Ana Arche

CJ 1010
Term Paper
Prison Violence

Prison violence is a daily occurrence due to the diverse inmates with varied criminal

backgrounds that penitentiaries house. The three different types of attacks are inmate on inmate,

inmate on guard, and self-inflicted. These attacks can either be impulsive and spontaneous or

well-planned out and premeditated.

Prison is different than jail, for this reason we see the difference in the way the police

treat people in jail and how they treat those who are in prison. The main difference is that they

are watched a lot closer, they are controlled and have even less freedom. This is a huge reason

for collective violence in prisons. In 1971 there was a huge outbreak of violence between the

police and the prisoners of Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

(1) Prisoners riot and seize control of the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility

near Buffalo, New York. Later that day, state police retook most of the prison, but 1,281 convicts

occupied an exercise field called D Yard, where they held 39 prison guards and employees

hostage for four days. After negotiations stalled, state police and prison officers launched a

disastrous raid on September 13, in which 10 hostages and 29 inmates were killed in an

indiscriminate hail of gunfire. Eighty-nine others were seriously injured.

This has been the described as a turning point in American corrections history. This also

led to the change in how prison guards and prisoners interact and the security level. They would

not like this horrific event to repeat itself. There were demands, and some actually came through,
these improvements included better living conditions such as better food and more programs for

them to not live like beasts and be treated with human rights. This was not the only outburst that

has happened in the past 50 years. There have been numerous riots and increased violence, some

bigger than others.

There are different ranks and duties for correction officers in the prisons. (Gains Ch.14,

pg 473, 2013) Correction officers work in various parts in and out of prison, they have jobs such

as Work detail supervisors, industrial shop and school officers, Yard officers and Tower guards.

These jobs and special assignments can be dangerous, as we can see with the story I just told.

Correction officers are try not use force and would rather live by the rule of treating each other

nicely but that is not always the case and officers must use force. The times they have to use

force is when they are acting in self-defense, acting to defend another person, upholding the rules

of the institution, preventing a crime such as assault, destruction of property or theft, and last but

not least preventing an escape effort.

Female correctional officers and prisoners are a different story. For many years they did

not want to hire female correction officers in mens prisons. They didnt think that they were

strong enough physically in cases any of the prisoners wanted to hurt them. But when they

finally let women work in mens correction centers they proved them wrong, not only were they

able to keep the prisons from fighting but they also brought a sense of peace in the facility.

Helping them feel calm brought a decrease in violent outbreaks in the prisons.

Women prisoners face a different challenge while they are in prison. The facilities, are

built primarily to accommodate men, and they havent changed to provide the supplies and

support women are in need of. They are very different from what the needs of men are. Many

women behind bars are victims of sexual trauma or suffer from mental health challenges or
substance abuse, and many prison staffers, including most of the security guards, arent

appropriately trained or even told how to deal with these problems. Women are entering prisons

that are programmed for men even though their needs are entirely different, Holly Harris, the

executive director of the Justice Action Network, told Motto.

Female inmates are different in many ways than men inmates, there is approximately a

difference of nine to one and there are only a hundred womens facilities in the United States.

Female offenders are much less likely than male offenders to have committed a violent offense

such as murder or rape. But that does not exempt them from committing those crimes. Most are

incarcerated for a nonviolent drug problem or some sort of property crime. But most are still

treated like they have committed something horrendous and are put in the same cells as others

who really have committed a serious crime.

Referring back to the prison guards and staff that are not trained to deal or help with

some of the trauma that these women prisoners have. The stats on women who have a mental

disorder is 25 percent. These mental disorders include PTSD, depression and substance abuse.

Problems with staff members who do not understand is high in these facilities and there needs to

be something done about changing how these locations work.

