Prison riots are complex and diverse events that raise profound questions over human action, social structure, historical process, and political reasoning. Any convincing explanation needs to be attentive to the structural circumstances of confinement, such as institutional diversity, power relationships, material conditions, and state organization, while recognizing how human agency, such as inmate anger, official indifference, and charismatic personalities contribute to the dynamics of institutional unrest. This paper revisits the classic and contemporary positions on prison riots with its main aim to unsettle the limits of orthodox thinking by questioning some of the central assumptions that underpin these perspectives. There has been a concern expressed with the place of legitimacy in prisons, arguing that the dull compulsion of rituals is an essential, yet ignored factor producing social order. In conclusion, far greater attention needs to be paid to the role of contingency in generating opportunities for collective unrest, as well as recognizing that the complexity and diversity of institutional life is vital if convincing accounts of social practice are to be advanced. References