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| 5 inmate gangs dominate California's prison system |
| By San Francisco Chronicle |
| Published: 02/28/2005 |
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The temporary segregation of prison inmates that the U.S. Supreme Court strongly criticized in a ruling last Wednesday had its genesis in the runaway growth of prison gangs during the 1960s and 1970s, experts say. The gangs, organized along racial lines, have historically been a major source of inmate friction and disorder within the California prison system. "Taking advantage of tensions already existing between inmates, prison gangs recruit members along racial and ethnic lines," according to a 2003 state Justice Department report on organized crime activity in California. "As the gangs began to grow and acquire more leverage, rivalries began to emerge that led to increased violence in the institutions." Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the corrections department, said there are about 162,000 inmates in California prisons. Estimates put the prison gang population at 803 members, 900 associates, 325 inactive members and 1,050 dropouts. The first of the gangs to appear in the state system was the Mexican Mafia (La EME), which was created in Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy in the late 1950s. The gang's members are primarily Latinos from Southern California. The Mexican Mafia has ties to street gang operations in that area. In November, officials at Pelican Bay State Prison, California's toughest penitentiary, froze the bank accounts of 16 inmates who were believed to be laundering money from street drug sales, prostitution and other criminal activities for the organization. Nuestra Familia, another Latino gang, developed in Soledad Prison in the 1960s, largely to protect younger Northern California inmates from members of the Mexican Mafia. Like La EME, Nuestra Familia has built close alliances with street gangs in its members' home communities. Both gangs use written notes called "kites" that are passed from inmate to inmate and smuggled out of prisons to communicate with members and associates outside the penal system. In September, eight top members of Nuestra Familia pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges at the conclusion of a prosecution that brought the convictions of scores of other gang members. Nuestra Familia and La EME have been engaged in a deadly rivalry for decades, and dozens of their members have been slain both inside and outside prison. Another gang that has been a major contributor to racial frictions in prisons is the Black Guerrilla Family, which was founded in San Quentin Prison in 1966, gang experts say. The Black Guerrilla Family declined in numbers during the 1990s, but prison officials say that two years ago the group began a drive to rebuild its membership, recruiting heavily from black street gangs such as the 415 Kumi Nation, the Crips and the Bloods. Two white gangs -- the Aryan Brotherhood, which prison officials say was founded in San Quentin in 1967, and the Nazi Low Riders, an Aryan Brotherhood spin-off that first emerged in the juvenile prisons of the California Youth Authority in the 1970s -- have contributed their own volatility to the ethnic mix inside state prisons. Like the African American and Latino groups, both white gangs are linked to street crime and have drawn the attention of federal prosecutors. |
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The momentary separation of prison inmates that the American Supreme Court powerfully critiqued in a ruling last Wednesday had its origin in the blockbusting development of prison gangs. They told me how to write a research essay. It was during the time reign of 1960s and 1970s, according to the experts.
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