201-25645-185usq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148274/original/image-20161201-25645-185usq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148274/original/image-20161201-25645-185usq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148274/original/image-20161201-25645-185usq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148274/original/image-20161201-25645-185usq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148274/original/image-20161201-25645-185usq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148274/original/image-20161201-25645-185usq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sharp practice?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/digidreamgrafix/11205538264/in/photolist-i5cj8A-4fxUtS-gjLF9S-nKjHuZ-nKjHMc-o2GB9E-baRb3H-9H1HZT-nKiWxf-yo5YZa-vMFV2R-z5yLTr-z4K7N6-z8uf18-NTo7N7-Npcgq1-NpceSG-NFrxH9-NFrw8L-NFruqh-Npc8wW-Npc771-pWmk2n-gjLg3o-gjLhEw-gjLSUc-gjLTvx-Fe5aY-e3uQTB-gjLosK-gjLWXT-Fe5bN-gjLigw-Fe5aQ-gjLBYy-gjLmEW-gjLXDn-gjLE3d-gjLy3N-Fe5aL-gjLsxP-gjLtsp-gjLiqj-gjLC81-gjLfWm-gjLsjc-gjLBHy-gjLS18-gjLmvs-gjLmvP">Alex G./Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Danger zone</h2>
<p>First, prisons are especially dangerous places. According to <a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/pdf/fatalinjuries.pdf">HSE data</a> released last month, fatal injuries (as opposed to fatal illnesses) to workers in 2015/16 totalled 144. Almost a third of these (43) occurred in construction, with the other most dangerous sectors being agriculture and manufacturing (each with 27 recorded fatalities). Notwithstanding the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-are-work-related-deaths-in-decline-33553">significant limitations</a> of HSE data, such figures pale into comparison when compared with the numbers of killings and self-inflicted deaths in British jails.</p>
<p>In 2011, the year the Act was extended to cover prisons, there were 190 deaths in prison; this year, there have been over 300. All in all, since 2011, there has been a consistent, year-on-year increase in the numbers of such deaths, <a href="http://www.inquest.org.uk/statistics/deaths-in-prison">which total nearly 1,400</a> for the period. It seems almost inconceivable that none of these 1,400 deaths involved at least sufficient evidence for a prosecution to be taken under the CMCHAct.</p>
<p>Second, we know, and have long known, that it is precisely “attitudes, policies, and systems of accepted practices” which generate deaths and violence in prison. Just as we also know that some institutions are more poorly managed than others. </p>
<p>It is, sadly, also too easy to identify <a href="https://oucriminology.wordpress.com/2016/11/29/prisons-systematically-generate-suffering-and-death-thinking-beyond-reform/">clusters of deaths</a> in specific jails. For example, there have been <a href="http://www.inquest.org.uk/media/pr/high-court-grants-familys-legal-challenge-on-prison-suicides-at-hmp-woodhil">17 self-inflicted deaths at HMP Woodhill near Milton Keynes since 2013</a> – the latest, 41-year-old artist David Rayner, was found in his cell on August 25.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148280/original/image-20161201-25667-1uxacpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148280/original/image-20161201-25667-1uxacpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148280/original/image-20161201-25667-1uxacpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148280/original/image-20161201-25667-1uxacpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148280/original/image-20161201-25667-1uxacpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148280/original/image-20161201-25667-1uxacpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148280/original/image-20161201-25667-1uxacpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148280/original/image-20161201-25667-1uxacpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bleak outcomes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/seanhobson/3656135868/in/photolist-6z5DPj-fPjqab-7ZNeH7-mJnJ63-796qQr-8W9HWG-Hz8N3W-dJDSv6-8RgcRC-azLd9y-7xtz3u-aTAtj2-feuJQV-fjHeC7-k2ozn2-6cMnqF-dsVdGN-4x6r24-8LapmC-8vEdJA-61brgE-8BfuYM-5d4Lzk-8R2ckF-dk6f6X-51E2jP-7sxzrL-2uEqdj-79UoNJ-eb3Hav-2ZiNUn-qWiHhf-o71fDM-7YtUfV-6ZZ6mp-74YB9W-p7GjhW-4A1fDv-79YeW1-6GiyWz-aCtGsJ-6rtZSk-d8riCu-5uts3R-59RBgc-eXoJDL-7YtUCi-8BiAoL-rb2ZwZ-nvjNYB">sean hobson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ignored recommendations</h2>
<p>More generally, a constant stream of <a href="http://www.inquest.org.uk/index.php/">inquest findings</a>, <a href="http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspections/?post_type=inspection&s&prison-inspection-type=annual-reports">inspectorate</a>, <a href="http://www.ppo.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ACCT_thematic_final_web.pdf">investigation and monitoring</a> reports, and inquiries into prisons from <a href="http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/corston-report-march-2007.pdf">Baroness Corston</a> to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439859/moj-harris-review-web-accessible.pdf">Lord Harris</a>, reveal consistent failings and are able to produce rigorous, evidence-based recommendations to protect the health and safety of prisoners and staff in British jails. </p>
