POLSCI 329S Chapter Notes - Chapter All: Prison Gang, Krystyna Skarbek, Social Dilemma
11 May 2018
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Politics of Violence
Reading Notes – How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System (David Skarbek)
- Departs from two widely accepted theories of understanding the prison social order
o Deprivation theory: prison social order is the direct result of the pains of imprisonment, which
entails deprivation of liberty, goods and services, heterosexual relationships, autonomy, and
security
o Importation theory: understanding prison social order requires understanding of pre-prison
experiences and beliefs
- Norms are not rigid – rather, they emerge to help people coordinate social interactions
o Need to understand how prison norms solve the problems in prison
o Deprivation theory tends to downplay or ignore the deprivation of governance institutions
creates a dependence on extralegal governance institutions
▪ Prison gangs provide such extralegal governance when inmates have a demand for it and
official governance mechanisms are ineffective
- Prison gang: inmate organization that operates within a prison system, that has a corporate entity, exists
into perpetuity, and whose membership is restrictive, mutually exclusive, and often requires a lifetime
commitment
o Elaborate written constitutions
o Well-defined goals
o Structured internal organization
o Involvement in criminal activity both in prison and on the streets
o Restriction of membership to one ethnic/racial group
o Emerged after 1950s
- One of the reasons why inmates seek alternative forms of governance is because they cannot always rely
on the guards
- Prisoners’ social dilemma – to be bound by loyalty or act only self-interested?
o Correctional officers have limited resources
o Correctional officers may shirk their responsibilities or be inexperienced
o Correctional officers often have histories of misconduct – sent to prisons to keep them away
from the public
- Contraband markets – important sphere for self-governance
o For contraband markets to work, a large share of these goods must enter the inmate social system
as the result of illicit conniving against the officials, which often requires lengthy and extensive
cooperation and trust
o People become increasingly cooperative when they interact repeatedly – benefits of future
interactions constrain one’s bad behavior in the present
o Not necessarily cooperative, strategies are chosen based on their focal choices (a choice that
seems national, special, or relevant)
o Allow people to choose to live with those they trust – incentivizes them to establish good
reputations
- Inmates use two alternative sources of governance – NORMS and ORGANIZATIONS
NORMS
- Punishment is decentralized
- Norm-guided governance is inexpensive
ORGANIZATION
- Organizations delineate the behaviors that one may, must, or must not do
- Generate mechanisms for information transmission and enforcement
- Convict code – basic set of prison norms – enables norm-based coordination
- Inmates’ social ranking largely dependent on the extent to which inmates adhere to the convict code
o Social hierarchy also determined by pre-prison criminal career
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Document Summary
Reading notes how prison gangs govern the american penal system (david skarbek) One of the reasons why inmates seek alternative forms of governance is because they cannot always rely on the guards. Inmates use two alternative sources of governance norms and organizations. Organizations delineate the behaviors that one may, must, or must not do. Generate mechanisms for information transmission and enforcement. Convict code basic set of prison norms enables norm-based coordination. Inmates" social ranking largely dependent on the extent to which inmates adhere to the convict code: social hierarchy also determined by pre-prison criminal career. Methods of punishment: gossip, ostracism, violence. Norms and the convict code effectively organized prisons until the 1950s. After 1950s, prisons became more violent and more people were willing to violate the convict code. 1970s: norms stopped working: increase in the number of inmates, increase in the number of inmates who had not served prior prison sentences, increased diversity, younger.
