By H. Daniel Butler, Natasha Frost, Nancy Rodriguez, Melinda Tasca, and Jillian Turanovic

Prison violence is a persistent problem for institutional corrections and the rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals. Estimates suggest that one in three men and one in four women in prison experience physical violence, while over half of correctional staff express fear of serious injury or death while on the job. However, these statistics are likely underreported due to limited data sources and challenges in data collection and reporting. As a result, the true prevalence of prison violence remains uncertain. In response to this pressing issue, with support of Arnold Ventures, the Prison Violence Consortium was established to better understand the scale, scope, and consequences of prison violence. The Consortium brought together researchers and practitioners from seven state correctional systems: Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Through a multi-strategy approach, we collected and analyzed data from a variety of sources, including official records, self-reported data, and interviews from incarcerated persons and correctional staff. A key finding from our work is that, much like the “dark figure of crime” in general society, there is a substantial “dark figure” of prison violence. This discovery underscores that the current practices of documenting and examining prison violence are insufficient, as the majority of prison violence is not reported. Without a national comprehensive strategy to improve the accuracy of how we measure prison violence, efforts to reduce it will be inconsistent and likely ineffective.

Irvine, CA: UC Irvine School of Social Ecology, 2024. 12p.

By Nicholas Shapiro, Terence Keel

The rising number of jail deaths in the United States has left impacted community members, state actors, media, and scholars questioning if these rates are a reflection of the overall declining health of the nation or are due to factors specific to the carceral environment. This fact sheet contributes to this national dialogue through the analysis of autopsies for 58 deaths that occurred in Los Angeles County Jails over a 9-year period. Our study shows that young Black and Latinx men are not dying merely from "natural causes" but from the actions of jail deputies and carceral staff. Our findings support the efforts of community members and lawmakers attempting to reform the cash bail system in Los Angeles County as three quarters of the deaths in our study were individuals held in pre-trial detention. Moreover, our study supports the urgent need to reduce the jail population to expedite the closing of Men’s Central Jail and the potential life saving benefits of jail diversion programs for the people of Los Angeles County. We focus on autopsies because they are fundamental to establishing the causes and manner of death in carceral facilities that have limited public accountability. 

Los Angeles, UCLA Carceral Ecologies Lab, BioCritical Studies Lab, 2022. 9p.

By Hannah Miles Merran McAlister Samantha Bricknell

The National Deaths in Custody Program has monitored the extent and nature of deaths occurring in prison, police custody and youth detention in Australia since 1980. The Australian Institute of Criminology has coordinated the program since its establishment in 1992, the result of a recommendation made the previous year by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. In 2023–24, there were 104 deaths in custody: 76 in prison custody, 27 in police custody or custody-related operations and one in youth detention. In total, there were 24 Indigenous deaths and 80 non-Indigenous deaths in custody. This report contains detailed information on these deaths and compares the findings with longer term trends.

Statistical Report no. 49, Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2024. 59p.

By Julienne Weegels

In this article, I explore how prison riots, large critical incidents of a collective order, emerge, take place, and alter governance relations in place in the Nicaraguan prison system. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted with prisoners and former prisoners of two Nicaraguan prison facilities, I provide a prisoners’ point of view on the political use of violence in prison, particularly during two large prison riots. While authorities often held that prison conditions combined with the “violent attitudes” of prisoners turned prisons into “powder kegs,” such an interpretation does not allow for an understanding of riots as embedded in prison governance structures and conveniently draws the attention away from underlying issues pertaining to the de facto sharing of power in prison in Nicaragua. I argue that by using what has been termed “creative violence,” prisoners attempt to break through the authorities’ imposed regime of public secrecy and draw attention to these issues, forcing authorities to negotiate. Yet, even if riots then function as a catalyst for changes in co-governance arrangements, they do not appear to be geared at permanently damaging or annihilating the existing arrangements but rather at pressuring the authorities hard enough to make compromises and concessions as to the distribution of power in prison.

International Criminal Justice Review, Volume 30, Issue 1, March 2020, Pages 61-82

By Gustavo Fondevila and Carlos Vilalta‑Perdomo

Using a survey applied to incarcerated populations in Latin American countries, this study aims to examine the factors that determine the existence of violence in prisons and explain why some penitentiaries are more violent than others by studying variables such as inmate age, sentence length, and crime type. A quantitative examination is used to determine the efect of these variables on prison violence (property theft and beatings), and whether it is a result of the living conditions within the prisons. The results indicate that the most overpopulated prisons, with the worst living conditions, have the lowest levels of violence (in Brazil and El Salvador). The lower rates of violence observed in certain Latin American prisons appear to be explained by the existence of criminal governments within penitentiary systems, organized and run by a dominant prison gang

International Criminology, (2024) 4:149–165, 17p.

By Laura I Appleman

Profits have long played a critical role in the administration of punishment in America. This Article provides one of the first full-length historical accounts of how the pursuit of private profits has shaped the American carceral system over time. It argues that deriving profits from punishment has been a crucial and formative aspect of American carcerality since our earliest days. Although most scholars have focused on convict leasing in the postbellum era as the first major example of private prison profiteering, this Article shows how a predatory for-profit system of punishment well predates this, originating in the colonial era. The story of American corrections, fully told, reveals four distinct transformative periods over the nearly five-century evolution of American incarceration, ultimately explaining the condition of today’s carceral state. In addition to providing a broader and more complete historical perspective, this Article also explains how the most recent inroads of privatized, for-profit correctional entities have overtaken the contemporary workings of the carceral system, causing chaos, abuse, and death. The Article details the mechanisms through which seeking profits from incarceration has led to objectively worse conditions and outcomes for the punished. Given the now widespread privatization and corporate takeover of so many aspects of the carceral state, from healthcare to food services and beyond, it is well past time to question the role of “Big Capital.” This Article shines a light on the forgotten history of the American carceral crisis, tracing the role of profits from colonial days to the 21st century.

Forthcoming Maryland Law Review

By Lewis Mudge

 In April 2021, a transitional military council headed by Mahamat Idriss Déby took control of Chad following the death of his father, late President Idriss Déby Itno. This triggered demonstrations, including by civil society and opposition party members, to demand a return to civilian rule. The authorities violently cracked down on such protests which culminated on October 20, 2022, when thousands of people demonstrated against an extension of the transitional government by two years. On this day, remembered as “black Thursday,” security forces fired live ammunition at protesters, killing and injuring scores. Hundreds more were detained and transferred to Koro Toro, a high security detention facility managed by the government and located about 600 kilometers north of N’Djamena, the country’s capital, in the desert. Some detainees died en route to Koro Toro, others died in the prison. In “Worse than hell”: Death and Torture at Chad’s Koro Toro Prison, Human Rights Watch documents the serious human rights violations experienced by protesters during their transit from N’Djamena to Koro Toro and in the prison itself. Based on interviews with survivors and witnesses as well as on satellite imagery, it exposes abuses that former detainees, including children, detained in connection to the October 20 protests, faced from the start of their detention until their release. These include forced labor, torture and inhuman treatment and denial of medical treatment, sometimes leading to deaths in custody, as well as arbitrary detention and unfair trials. The report provides insight into the deplorable – and unlawful – prison conditions and management at Koro Toro prison and makes recommendations to Chad and its partners for redress.  

New York: Human Rights Watch, 2024.  98p.