In light of the 'Prison Crisis', what are the explanations of, and solutions to, violence within prison?

Introduction

Prisons within England and Wales are at a crisis point. Violence and self-harm incidents are at a record high and are increasing with no decline in sight (Bulman, 2018:1). Recent statistics state that "in the 12 months to December 2017, there were just under 29,500 prisoner assault incidents within prisons" (Sturge, 2018:14). This is a "13% increase compared to December 2016 and a 44% increase from December 2015" (Sturge, 2018:14). The causality of these increases in violence cannot be fully explained in the context of just one particular event or problem and requires new research to fully explore the causes of this increasing violence. For many years, researchers have attempted to explain prison violence through an array of different theoretical ideas. However most empirical research on prison violence has been conducted in the United States (McGuire, 2018). Thus, there is a need for empirical work into prison violence in England and Wales, to gain a greater understanding of the underlying causes of the current crisis.

Gaps in Existing Literature

The framework that this research will be using has been developed by Blevins et al (2010) but has yet to be empirically tested in English and Welsh prisons. The framework uses aspects of Agnew's (1992, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2009) General Strain Theory (GST) as an explanation of prison violence and misconduct (Blevins et al, 2010). However, Blevins et al's (2010) recent framework has the capability to integrate three different types of models into Agnew's GST, which is a unique approach as these models have previously been understood to compete against each other. These models are "the deprivation model", "the importation model" and "the coping model" (Blevins et al, 2010:148); and all three have been used individually to understand prison misconduct and violence. The pains inflicted through deprivation are understood to have a profound effect on the individual's psychological state, thus affecting the inmate's behaviour and potentially leading to deviant acts within prison (Sykes, 1971). The importation model argues that an individual's behaviour and attitudes are not solely shaped by the prison environment, instead inmates bring their own developed characteristics and potential violent tendencies into their allocated prison (Irwin and Cressey, 1962). Lastly, the coping model argues that without the provided means to cope with prison life, deviant behaviour and violence can emerge (Toch 1977 cited in Blevins et al, 2010). The GST framework attempts to incorporate many different factors that can lead to prison violence into one cohesive model (Blevins et al, 2010). For example, looking into the strain that prisoners feel, when they are denied positively valued goals such as prison programmes or frequent visitations (Blevins et al, 2010). If these services are insufficient or are difficult to access, then prisoners can be left feeling frustrated with the prison institution, potentially leading them to inflict violence as a means of retaliation (Blevins et al, 2010). There are a variety of ways that prisoners attempt to cope with the strains of imprisonment (Blevins et al, 2010). For example, some inmates decide to cope by deviant means such as joining a gang, which has the negative effect of individuals adopting anti-social behaviour (Blevins et al, 2010). However, the most important aspect of this newly designed framework is that it has been designed to understand the underlying causes of prison violence, which is imperative if we wish to have a significant impact on the growing epidemic of inmate violence in English and Welsh prisons (Blevins et al, 2010).