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Prison gangs introduction
Prison gangs introduction
Prison gangs introduction
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The most problematic issue that the institutional correctional facilities are facing is gangs. The most dangerous gangs in the U.S is Black Guerilla Family, Nuestra Family, Nazi Lowriders, Aryan Brotherhood, and Mexican Mafia. The reason why this is problematic is because most of the gang members who are sent to prison are already gang members before they got incarcerated. Some of the people who go to prison have no affiliation with a gang, but when they get in there they join one of the prison gangs. The reason why so many people join gangs in prison is because they want to be protected. Gangs can be very dangerous when they are at rival with each other. If the Black Guerilla Family is in the same prison as the Nazi Lowrider, a murder will
most likely happen because the Black Guerilla Family are predominantly black and the Nazi Lowriders are white supremacist. The scariest thing about gang leaders, if you screw them over while you are in prison, they have the same power on the outside and, they’ll make a phone call to have somebody to kill your whole entire family. The first thing that needs to be done is to make the prison less crowded and dangerous, and the inmates would require less protection. Gangs are a response to prison conditions; to reduce them, the authorities must improve the state of the incarceration.
Wallace, B., & Podger, P J., & Van Derbeken, J. (2000, February) Guard Kills Prisoner
This paper will cover issues that young minorities encounter in the movies; Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008), Gran Torino (2008), A Better Life (2011). Movies will be summarize, and compare and contrast youths experienced. Criminological theories shall be utilized to further elaborate issues. Finally steps and theories will be utilized towards solving issues, also possible methods to correct the issues will be addressed in the end.
Prison gangs were created by inmates as a way to protect themselves from other inmates. Each prison gang has their reasons for existing. There are five prison gangs in the United States. These gangs are as follow: The Aryan Brotherhood, The Black Guerilla Family, Texas Syndicate, Mexican Mafia, and Lanuestra Familia. They all have similar beliefs, meanings of their tattoos, how gangs impact their lives and society, and the challenges they bring the prison system in order to decrease gang population.
Prison gangs are originally formed by inmates as a way of protecting themselves from the other inmates. These gangs have turned out to be violent and thus posing a threat to security. This paper will have a look at the different gangs in prisons, their history, beliefs and missions, and the differences and similarities in these gangs.
One of the major problems of corrections today is the security threat group - more commonly known as the prison gang. A security threat group (STG) can be defined as any group of offenders who pose a treat to the security and physical safety of the institution. Throughout the 1960's and 1970's, prison gangs focused primarily on uniting inmates for self protection and the monopolization of illegal prison activities for monetary gain (F.B.P., 1994, p. 2). STGs are mostly divided along racial lines and practiced defiance towards authority. STGs use a variety of hand signs, alphabet codes, tattoos, and different types of gang terminology. Gangs characteristically have rivals and make an alliance with other gangs. The criminal activity of S.T.G.’s does not only exist inside the confines of the prison walls, but has flowed to the outside world. “Prostitution, extortion, drug selling, gambling, loan sharking – such activities are invariably operated by prison gangs” (Gaines, Kaune, Miller, 2000, p.652). The Texas Prison System consists of eleven classified security threat groups; Texas chooses to classify a gang as a STG when they become involved in violent activity. “Prison gangs exist in the institutions of forty states and also in the federal system” (Clear and Cole, 2000, p. 260). Three main stages that the offender will experience with the S.T.G. are recruitment, the gang experience, and affiliation upon release.
Instead of providing a place where segregation is at a minimum, prisons all across America are dealing with gang violence and race issues. These issues are known as “Prison Politics” to some. No matter who you are, or where you’re from, when entering prison you become identified by your skin tone. The level of gangs and cultural groups are so high, that often inmates have no choice but to follow the crowd. Sure, they could choose not to cooperate in the gang life, but where does that leave them? Then they will become the targets with no defense. The pressure to become accepted is so important in prison survival, that some inmates will throw away their morals just to protect themselves. Prison officials often condone the promotion of racial segregation. If one person of a specific race was found suspicious, they have the right to lock down every person of the same nationality. They often bunk same races together to cut down the risk of altercations. This is probably for the best at the time being, but it makes you wonder why they don’t attempt to do something about gang involvement. You hear about classes on drug intervention, schooling, and religion. Why don’t they have a class on racial acceptance? I’m sure it wouldn’t convert the beliefs of many inmates, but it would at least show some effort to bring down the segregation
Correctional ideologies have contributed greatly to the present correctional trends in the United States. With all of the correctional ideologies contributing in some way, some greater than others, the United States corrections has seen many problems. One such problem is the steady increase in incarceration rates. In result, the prison facilities have become overcrowded and hard to manage. As Dawe from New York City’s Department of Corrections said, “We are so understaffed and so overcrowded across our prisons, it’s miraculous that we can handle it,”(New Week Global, 2014). In fact, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, Federally-operated facilities have grown by 41% while correctional workers have only increased by 19% (New Week Global, 2014). The increase in the prison population rates is due to five contributing factors: (1) increased arrests and more likely incarceration, (2) tougher sentencing, (3) prison construction, (4) the war on drugs, and (5) state and local politics.
