Puzzle of Prison Order: Why Life Behind Bars Varies Around the World

Many people think prisons are all the same-rows of cells filled with violent men who officials rule with an iron fist. Yet, life behind bars varies in incredible ways. In some facilities, prison officials govern with care and attention to prisoners' needs. In others, officials have remarkably little influence on the everyday life of prisoners besides providing necessities like food, clean water, and health care. But why does prison social order around the world look so remarkably different? In The Puzzle of Prison Order, David Skarbek develops and applies a governance theory of prison social order to answer this question. He investigates life in an a wide array of prisons-in Brazil, Bolivia, Norway, a prisoner of war camp, England and Wales, women's prisons in California, and a gay and transgender housing unit in the Los Angeles County Jail-to understand the hierarchy of life on the inside. Drawing on evolutionary game theory and a vast empirical literature on legal systems, Skarbek offers a framework to not only understand why life on the inside varies in such fascinating and novel ways, but also how social order evolves and takes root behind bars.