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| Cafeteria uproar reveals gang problem |
| By The Oklahoman |
| Published: 08/23/2004 |
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A cafeteria brawl by rival gang members awakened officials at the Lloyd E. Rader Center to the problem of gangs inside Oklahoma's only maximum-security lockup for juveniles. City faces growing gang problem "It really hasn't been a big issue until now," said Richard DeLaughter, director of the state Office of Juvenile Affairs, which oversees the Rader Center. Seventeen people were injured in the June 18 fight, including 10 Rader Center employees, according to the Office of Juvenile Affairs. The agency responded by temporarily reassigning a gang expert from Tulsa to the Sand Springs program. Wilson Conde, a Juvenile Affairs employee and member of the Tulsa gang task force, arrived June 21 and said he will stay "as long as the director needs me." The center, which has 200 residents, had no gang experts on staff and no gang intervention programs in place before Conde arrived. Center officials believed they had 34 gang members, but within three days Conde identified 74 members of 10 sets -- independent groups that may be associated with larger gangs. "We identified them and then started to find out who the lieutenants were and who the pawns and the soldiers were. We've been interviewing them to find out what's causing this" outbreak of violence, Conde said. Identifying gang members is the first step to controlling their behavior, both on the street and inside a place such as Rader. "By identifying them, we say, 'We know who you are. I can't stop you from being in a gang, but I can stop your behavior,'" Conde said. He is drafting plans for an intervention program to present to Jim W. Martin, the Rader superintendent who took over Aug. 1. DeLaughter said it may be time to offer gang intervention programs as part of the treatment residents get at Rader. "I don't know if we've done a good job addressing that in our treatment plans," he said. Conde said a first step will be to bring in a federal anti-gang task force to teach the staff mediation techniques and to spread fear among the juvenile residents. "We want to let them know that if they go back out on the streets and get in trouble again, these guys are waiting for you," Conde said. The task force recently met with gang members on parole in Tulsa, some of whom were ordered to attend the meeting. They were confronted by federal gang fighters, the Office of Juvenile Affairs, police officers, sheriff's deputies and federal and state prosecutors. "Basically we're telling them we aren't going to tolerate any gang activity, gang violence, narcotics or drive-by shootings," Conde said. The Tulsa parolees will pass the message through the gang ranks, but eventually, someone will decide to test the ultimatum. "There's no doubt they're going to test it, especially those who have issues with authority figures," Conde said. At that point, law enforcement has to live up to its promise. "The most important thing is if you make a promise, you have to keep it, whether it's positive or negative. He'll respect you more if you hold to the cause," Conde said. |
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