Throughout history into today, there have been many problems with our prison system. Prisons are overcrowded, underfunded, rape rates are off the charts, and we as Americans have no idea how to fix it. We need to have shorter sentences and try to rehabilitate prisoners back to where they can function in society. Many prisoners barely have a high school education and do not receive further education in jail. Guards need to pay more attention to the well being of the inmates and start to notice signs of abuse and address them. These are just a few of the many problems in our prison systems that need to be addressed.
The article “Propensity to Support Prison Gangs: Its Relationship to Gang Membership. Victimization, Aggression and Other Disruptive Behaviours”, by Jane Ireland and Christina Powers seek to depict the relationship between the tendency to support gang membership and other problematic behaviours within prison. The researchers situate the article within prison, group dynamics and gang literature, which suggest that they are interested in utilizing all three areas to identify alternative factors that influence gang membership and associated behaviours. The researchers conclude that the propensity to support prison gangs was associated with aggression and other disruptive behaviours, gang membership and victimization. The authors employ a descriptive
With the prison system structured as it currently is, incarceration fails to rehabilitate prisoners, effectively forcing those impacted to re-offend. This failure allows for negative impacts within society. While is does also provide some with a positive outcome, the larger scale society suffers while this social issue goes without a
The first issue that I would like to address is the overcrowding issues in prisons. In my opinion, overcrowding issues are the biggest issues in our correctional system that concerns every citizen. Running a prison required money, resources and manpower, with overcrowding issues, the government would have no choice but to increase the number of correctional facilities, privatized prisons and increasing manpower. According to (Levitt, 1996), “The incarceration rate in the United States has more than tripled in the last two decades. At year-end 1994 the United States prison population exceeded one million. Annual government outlays on prisons are roughly $40 billion per year. The rate of imprisonment in the United States is three to four times greater than most European countries.” (p.1). Overcrowding issues are not only affect prisons but the society as a whole as well. The reason is simply because prison population directly refl...
In the 1970s and 1980s, a massive amount of inmates began fillin up the United States prison systems. This huge rate of growth in this short amount of time, has greatly contributed to the prison overcrowding that the United States faces today. In fact, the prisons are still filled to the seams. This enormous flood of inmates has made it practically impossible for prison officials to keep up with their facilities and supervise their inmates. One of the main reasons why many prisons have become overcrowded is because of states’ harsh criminal laws and parole practices (Cohen). “One in every 100 American adults is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate in the world” (Cohen). The amount of inmates in corrections systems, throughout the nation, sky-rocketed to 708 percent between 1972 and 2008. Today, there are about 145,000 inmates occupying areas only designed for 80,000 (Posner). Peter Mosko, “an assistant professor of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice” (Frazier) stated, “America, with 2.3 million people behind bars, has more prisoners than soldiers” (Frazier). There have been studies that have shown “there are more men and women in prison than ever before. The number of inmates grew by an average of 1,600 a week. The U. S. has the highest rate of crime in the world” (Clark). Because of this influx in inmates, many prisoners’ rights groups have filed lawsuits charging that “overcrowded prisons violate the Constitution’s 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment” (Clark). It is clear that the United States corrections system needs to be reformed in order to eliminate this problem. Prison overcrowding is a serious issue in society due to the fact it affects prison ...
The violent crime rate in jails would decrease if, “Known gang members and affiliates-especially those responsible for violence or intimidation within the prison-also can be assigned to SHU” (Bailey, 2001). This limits violent crimes and less violent actions in jail. Having these dangerous people locked up promotes better safety for others. The prison guards are always watching, as well as,“ The prison provides round-the-clock security for any inmates removed from the institution” (Bailey, 2001). Provides comfort for others knowing there are guards all the time. These guards are armed and ready for conflict and are there to protect the
There are many problems that are in the corrections system. A few problems are violence, suicide and homicide and these problems in the facility lead to other problems. Violence has been broken down into two categories. The first category is collective violence and the second category is interpersonal violence. Collective violence revolves around an interference that is very serious and disrupts control and order within the system of corrections. An example of collective violence are riots. There are many contributing factors that lead the collective violence. Factors that lead to the violence are: gang violence, conditions of the prisons, race discrimination, and joint frustration. Suicide and Homicide are also major issues in the corrections facility. Although these issues can be stopped, violence, homicide and
Most of your population in jail are people detained who have yet to be convicted of a crime. There is a smaller population in jails, to begin with, and even a lower percentage compared to the rates in prisons are for violent crimes (Prisonpolicy.org, 2016). Furthermore, the culture is different because of more significant turnover in jails, as jails are short-term and prisons are long-term (Hq.org, 2018). Therefore, clicks and gangs are more likely to be ingrained in the fabric of prisons, resulting in more violence to outsiders and rival gangs. Aside from that and on the positive side, prisons are equipped with better facilities and programs (Hq.org, 2018). Many inmates prefer prison to live a more normal life, whatever that means (Hq.org,