Violence in Jails: Examining Assaults on Corrections Officers

• In Event: The Effects of Prison Culture on Correctional Staff

Abstract

The conditions and collateral consequences of mass incarceration within the United States has brought corrections research into the forefront among scholars in a variety of disciplines. Despite the fact that jails and prisons serve distinct purposes within the criminal justice system, these two types of facilities are broadly conceptualized as one unit of confinement. Jails serve as short-term holding facilities for a diverse group of detainees and are studied less often than their more permanent counterparts, prisons. The inherent nature of prison and jail environments make them ill suited for identical analysis. There has been a substantial amount of research concerning inmate-on-inmate violence within the corrections system. However, there has been considerably less exploration on the contributing factors of inmate-on-staff violence, especially within jails. Factors that contribute to incidents of violence within prisons and jails may differ as a result of their innate dissimilarities. Using nationwide, aggregate-level data, this study examines factors that may impact inmate-on-staff assault within jail facilities. Limitations, research implications and future considerations will also be discussed.

Author

• TaLisa J. Carter, University of Delaware