Prison riot

Prison mutiny redirects here. For the 1943 American film directed by Phil Rosen, see You Can't Beat the Law.

The aftermath of the 1988 riots at Fremantle, Western Australia.

A prison riot is an act of concerted defiance or disorder by a group of prisoners against the prison administrators, prison officers, or other groups of prisoners in attempt to force change or express a grievance.

Prison riots have received little academic attention. The papers that do exist tend to draw a connection between prison conditions (such as overcrowding) and riots,^[1][2][3] or discuss the dynamics of the modern prison riot.^[4][5] In addition, a large proportion of papers focus on specific cases of prison riots.^[6][7][8]

Prison conditions

In the late 20th Century the conceptualization of explanations put forward to account for prison disturbances and riots has changed. Initially the actions by prisoners were viewed as irrational. Nevertheless, there is a shift in the form of explanation as external conditions like overcrowding are put forward by the authorities to interpret the events.^[9]

List of notable prison riots

1940s

• Alcatraz Island, California, May 1946 - 5 killed

1950s

• 1959 Montana State Prison Riot, 16 April 1959 - 18 April 1959 - 3 people killed

1960s

• Pulau Senang, Singapore, 12 July 1963 - 4 prison officers killed.

1970s

• Attica Prison riots, 1971 - 43 killed
• Kingston Penitentiary riots, 1971 - 2 inmates killed
• Oklahoma State Penitentiary Riot, July 1973 - lasted an entire weekend, 3 inmates killed; 24 buildings were damaged and only 4 buildings were left usable.
• Idaho State Penitentiary Riots, 1972-1973, 1 inmate killed; many buildings destroyed,

1980s

• New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot, 1980 - 33 killed, over 100 injured
• Dick Conner Correctional Center Riot, December 1983^{[citation needed]}
• Oklahoma State Penitentiary "Disturbance", December 1985 - Held a unit for a day.
• West Virginia State Penitentiary Riot]], January 1-3 1986 -
• Fremantle prison riot, 1988
• Michoacán, Mexico, July 1988 - 10 killed, 15 injured
• Atlanta Prison Riots, November, 1987

1990s

• Strangeways Prison riot, April 1990 - 1 inmate killed, 194 injured (147 prison officers, 47 inmates)
• Southport Correctional Facility, New York, June 29, 1990 - 27 people injured
• 1992 Carandiru Massacre, São Paulo, Brazil, October 1992 - 111 inmates killed
• Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, Easter Sunday, 1993 - 9 inmates killed, 1 corrections officer

2000s

• Iquique, Chile, May 2001 - at least 28 inmates killed, up to 150 injured
• El Porvenir prison, Honduras, April 2003 - 86 inmates killed
• Camp Bucca, Iraq, January 2005 - 4 inmates killed, 6 injured
• Pavon/Granja Pino Canada/El Hoyon prisons, Guatemala, August 2005 - 35 killed
• San Quentin State Prison, California, January 2006 - at least 25 injured
• Kabul, Afghanistan, February 2006
• North County Correctional Facility, Castaic, California, February 2006 - 1 inmate killed, over 100 injured
• New Castle Correctional Facility Riot, New Castle, Indiana, 24 April 2007^[10]
• Santa Ana prison in San Cristobal, Tachira Venezuela, December 2007 - 30 inmates killed
• Ciudad Juárez riots, March 2009 - 20 killed
• 2009 Northpoint Training Center riot in Danville, Kentucky, August 21, 2009 - 80 inmates involved, 5 buildings burned down.

2010s

• El Manzano prison riot following the 2010 Chile earthquake, February 28, 2010.
• Prison riots Chiang Mai, Thailand, April 30, 2010
• Prison riots in Igoumenitsa, Greece, May 1, 2010
• Ford Open Prison, West Sussex, United Kingdom, January 1, 2011.
• Prison riots in Antofagasta, Chile, February 20, 2011
• Apodaca prison riot, February 12, 2012

Gulag uprisings

• Norilsk uprising, May 1953 - strike
• Vorkuta uprising, July 1953 - 66 killed
• Kengir uprising, May 1954 - 37 killed (Official Soviet figure), 500-700 killed (Prisoner provided figure)

List of fictional prison riots

The following is a list of prison riots which have been depicted in various forms of media, including books, film, and television.

• The riot at Fox River that occurred during Prison Break's first season's two-part episode "Riots, Drills, and the Devil".
• Network Ten created a TV series called Prisoner (Prisoner Cell Block H in some countries), a show set in a prison in Melbourne, this had multiple riots through the series run.
• Multiple riots occurred in the television series Oz during its six season run.
• In The Simpsons episode "The Homer They Fall", a prison riot in progress is halted instantly when imprisoned champion boxer Drederick Tatum petulantly asks the inmates and guards to "Shut up." They apologize and begin extinguishing the flames and tidying up.
• The riot in the film Natural Born Killers[1].
• In the film Blood in Blood out, in San Quentin State Prison, after gangleader Montana was killed.
• In the movie Scum, by Alan Clarke the borstal inmates protest the official indifference that led to the suicide of one of the boys on the night before that he had been raped. It is not clear whether the perpetrators of the rape had participated. During the scene the inmates refuse to eat breakfast, and one by one they start chanting the eponymous "scum" and proceed to demolish the canteen, with the staff locking themselves into a secure area. The movie ends shortly after in the final scene with the governor claiming to mourn the death of the boy, whilst informing the inmates there is full loss of privileges "until the damage has been paid for".
• In the graphic novel and film Watchmen, after a burn victim of Rorschach dies, a prison riot breaks out in an attempt to kill him. Rorschach escapes with the aid of Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre.
• In the episode "A Game of Checkers" of the HBO television series Oz, a riot breaks out in Oswald Pen.'s Emerald City, with Muslim activist 'Kareem Saïd' (real name Goodson Truman) leading it (with the help of a gun given to him by a Muslim prison guard. It is eventually broken up with tear gas and a SWAT team.
• In Episode 6 of the 3rd season of the British TV show Ashes to Ashes, a prison riot occurs at Fenchurch East Prison.
• In the episode "Redemptio" in season 6 of CBS television series CSI: NY, Sheldon Hawkes gets trapped in a prison riot while investigating the death of a prison guard.
• Critically awarded Spanish film, Celda 211 is largely centered around a riot in a Zamora jail.
• In Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Irving Lambert has two splinter cells stage a riot to help Sam Fisher escape with Jamie Washington in an effort for Sam to gain Jamie's trust and lead him to Jamie's terrorist organization, the JBA.
• In Call of Duty: Black Ops, main characters Reznov and Mason plan and escape during the Vorkuta uprising.

See also

• Prison escape

References

Notes

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