ABSTRACT
Like other social issues, such as poverty, health, and inequality, prison violence is intractable and marked by a multitude of drivers. Accordingly, an understanding of prison violence requires an approach that recognises the range of factors that can come into play and contribute to intervention planning and preventive thinking. Many of the problems that are seen in prisons – overcrowding, funding gaps, staff retention, mental health of staff and prisoners, contraband, and drug abuse – obscure deeply complex social problems that have relevance for government departments, institutions, and communities, so attempts to treat them through a single institutional framework are unlikely to be successful. In the early 1990s, a Ministerial Inquiry reported on systematic violence towards prisoners at Mangaroa Prison. The report recommendations emphasised practice alignment with the revised objectives of the Prison Service, constant vigilance and intolerance to violence by prison management, and installing reliable systems for monitoring behaviour and demonstrably fair procedures for managing complaints.