There is a big responsibility also to protect the rights of those people who are in prison.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party

shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, nor any place subject to their

jurisdiction. Here we can see that they do have rights but they do not have all the rights that all

other Americans enjoy. Also under the fourth Amendment it is alright for the staff to do arbitrary

searches of inmates cells because they have no reasonable expectation of privacy. (Gains Chap

14, pg. 477, 2013)

 Sexual Violence in prison is real and there are people in prison who are exposed to and

experience sexual violence inside prisons, further exposing them to communicable diseases and

trauma. The consequences of sexual violence then follows the individual into the community

upon their release. Sexual violence inside prison is an urgent public health issue needing

targeted interventions to prevent and ameliorate its health and social consequences, which

spatially concentrate in poor inner-city areas where these individuals ultimately return.

(Fishman Jf)

Sexual force is a serious and devastating offence that can occur in correctional facilities.

The most brutal forms of sexual assaultsuch as rape (sometimes happening to the same victim

on a daily basis for years) and gang rapecan cause permanent physical, psychological,

emotional, social, and sexual problems and even death of the victim; but once sexually assaulted,

the victim is likely to be repeatedly targeted this causes the victim to feel at loss of social status,

perceived weakness, and vulnerability. Sometimes the victim even reacts by becoming a sexual

aggressor, and continues on with the vicious circle and possibly carrying it out of prison and into

external society.

Prison violence in the United States are over the roof, there is findings that suggest that

poor prison management is a predictor of rates of assault toward inmates and staff. However, the

likelihood of prison riots is largely independent of structural, managerial, and environmental

factors. The present study used data from 371 state prisons and measures of both individual and

collective violence and attempted to identify the structural, managerial, and environmental

determinants of prison disorder. Camp, George M. and Camille G. Camp. 1991. Corrections

Yearbook. South Salem, NY: Criminal Justice Institute.

 A federal inmate is charged with murder for allegedly killing his cellmate at the

Lewisburg federal penitentiary in October 2015. A grand jury indictment on a single count of

murder was filed Thursday by the U.S. Attorneys Office against Jose Hernandez-Vasquez, 57.

Hernandez-Vasquez is accused of strangling 57-year-old Gerardo Arche-Felix with a bed sheet

on Oct. 14, 2015.The maximum penalty for first-degree murder is the death penalty or life in

prison and a $250,000 fine. Arche-Felixs death was investigated by the Federal Bureau of

Investigation and the Bureau of Prisons Special Investigative Service, according to the office of

U.S. Attorney Bruce Brandler. Assistant United States Attorney Geoffrey W. MacArthur is the

assigned prosecutor.

A press release issued by the prison at the time of Arche-Felixs death said he was

involved in an altercation at 3:20 a.m. He was pronounced dead about one hour later at an

unidentified Valley hospital. Hernandez-Vasquez is held at the federal penitentiary in

Springfield, Mo., according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons online inmate locator.

The reason why I chose this topic for my term paper was because It hits a very hurt spot

in my life and in the life of my family. Prison violence does not just lead to trauma and other

health problems. Prison violence can lead to death, death of a family member a friend or

someone you know. My uncle was in prison for turning himself into the police for crossing the

border illegally. He was placed in the same cell with a murder. How is this okay? There needs to

be a change in how facilities that hold convicts separate their prisoners. I lost a loved one to

prison violence but we dont need to see more people lose those who they love in the same

manner.
References

Wikipedia contributors. "Prison violence." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 May. 2017. Web. 21 Jul. 2017

"Riot at Attica prison." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 17

July 2017. (1)

"Jails Weren't Built for Women. Here's Why That's a Problem - Motto." Time.

Time, n.d. Web. 21 July 2017.

Fishman JF. Sex in Prison: Revealing Sex Conditions in America's Prisons. New

York: National Library Press; 1934.

Dumond, R. W. (2003). Confronting Americas most ignored crime problem: The

prison rape elimination act of 2003. Journal of the American Academy of

Psychiatry and the Law, 31, 354-360

http://www.dailyitem.com/news/local_news/inmate-charged-with-murder-at-

lewisburg-penitentiary/article_c0a97843-ac3a-565d-98b2-abdd902e3011.html