Trigger Factors

• Although society at large often hears about white collar prisons, people often do not hear about the conditions of other prisons, particularly medium security and high security prisons. Many prisons have trigger factors such as poor food, overcrowding and low parolee numbers. These are potential triggers for rioting in prisons and can create a general melancholy among inmates, according to Prison Fellowship International.
  
  

Psychological Factors

• In addition to trigger factors, there are psychological pressures when in prison, such as feeling disregarded or a lack of independence. Rioting, for prisoners, may seem like the only way to be heard or noticed. Although this may seem irrational, the psychological strain that prisoners often feel can cause them to not think clearly about the consequences of actions like a prison riot.
  
  

Strained Interactions

• Prison movies, like "The Shawshank Redemption," often demonstrate the strained relationships among prisoners, especially when violence among inmates is involved. Prison riots may result from these strained interactions, particularly if other prisoners take sides and engage in violence during an altercation between two inmates or groups of inmates.
  
  

Discipline

• Some prisons pride themselves on the discipline of their inmates, while others grant inmates more dignity and freedom through work programs and as a matter of general policy. When prisons do not have a reasonable amount of discipline and specific expectations, guards can be given a difficult time and in turn, take a more solid disciplinarian stance, often in groups and with specific inmates or groups of inmates. This combination often leads to riots against the guards, whether in an effort to cause harm to prison administrators and staff or in revolt over specific conditions.
  
  

Alternatives

• Some prisoners may take a less violent approach by staging a protest with a list of demands. This could be something like a hunger strike, in which prisoners refuse to eat until their grievances are addressed. However, such protests can easily turn into more violent riots.
  
  

Prisoner Reactions

• Unless prison conditions are truly abhorrent, many prisoners will oppose rioting because they understand it will not improve the situation in the prison. Instead, violence normally causes restrictions in privileges, such as yard time, as well as a tightening of discipline and a change of routine to make prison life more difficult than before.