Tactical Responses To Prison Riots

Immediate force is used as a first response to a disturbance. When using immediate force, personnel rush in to defend or retake areas of the prison without waiting for the riot to grow in size. The key to achieving the desired result is the speed in which the adequate number of personnel can be deployed, equipped, and organized. An advantage to the use of immediate force is that it can hinder the inmates’ ability to become organized in making weapons, fortifying their position, and from recruiting additional participating inmates and increasing the size of the riot. Pain and suffering felt by the hostages, if any are taken, will also be limited as the result of immediate force.

Yet another advantage of immediate action is that it takes away the inmates’ opportunity to promise to themselves an

Arsenal weapons, primarily non-lethal weapons, are used to further diminish the capacity of inmates to react. Stun grenades confuse and disorient, bean bag rounds pack a punch in trying to confine the rioters, and tasers and/or gasses can render an inmate subdued. Great speed in execution is yet another important tool used in a tactical strike. Explosives can be used to breach the entry doors quickly with little or no injury to those inside, and while using the intelligence that had been gathered earlier, the hostages were quickly located and freed.

d to the authorities that they will harm the hostages if their demands are not met. Once threats are made, inmates may psychologically find it difficult to back down from them. Whether or not the inmates realize the terrible consequences of such threats, their public commitment to this course of action may psychologically obligate them to follow through with their threats. In short, negotiations, compared to the early use of force, give inmates an opportunity to make threats to which they then may become committed.

The previous five parts of a planned tactical strike are important, but along with intelligence, none are more important than the element of surprise. Inmates confronted with a strike they are not expecting, or not prepared for tend to find their riot ending rather quickly. Warnings or ultimatums are obviously not issued to the inmates when a strike team plans a surprise attack. An example may be something as simple as a strike team engaging as inmates let down their guard during a negotiated meal.

The unique characteristics of each institution, its staff, administration, and inmate population shapes the impulsive conditions and eventually contributes to a riot’s end. Tactical force planning based on knowledge of incidents past and present can’t prevent riots in the future. It can, however, help correctional authorities avoid disturbances, prevent the small incidents from becoming riots, limit the amount of damage a riot causes, and

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