Violent Behavior

Melissa McCullough

Professor Fox

Week 8 Day 2

Violent Behavior

Write a 200- to 300-word response in which you describe some of the reasons for violent behavior in prisons. Include the following components:

Violent behavior among prisoners

Violent behavior between inmates and staff

Strategies for responding to violent behavior

How violent behavior affects incarceration length

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Violent behavior in prisons is any behavior which, through its use or intended use, causes or could cause harm to another individual.   Some of the violent behavior comes from bullying within the prisons, Physical abuse, such as throwing a blanket over a prisoners head and kicking them, Practical jokes, Intimidation or threats, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, gossip, and spreading rumors.

There are many theories on how to control violent behavior in prison, but the ones that seem to have the most success involve segregating the violent individuals away from the rest of the population. This option is very expensive, does nothing to prepare the inmate for re-entry into society, and is only partially successful at limiting the violence of these inmates.  Instead of preying on inmates in general population, they now turn their violent tendencies on each other, and the staff.

Violent behavior between inmates and staff can go both ways, the staff can start the behavior by encouraging the inmates to fight or hang themselves, spreading rumors about inmates. Inmates can cause it because some may not like the physical force that the staff has to use when the inmate is doing something wrong, they will do it because sometimes it is just in their blood that’s why they are there in the first place. Inmates also can see the staff as a physical threat to them. Some inmates use aggressive or disruptive behavior to cope with the traumatic stress of being in prison. These inmates are repeatedly sent to segregation units as punishment. Racism among inmates to...