Contact: Bert Useem, 277-3820 Media Contact: Laurie Mellas Ramirez, 277-5915

July 2, 2003 UNM SOCIOLOGY PROFESSOR HONORED FOR 'BEST PUBLISHED ESSAY' USEEM REPORTS ON RIOT AND REFORM IN U.S. PRISONS Bert Useem, University of New Mexico professor of sociology and director of the UNM Institute for Social Research, has been awarded prizes for best-published essay in 2002 by the American Sociological Association's political sociology and collective behavior/social movements' sections. The essay, " Forging Social Order and Its Breakdown: Riot and Reform in U.S. Prisons," authored with Jack A. Goldstone, University of California, Davis, appeared in the American Sociological Review, 2002. The researchers analyzed two 1990s cases of prison reform - the privatization of several New Mexico prisons and changes to New York's publicly run Riker's Island. The New Mexico prisons were quickly beset by multiple riots. By contrast, the New York facility adopted reforms that ended years of riots and violence. Useem and Goldstone contend that prevailing theories of prison riots cannot account for the divergent outcomes. But a state-centered theory of social order will explain both, the researchers said, showing how prison administrators and state and national governments can create conditions under which social order breaks down or is restored. Their analysis has implications for other hierarchical institutions, such as schools, and bears on the future of prisons and jails in the United States, which house more than two million men and women. Useem and Goldstone found evidence to suggest a troubled prison can be quickly turned into a model of stability. They said actions that can reduce riots are: Maintaining cohesion and clarity of purpose among state authorities, prison administrators and corrections staff Training and protecting staff Not imposing arbitrary or poorly explained penalties on inmates Maintaining public and legal standards for treatment of inmates Responding quickly, firmly and consistently to inmate rule infringements or challenge to authorities The researchers also found that private organizations are effective only if there is a clear charter from the community or other source, which favor conditions for effective social order. "We believe that the basic causes of riots do not lie mainly in the inherently violent or irrational nature of inmates, but in the more general principles regarding the dynamics of social order in prisons. Order can be created and maintained by improving the relationships among prison management, staff, inmates and outside authorities," the researchers concluded. Useem has written widely about social movements and prison riots. He is completing a study of the effects of rates of imprisonment on the crime rate. ###

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