In this article, I explore how prison riots, large critical incidents of a collective order, emerge, take place, and alter governance relations in place in the Nicaraguan prison system. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted with prisoners and former prisoners of two Nicaraguan prison facilities, I provide a prisoners’ point of view on the political use of violence in prison, particularly during two large prison riots. While authorities often held that prison conditions combined with the “violent attitudes” of prisoners turned prisons into “powder kegs,” such an interpretation does not allow for an understanding of riots as embedded in prison governance structures and conveniently draws the attention away from underlying issues pertaining to the de facto sharing of power in prison in Nicaragua. I argue that by using what has been termed “creative violence,” prisoners attempt to break through the authorities’ imposed regime of public secrecy and draw attention to these issues, forcing authorities to negotiate. Yet, even if riots then function as a catalyst for changes in co-governance arrangements, they do not appear to be geared at permanently damaging or annihilating the existing arrangements but rather at pressuring the authorities hard enough to make compromises and concessions as to the distribution of power in prison.

中文翻译：

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尼加拉瓜监狱暴动：在创造性暴力和公共保密中谈判共同治理

在本文中，我探讨了监狱骚乱（集体秩序的重大重大事件）如何出现、发生并改变尼加拉瓜监狱系统中现有的治理关系。根据对尼加拉瓜两个监狱设施的囚犯和前囚犯进行的人种学研究，我提供了囚犯对监狱中政治使用暴力的观点，特别是在两次大型监狱骚乱期间。虽然当局通常认为监狱条件加上囚犯的“暴力态度”将监狱变成了“粉桶”，但这种解释并不能理解嵌入监狱治理结构中的骚乱，并方便地将注意力从根本问题上转移开关于尼加拉瓜监狱中事实上的权力分享。我认为，通过使用所谓的“创造性暴力”，囚犯试图突破当局强加的公共保密制度并引起对这些问题的关注，迫使当局进行谈判。然而，即使骚乱随后成为共同治理安排变化的催化剂，它们似乎也不是为了永久破坏或消灭现有的安排，而是向当局施加足够的压力，使其在分配问题上做出妥协和让步。在监狱中的权力。