ABSTRACT
The humane approach to punishing criminal offenders is to refrain from excessive punishments relative to their harms inflicted on society. A challenge in deriving strategies for violence prevention in prison, therefore, is that these strategies should not counter the appropriate balance between control and “freedom” (privileges) for individual prisoners. The implications of our findings for policy and practice related to the prevention of in-prison violence are presented in this chapter, with an eye on feasibility in striking this balance. Toward the end of providing more realistic and useful policy implications, we focused on aspects of violence prevention considered to be most relevant by Ohio and Kentucky prison administrators and staff as well as by other state DOCs and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP). From these sources, four main foci emerged that constitute a useful means to organizing all of our empirical findings. These foci include (a) facilities and structure, (b) custodial workforce and resources, (c) programs and services, and (d) inmate population composition. Whether our findings are consistent or inconsistent with the suggestions of experts regarding each of these foci is reviewed.