<p>The vast majority of these have been systematically ignored. But the fact remains that this volume of evidence would strongly indicate that in the case of many deaths in prison, management was likely aware of risks to which they failed to respond, a key element of the <a href="http://www.corporateresponsibilitynetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/CCA_guidancecorporatemansluaghte.pdf">senior management failure</a> test under the law.</p>
<p>Many deaths in prison are the result of gross breaches in the duty of care through attitudes, policies and practices woven into the fabric of the prison service. The time is overdue for the CMCHAct to be tested there. This is not to imply that effective reform of prisons can come through the law. In fact, the best way to reduce prison violence is through an explicit policy decision to make prison the last resort of sentencing policy in an effort to massively reduce the prison population. It now stands at a near-record level of 85,000, and England and Wales have the <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Bromley%20Briefings/summer%202016%20briefing.pdf">highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe</a>. </p>
<p>However, a successful prosecution under the Act would provide a powerful, symbolic message that the routine, systematic deaths of those to whom the state and the prison service has a duty of care cannot continue without legal accountability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69729/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Tombs is a trustee of INQUEST </span></em></p>Legislation designed to bring large business to book should be deployed to bring accountability to the cell block.Steve Tombs, Professor of Criminology, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/689502016-11-17T13:33:56Z2016-11-17T13:33:56ZPrison violence is not about staffing: they’ve always been dangerous for prisoners<p>In an attempt to force the hand of the government in negotiations regarding the numbers of prison officers employed in public sector prisons, more than 10,000 prison officers have taken part in a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37984479">24-hour “protest action”</a>.</p>
<p>It is illegal for prison officers to strike, but officers stopped work at midnight on November 15. Prisons went into “lockdown” – operating on skeleton staffing levels. A number of governor-grade staff (operational managers) undertook prison officer duties and many prisoners were left locked in their cells for much of the day. </p>
<p>The Prison Officers Association (POA) called for the action after losing patience with the justice secretary, Liz Truss, regarding a planned meeting to discuss their concerns regarding prison officer safety. According to the <a href="http://www.poauk.org.uk/index.php?press-releases&newsdetail=20161115-2_poa-national-executive-reject-health-safety-proposals">POA press release</a>, the latest offer on prison officer “well-being” was “unacceptable”. The “protest action” was therefore intended to send a message to the government about the importance of engaging immediately in further negotiations so that a “sensible solution” could be reached. </p>
<h2>Fractious relations</h2>
<p>The relationship between the government and POA has traditionally been one of hostility and mistrust – so much so that in 1992 a previous Conservative administration <a href="http://www.poauk.org.uk/index.php?poa-history-in-prisons">tried to abolish the POA</a>. There has, however, been a coincidence of interests and a shared understanding of the problems confronting prisons in the past few months. This unlikely alliance appears to have weakened if not broken down completely in the run-up to the industrial action.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"798440323655548928"}"></div></p>
<p>The government launched a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/15/uk-prison-officers-stage-protest-over-health-and-safety-fears">high court action</a> on the morning of November 15 to stop the “protest action”, with the court ruling the action illegal and that officers should return to work immediately. After some delay, the POA announced the end of the action and that Liz Truss agreed to a meeting. So, the action achieved its goal.</p>
<h2>History of violence</h2>
<p>The POA has <a href="http://www.poauk.org.uk/index.php?press-releases&newsdetail=20161115-10_poa-national-executive-reject-health-safety-proposals">described prisons</a> as “volatile” and “dangerous”. The word “bloodbaths” was also used and this understanding has been influential in shaping political and media debates. Government policies, such as those outlined in the recent white paper <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/565014/cm-9350-prison-safety-and-reform-_web_.pdf">Prison Safety and Reform</a> have reproduced its claims connecting prisoner violence, self-inflicted deaths and prison officer assaults with a decline in prison officer numbers since 2010.</p>
<p>But when the prison is explored in the context of historical evidence, the claims of the POA appear much less convincing. Let us first consider claims that prisons are dangerous places for prison officers. Since 1850, only eight members of prison staff <a href="http://www.europeangroup.org/sites/default/files/Final%20Newsletter%20November%202016.pdf">have been murdered at work</a> in England and Wales. The last prison officer murdered was Derek Lambert in 1965, some 50 years ago. </p>
