Abstract
Violence is common in prison and its individual risk factors are well documented. However, there is a mixed evidence on the relationship between prison violence and institutional factors, such as overcrowding and turnover, and recent research suggested that these factors may not be important or relevant. This study investigated the association between prison violence and institutional factors in a Swiss pre-trial prison between 2013 and 2018. Measures included violence (assaults requiring immediate medical attention) as well as the annual overcrowding and turnover rates. Using a meta-regression, the results showed that prison violence was higher when overcrowding and turnover increased. Overall, our study highlighted that institutional prison factors might have notable detrimental effects on prison life. Reduction of prison overcrowding and turnover appear critical to reduce prisoners’ vulnerability. Turning prison into safe places designed to promote desistance would probably not be achievable without considering these crucial factors.
Highlights
Prison overcrowding, when the number of prisoners exceeds the prison capacity, is an important concern worldwide
There was a meta-analytic percentage of 8.5% of assaults requiring immediate medical attention
This percentage ranged between previous estimates, from 0.8% for assaults classified as violent misconduct in official prison reports [9] to 23.5% of assaults classified as disciplinary offences in official prison reports [10]
Summary
Prison overcrowding, when the number of prisoners exceeds the prison capacity, is an important concern worldwide. In a recent empirical study, Fazel, Ramesh & Hawton [3] underscored the importance of individual over institutional factors. In their multicentric study conducted in 24 high-income countries, there was no significant association between prison suicide and two major institutional factors, namely overcrowding and turnover. These findings resulted in a call to focus on individual and relevant ecological factors [3]. This mixed evidence applies to prison violence: A metaanalysis to conclude that future policies should focus on “more important predictors” than overcrowding to predict (violent) misconduct (6, p. 409), even if overcrowding has long been described as a potential risk for prison violence [7]
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