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9 Just. Sys. J. 291 (1984)
Prison Reform by Judicial Decree: The Unintended Consequences of Ruiz v. Estelle

handle is hein.journals/jusj9 and id is 293 raw text is: PRISON REFORM BY JUDICIAL DECREE: THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF RUIZ V. ESTELLE GEOFFREY P. ALPERT* BEN M. CROUCH** C. RONALD HUFF*** More than two centuries ago, colonial Connecticut was experimenting with a prison-like regime when it experienced the first prison riot in what is now the United States (McKay, 1983). Later in the 17th century, the inmates of Newgate Penitentiary in New York rioted to protest overcrowding, just three years after that prison opened. Since the invention of the penitentiary, numerous riots, revolts, and insurrections have taken place in American prisons (Heaps, 1970). There exists a rich history of the precipitating causes of and proposed solutions to prison riots (American Correctional Association, 1981), but few efforts have been made to link these ideas together into systematic theory (Alpert, 1977; Garson, 1972a and 1972b; Huff, 1983). This article seeks to address that deficiency by extending to prison riots a theory which has been applied to social revolutions--i.e., rising expectations theory. Finally, we identify some of the organizational and system dynamics which can be affected by the growing federal court intervention in the management of prisons, and we emphasize the importance of improving judicial understanding of prisons as complex organizations. Our general focus is on court-ordered prison reform, with specific attention to the most sweeping prison conditions case in A meri- can history, Ruiz v. Estelle (1980). Introduction The history of the world is in part a history of revolutions. As societies evolved from simple, agrarian, and homogeneous to complex, industrial and heterogeneous, the level of social conflict (violence, rebellion, and revolution) increased markedly. One major theoretical perspective which has been formulated to explain collective responses by those seeking relief or freedom is the theory of rising expectations. James Davies (1962), in an influential article, outlined such a theory as applied to revolutions, and we believe that his ideas and propositions may usefully be extended to the phenomena of prison riots-not at the grand theory level, but at least as a useful framework for understanding many prison disturbances. *Director, Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of Miami. **Associate Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University. ***Director, Program for the Study of Crime and Delinquency, Ohio State University. THE JUSTICE SYSTEM JOURNAL, Volume 9, Number 3 (1984)

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