The Puzzle of Prison Order : Why Life Behind Bars Varies Around the World

Many people believe that when you go to prison, prison staff will keep you safe and that if others prisoners have power, they''ll use it against you. It turns out that neither assumption is true. In many prisons, staff have little control over how safe and orderly a prison feels. Prisoners are often in charge. When they are, they often do a good job of governing life behind bars. This book looks at the hidden and informal world of life in prison to reveal why prisoners play such a major role in the everyday life of prisoners, and why they often do a good job at it.

Many people think prisons are all the same-rows of cells filled with violent men who officials rule with an iron fist. Yet, life behind bars varies in incredible ways. In some facilities, prison officials govern with care and attention to prisoners'' needs. In others, officials have remarkably little influence on the everyday life of prisoners, sometimes not even providing necessities like food and clean water. Why does prison social order around the world look so remarkably different? In The Puzzle of Prison Order, David Skarbek develops a theory of why prisons and prison life vary so much. He finds that how they''re governed-sometimes by the state, and sometimes by the prisoners-matters the most. He investigates life in a wide array of prisons-in Brazil, Bolivia, Norway, a prisoner of war camp, England and Wales, women''s prisons in California, and a gay and transgender housing unit in the Los Angeles County Jail-to understand the hierarchy of life on the inside. Drawing on economics and a vast empirical literature on legal systems, Skarbek offers a framework to not only understand why life on the inside varies in such fascinating and novel ways, but also how social order evolves and takes root behind bars.