Prison gangs in Iran: Between violence and safety

Nahid Rahimipour Anaraki

doi:10.1177/26326663211005250

Abstract

This article aims to bridge the gap in our knowledge about Iranian prisons and the sociodynamic relations that animate them by illuminating the characteristics and activities of prison gangs in Iran. The interaction between gang affiliation and drug networks, security and violence will be discussed in detail. The in-depth qualitative research, which is informed by grounded theory, serves as the first academic study of gangs in Iranian prisons. Research participants included 38 males and 52 females aged 10–65 years. They were recruited in several different settings, both governmental and non-governmental organizations. The study employed theoretical sampling and in-depth, semi-structured interviewing. Results show that gang-affiliated inmates in Iranian prisons gain monopoly over the drugs market inside prison networks, which leads to inevitable extortion of both prisoners and correctional officers. Gang affiliation blurs the lines between violence and safety, while providing a sense of identity, belonging and financial and emotional support. Prison gang membership also offers some benefits to prisoners and staff, as their existence underpins an informal social order that can be used to govern prisoners. The article discusses this less well-known and unexplored dimension of the topic.

Highlights

Mass incarceration and a lack of solitary confinement usage have resulted in enforced proximity, an overarching inmate culture and a narrowing of the ability to avoid unwanted interactions
Almost all the gangs in prison are named after a borough in the city; for example, there is a district north of Isfahan called
This article represents the first investigation of gangs in Iranian prisons, and it sheds light on the activities and functions of Iranian prison gangs

Summary

Introduction

Mass incarceration and a lack of solitary confinement usage have resulted in enforced proximity, an overarching inmate culture and a narrowing of the ability to avoid unwanted interactions. These factors, in turn, increase the possibility of gang involvement during incarceration (Irwin, 1980; Stevens, 1997). Jurisdictions, as the number of gang-affiliated inmates is increasing around the world. In 2011, approximately 9.96% of offenders under the responsibility of the Correctional Service in Canada were gang-affiliated, which poses several challenges in terms of drug distribution, power struggles among gangs and the prevalence of violence, extortion and intimidation (MacKenzie, 2012). After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Iranian prison population increased from 14,019 in 1980 to 296,565 in 1986 (Abdi, 2011), or from 118 prisoners per 100,000 total population in 1988, to 232 prisoners per 100,000 in 2010, to 294 per 100,000 in 2018 (World Prison Brief, 2018). The increasing number of incarcerated people in Iran is due to the perception of imprisonment as a substitute to other types of punishment (e.g. flogging), the increase of the severity of laws relating to some crimes (e.g. drug-related crimes) and the growing number of political prisoners

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Results

Conclusion