<p>Official data indicates that, before 2011, recorded incidents of violence against prison officers <a href="http://reference.data.gov.uk/2011-09-30/doc/public-body/national-offender-management-service-noms/unit/offender-safety-rights-and-responsibilities-group">was in decline</a> – there were, on average, only 52 incidents requiring hospital treatment each year. In response, on April 17 2012, the POA asked officers to “always report assaults”. The data cited in the media – by politicians and the recent white paper on prison officer assaults – have been only from 2012 onwards. </p>
<p>Further, before the cuts in prison officer numbers in 2010 there were recorded increases in prisoner violence. For example, from 2000-2009, there was a <a href="http://www.crimlinks.com/news2010/july282010.html">61% increase in prisoner violence</a>. Prisoner violence cannot be explained by staffing levels alone. </p>
<p>It is significant to note with regards to the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37892360">recent disturbances at HMP Bedford</a>, that the largest-ever prison disturbances in England and Wales – at <a href="http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1990/apr/23/prison-riots">Manchester, Bristol and Dartmoor prisons</a> took place in April 1990 – which was when the staff-prisoner ratio was at its lowest-ever: one officer for every 2.3 prisoners. Though this ratio increased to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/565014/cm-9350-prison-safety-and-reform-_web_.pdf">one officer for every 3.6 prisoners in March 2016</a>, this is still much lower than most of the time in the past, where the average for more than a 100 years was <a href="http://www.europeangroup.org/sites/default/files/Final%20Newsletter%20November%202016.pdf">one officer for every six prisoners</a>.</p>
<h2>Prisoner deaths</h2>
<p>Prisoner deaths have also been tied to numbers of prison officers. The POA raised concerns about the recent murder of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/19/pentonville-prison-knife-attack-second-inmate-arrested">Jamal Mahmood in HMP Pentonville</a>, linking this and the record rates of self-inflicted deaths of prisoners to staffing levels. Yet there was no such concern raised by the POA in the past about the racist murders of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3198264.stm">Zahid Mubarek</a> or <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/6667055.stm">Shahid Aziz</a>. </p>
<p>Further the rate of recorded “suicides” in prison has been growing since 1986 – a year when there were <a href="http://www.europeangroup.org/sites/default/files/Final%20Newsletter%20November%202016.pdf">21 recorded suicides</a>. According to the latest figures, released on November 11, there have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/12/staff-shortages-british-prisons-bedford-pentonville-truss">99 self-inflicted deaths</a> in prisons in England and Wales in 2016, the highest number ever recorded. </p>
<p>The problems facing UK prisons today cannot be reduced to reductions in the numbers of staff but rather go back decades, if not centuries. Prisons have always been places of violence, suffering and death for prisoners. This will not be changed simply by employing more prison officers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Scott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Problems in the UK prison system go back decades, if not centuries.David Scott, Senior Lecturer Criminology, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/659212016-09-27T10:29:33Z2016-09-27T10:29:33ZNo wonder prisons are getting more violent, they’re full to the brim<p>Overcrowding, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/05/prison-funding-cuts-are-putting-vulnerable-prisoners-at-risk">staff cuts</a> and a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/17/uk-prison-drug-seizures-on-rise">growing drugs problem</a> have all created a toxic mix in English and Welsh prisons. So it’s hardly surprising there’s been a surge of violence on an unprecedented scale. </p>
<p>In 2015, there was a 31% increase in serious assault incidents in prisons according to a <a href="http://www.ppo.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/PPO-Learning-Lessons-Bulletin_Homicides_issue-12_WEB.pdf">new report</a> from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which examined the murders of six prisoners in 2015-16 in England and Wales. </p>
<p>The crisis in English and Welsh prisons is a longstanding one. In 2014, the then-chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27847007">warned</a> of a “political and policy failure” in prisons. A Prison Reform Trust <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/PressPolicy/News/vw/1/ItemID/217">report</a> showed a system under immense strain with high levels of overcrowding, fewer staff, worsening safety, and fewer opportunities for rehabilitation.</p>
<p>In February 2016, the former prime minister, David Cameron, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prison-reform-prime-ministers-speech">announced</a> a new set of prison reforms with the spotlight firmly on prison education. And although these reforms were welcomed by many, nothing was mentioned about the issues raised by Hardwick. Many reformers believed that the government hadn’t gone far enough. <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/PressPolicy/News/vw/1/ItemID/275">They argue</a> that while education was seen as an essential part of cutting re-offending, it did not solve the ongoing crisis of overcrowding, staff cuts and an increase in violence and homicide.</p>
