Do Overcrowding and Turnover Cause Violence in Prison?

Stéphanie Baggio; Nicolas Peigné; Patrick Heller; Laurent Gétaz; Michael Liebrenz; Hans Wolff

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2019.01015

Do Overcrowding and Turnover Cause Violence in Prison?

Front Psychiatry. 2020 Jan 24:10:1015. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.01015. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Stéphanie Baggio^{1

2}, Nicolas Peigné¹, Patrick Heller^{1

3}, Laurent Gétaz^{1

4}, Michael Liebrenz², Hans Wolff¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Prison Health, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
² Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
³ Adult Psychiatry Division, Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁴ Division of Tropical and Humanitarian Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

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.

Keywords: forensic; health policy; institutional factor; misconduct; prison; public health.