Prison Violence

Incarceration rates rose to unprecedented levels in the history of the U.S.’s imprisonment. Therefore, concern about social control of the incarcerated, that is, prisoners’ behavior, has increased. High inmate disciplinary infractions, especially violent infractions, are a threat to the safety of prison, of correctional staff, and of other inmates. Nevertheless, the issue of discipline in prison is important from an economic perspective, because an estimated average cost per infraction at a medium security prison is $970 (Jiang & Fisher-Giorlando, 2002). For these reasons, Jiang & Fisher- Giorlando conducted a research to help explain violent incidents, incidents against correctional staff and incidents against other inmates in prison. Identifying the risk factors of inmates to commit violent acts of misconduct is of great importance to prison administration. This type of research can assist in the classification process of inmates entering institutions as well as the ongoing classification adjustments of inmates already in custody. This study will identify and investigate factors for violent institutional misconduct. These factors include; however, are not limited to race, age, education and employment, family ties, length of sentence, security level, prison environment and gender.
The hypotheses of this study are: 1. Violent prison misconduct is more prevalent among African-American and Hispanic inmates than Caucasians or any other ethnic group. 2. Inmates who are residing in maximum-security facilities are more violent than inmates residing in medium or minimum-security facilities, especially towards correctional staff.

Literature Review

Race

Several studies were conducted to examine the role of race in inmate adjustment process and prison misconduct, especially prison violence. There were indications that there is a direct relationship between race and violent prison misconduct. Those findings support theories such as prison

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