<p>Following Cameron’s departure from office in June, the new justice secretary Liz Truss refused to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/07/liz-truss-puts-prison-reform-plans-put-on-hold">guarantee to a committee of MPs</a> in September that the reforms would go ahead. </p>
<p>But as politicians hesitate prisons remain in crisis, toxic with drugs and <a href="http://howardleague.org/news/a-prisoner-is-dying-every-day-as-deaths-assaults-and-self-injury-in-prisons-continue-to-rise/">violence, overcrowded</a> and overseen by fewer staff to manage the problem. There are also rapidly growing numbers of old, sick and disabled people in prison aged over 50, with people over 60 the <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/PressPolicy/News/vw/1/ItemID/245">fastest growing age group</a> in the prison population between 2002 and 2014. </p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/10NLt/5/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<h2>Don’t imprison people unnecessarily</h2>
<p>In his report on the recent prison violence, the prison ombudsman reported that while there are lessons to be learned about improving safety after the recent murders, there is no easy solution. Yet it seems to me that there is a course of action that could help alleviate the problem: remove people from prison who don’t need to be there. </p>
<p>In 2012, the system of imprisoning people for their own protection – known as IPP – <a href="http://johnsonastills.com/the-abolition-of-ipps-what-now">was abolished</a>. These prisoners are serving an indefinite sentence of imprisonment for public protection, with no release date – equivalent to a life sentence. But four years after the sentence was scrapped, there are still <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-on-ipp-prisoners-from-parole-board-chairman">around 4,000 IPP prisoners</a> waiting to be released. </p>
<p>In theory, IPP prisoners can stay in prison for the rest of their lives. But such sentences are not reserved for violent crimes – thousands are serving IPP sentences for crimes such as affray, or group fighting. It is unique to England and Wales, which has <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/PressPolicy/News/vw/1/ItemID/279">more than three times</a> as many people in prison serving an indeterminate sentence than France, Germany and Italy. This is partly because the judges who imposed the sentences have worried about possible backlash for releasing someone who “may” commit another violent crime. </p>
<p>But almost every prisoner who received an IPP sentence has now completed their prison term. Despite this <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/28/liz-truss-brave-release-prisoners-indefinite-sentences">they remain uncertain</a> when they will ever be released. </p>
<p>If they had received the equivalent fixed sentence for their offence, all of them would have been released back into the community already which would have decreased the prison population. Understandably, however, some of those who have remained incarcerated may be still deemed to be a risk.</p>
<h2>Crowding in</h2>
<p>In 2015, the Prison Reform trust <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/PressPolicy/News/vw/1/ItemID/279">reported</a>: “An explosion in the use of indeterminate sentences and the increased use of long determinate sentences are key drivers behind the near doubling of prison numbers in the past two decades.”</p>
<p>It explained that changes in prison policy and legislation have had a huge impact of the current surge of overcrowding which has pushed mandatory year-long supervision for short termers, mandatory minimum custodial sentences for those who commit a second offence of knife possession and restrictions of the use of release on temporary licence. Another contributory factor to the growing prison population is an increase in more serious and historic cases such as sexual offences going before courts as more victims of such crimes gain the courage to come forward. </p>
<p>There is also a wider story here about women’s prisons, with the <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/ProjectsResearch/Women">majority</a> of women prisoners locked up for a short period for non-violent offences. Most women in prison have different needs to their male counterparts, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/families-separated-by-bars-the-home-truths-about-sending-mothers-to-prison-56626">being closer to their children and families</a>. Because there are only 13 women’s prisons, visits are much more difficult. </p>
<p>It’s worth acknowledging that even if all the IPP prisoners were to be released it would barely put a dent in the bursting prison population. But the role of prison has become blurred with some residents not needing to be there. Part of the solution to this overcrowding seems clear – but it is not so clear why the government won’t take radical action to rectify it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65921/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Honeywell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One solution: free those remaining people imprisoned for their own protection.David Honeywell, PhD candidate, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.