Forging Social Order and Its Breakdown: Riot and Reform in U.S. Prisons

Two cases of prison reform in the 1990s had widely divergent results. New Mexico privatized several prisons and these prisons were quickly beset by multiple riots. New York's publicly run Rikers Island prison, by contrast, adopted reforms that ended many years of riots and violence. Prevailing theories of prison riots cannot account for these divergent outcomes. A state-centered theory of social order explains both cases, showing how prison administrators and state and national governments can create the conditions under which social order breaks down or is restored. This analysis has implications for forging social order in other hierarchical institutions, such as schools, that are responsible for the welfare of their dependent clients.

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