Self-governing prisons: Prison gangs in an international perspective

Abstract

This paper finds qualified support for the use of Skarbek's (2011, 2014) governance theory to understand the emergence of prison gang-like groups in Kyrgyzstan, Northern Ireland and Brazil. However, Skarbek's (2011, 2014) governance theory has little to say about how many prison gangs emerge and how they organise comparatively outside the US context. This paper argues that variation in the number of gangs and their monopolization of informal governance can only be explained by considering importation and deprivation theories alongside governance theories. These theories factor in variation in prison environments and pre-existing societal divisions imported into prison, which affect the costs on information transmission and incentives for gang expansion. In particular, the paper pays attention to the wider role social and political processes play in influencing whether monopoly power by prison gangs is supported and legitimized or not.

Minority gangs in Singapore prisons: Prisonisation revisited

“…Set against the context of a racialised, postcolonial society this research seeks to examine the emergence of Omega, a prison gang comprising solely of ethnic minority Malays (hereafter gangs constituting ethnic minority members will be referred to as ‘minority gangs’) and explores how its members negotiate their racial, religious, gendered and gang identities while navigating the contours of racialisation and racism manifesting in complex and contradictory ways in prisons. That the pertinence of race affiliation, particularly among minority groups, has been noted in other prison contexts (Butler, Slade, & Dias, 2018; Pyrooz & Decker, 2011), but it finds a different trajectory in Singapore. As a multi-ethnic settler society, racialised gangs have historically been entrenched in Singapore since colonial rule not just in prisons but also in the streets (Turnbull, 1996).…”

“…Skarbek’s ‘governance model’ explaining the rise in prison gangs, for instance, finds some convergence in the Singapore context. Specifically, the growth of drug offending prisoners, and the exponential increase in the prison population from the early 1990s where there had been an 180% increase in the prisoner population from 5476 to 15,334 (Walmsley, 2019) would arguably have impinged on the clarity of prison norms, resulting in an unregulated inmate system, and the rise of prison gangs to fill the void, as noted elsewhere (Butler et al., 2018). Fong (1990) and Buentello et al.…”

“…This synthesis position, borne through much empirical work, reflects Jacob’s (1979) assertion made back in the late 1970s that ‘it is possible both to speak of prisoners as a class or group and, at the same time, to recognize this class to be internally fragmented’ (p. 21). As Butler et al. (2018) note, the emphasis on both pre-existing divisions in society and prison environments help explain variation in the dynamics of prison gang formation and their respective capacities to monopolise informal governance in prisons.…”

Caminho sem volta? Faces da expansão do PCC a Minas Gerais

“…Diversos estudos apontaram que as políticas de encarceramento em massa, somadas à superlotação prisional e a outras violações de direitos, formaram campo fértil ao nascimento de organizações criminais, como o pcc (Barbosa, 2005;Butler et al, 2018;Lourenço e Almeida, 2013;Feltran, 2018;Dias, 2011). Muitos desses grupos se originaram nos cárceres, em boa medida com o intuito de criar disciplina e solidariedade entre as pessoas presas.…”

“The Criminal Actors Have a Social Base in Their Communities”: Gangs and Service Provision in Medellín, Colombia

“…Recent research has analyzed governance practices of gangs in state-run environments, such as prisons (Butler et al 2018;Johnson and Densely 2018;Lessing and Willis 2019;Skarbek 2014Skarbek , 2016. In these environments, the state may be weak, but it is far from absent.…”