Effects of Prison Crowding on Prison Misconduct and Bullying

As prison populations rise rapidly in many countries worldwide (Walmsley 2015 ), the effect of incarceration on prisoners’ well- being has become an urgent social concern (Murray, Farrington & Sekol 2012 ). Prison misconduct and violence, including bullying and violence amongst prisoners, are one of the greatest threats to prisoners’ mental health and behavior, decreasing prisoners’ chances of successful rehabilitation and reintegration back into the community. Since more than 90% of all prisoners will be released back to their communities eventually (Levan 2012 ), getting “smart on crime” requires minimizing the negative effects of imprisonment and providing opportunities for prisoner rehabilitation (Woolf 1991 ). It is hard to imagine, however, how effective rehabilitation can take place in an environment where violence seems to be the norm rather than the exception. In the UK, the prevalence of bullying occurring on a monthly basis is as high as 74% in some studies, while the prevalence of victimization is around 80% (e.g. Ireland & Ireland 2008 ; Turner & Ireland 2010 ). In Canada, the prevalence of weekly victimization is 73%, while the prevalence of bullying is 58% (Ireland & Power 2012 ). In Croatia, the weekly prevalence of victimization and bullying is 55% and 40% respectively (Sekol, Vidranski, & Jolliffe, 2021).

The importance placed on establishing and maintaining prison order and safety has generated numerous studies of the causes and correlates of prison misconduct (Steiner, Butler & Ellison 2014 ). Following the above- mentioned rapid increases in incarceration rates in many countries, one of the most often examined environmental predictors of either violent or non- violent prison misconduct over the past four decades has been prison crowding. However, although the intuitive hypothesis would be that crowding and prison misconduct are positively related, the results of primary studies examining these relationships have been conflicting.

The main aims of this chapter are to: (1) summarize the evidence about the relationship between prison crowding and prison misconduct, including bullying among prisoners; (2) discuss different methods of measuring prison crowding, misconduct and bullying as well as whether taking account of differing methodology allows for more robust summaries of the results of the existing studies; (3) identify the gaps in knowledge and propose guidance for future research. Section 1 provides an overview of the causes and context of rapid increases in prison populations in many countries. Section 2 defines prison crowding and discusses its prevalence and methods for collecting the data about it. Section 3 does the same for prison misconduct and bullying. Section 4 gives a brief overview of theoretical models that are used to explain prison misconduct, including bullying. Section 5 summarizes evidence about the effects of prison crowding on prison misconduct and bullying, while Section 6 identifies the gaps in knowledge and proposes guidance for future research. Because of space limitations, we do not attempt to review the effect of prison crowding on recidivism (see e.g. Farrington & Nuttall 1980 ).