A prison is a correctional facility where criminals are taken to help them reform. The United States records show that about 1.6million- people were incarcerated by 2013, serving their sentences in different federal prisons across the country. Usually, the intention of jailing a criminal is to prevent them from engaging in illegal activities. However, this is not always the case. Whereas prison management is required to maintain a conducive environment for the inmates, violence continues to prevail in both males and female prisons.
Forms of Prison Violence
According to research, prisons in the United States demonstrate that the rate of assault for male inmates compared to female inmates. This illustrates the possibility of prisoners committing criminal actions even within correction facilities (Cochran, 2013). The presence of violence has posted a lot of threats to disciplining inmates. Violence and abuse in prisons take place in different forms.
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The first form of prison violence is murder or manslaughter. Over the past years, many inmates have been reported dead as a result of fights or intentional killings by their fellow inmates. Sexual assault is another form of violence in prisons, where cases of rape among the inmates and as well as prison staffs (McGuire, 2018) . These cases are both in male and females' prisons. An estimate shows that the rate of sexual assault victimization ranges between 5 and 14 per cent of the total number of inmates in a given prison.
Furthermore, about 1.9 per cent of inmates are victims of actual sexual abuse ( Modvig, 2014) . Extreme violence in the form of beating and torture are also witnessed in prisons, in that some prison staff does exercise excessive force to the inmates to the extent of harming and causing significant injuries to them. In some other cases, prisoners torture their fellow inmates by forcing them to give them their food share. As a result of torture, many inmates are reported to be sick in prison hospitals. Suicides cases are also in correctional facilities. Reports indicate that inmates commit suicide in prison cells using any existing materials such as clothes and belts (McGuire, 2018) . These challenges call for a need to adopt effective ways to address these violence issues and ensure that inmates get a conducive environment while serving their sentences.
Causes of Prison Violence
All these forms of violence in prisons are attributed to many contributing factors. One cause of prison violence is poor management of prisons. Lack of proper control and management in correctional facilities can result in adverse consequences, especially to the victims. For instance, cases, where prison wardens cooperate with inmates to bring contraband goods and items, contribute to violence as prisoners always use the items brought against them. Moreover, the use of drugs by prisoners, brought in through illegal ways, contributes to violence due to the harmful effects of drugs ( Alper & Glaze, 2019) .
Another cause of prison violence is gang-related actions. A gang refers to a group of inmates organized based on their states, age color, and friendship with a common goal inside and outside the prison. Some prisons in the United States are known as places where snitches are killed or assaulted by fellow inmates because he or she supplied information to prison wardens. Other incidences of prison violence are inbuilt, which means that an inmates' personality, discipline, and character is predisposed to crime, hence tending to lousy behavior . Lack of enough prison facilities can lead to violence since most inmates would need to fight for limited space, clothing, and even food. According to the criminal justice report of the department of prison, mental illness among inmates contributes to prison violence. An inmate who is mentally ill is more likely to cause disturbance than a prisoner incarcerated for criminal offenses. Furthermore, these mentally ill prisoners have terrible life experiences linked to fights and excessive drinking. They have a higher chance of getting drug influences compared to other inmates ( Alper & Glaze, 2019) .
The criminal justice community needs to develop strategies to reduce cases of abuse and violence in prison as well as their impacts on the prisoners. Essentially, it is crucial for the department to develop rules that enhance the wellbeing of prisoners in concern of violence. The other way of preventing violence is by separating inmates according to gender, age, and offense committed, religion, even behavioral characteristics. Inmate's knowns of committing violence should be segregated from their group and cells. The development of programs for prisoners is another best way to keep them busy and occupied enough not to engage in crimes.
Educational programs will keep those who are willing to study busy, thus not be able to involve themselves in violence. Research demonstrates that prisons that have well planned educational and vocational activities cases have recorded a reduction of prison violence over time. The other way is the development of situational prevention plans. These plans include the provision of enough facilities such single cells to avoid overcrowding and personal space for inmates, especially for hardcore criminals (Thomson, nd). The criminal justice community should also ensure that prisons with less staff should provide with well-trained staff to deal with inmates. Besides, to reduce prison violence in prison, the criminal justice community should work together with the counselors so that they can organize frequent motivation visits to prisons. Counselors help to identify people with mental issues that might cause them to be violent.
Conclusion
In the United States, violence continues to prevail in prisons. As a result, many inmates are tortured, assaulted, and even killed. There are many other forms of violence in prisons, which include cases of sexual assault and suicide, among others. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the criminal justice community to recognize that inmates still needs to be safe in their prison cells. It should serve its goals as a correctional facility, not a place of violence. For this reason, the criminal justice community should address these problems through the development of education and vocational activities for inmates will significantly help in reducing prison violence alongside the provision of proper training to prison staff. Implementation of these recommendation change condition of prison and consider the welfare of all the inmates across the country.
Reference
Alper, M., & Glaze, L. (2019). Source and Use of Firearms Involved in Crimes: Survey of Prison Inmates, 2016 . US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
McGuire, J. (2018). Understanding prison violence: A rapid evidence assessment. Analytic Summary .
Modvig, J. (2014). 4. Violence, sexual abuse, and torture in prisons. Prisons and Health , 19.
Thomson, E. What Are the Causes of Prison Violence? https://legalbeagle.com/8012878-activities-prison.html
