David Skarbek

David Skarbek is Professor of Political Economy and Director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Brown University. David’s award-winning book, The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System, challenges the view that inmates create prison gangs to promote racism and violence. On the contrary David argues that gangs form to create order and protection within prisons. We discuss his book, which explores prison governance and economics, and in many ways also asks us to look closely at the hierarchy and functioning of the world outside of prison.