Gang Training

School was cancelled last Monday so all the teachers could attend gang training.  “Learn to spot gang signs and tattoos”, the teachers were told.  Gangs are, and will continue to be a major problem in prisons.  Looking at it from the inside there is nothing DOC is doing that is effectively challenging gang influence.  Asking teachers to be on the lookout for gang evidence is no solution.

Gangs exist and their prominence in prisons is a given.  Even at a low level facility like this you can’t help but be walking to chow and see two young guys pat their chests as they pass on the boulevard (three taps on your heart with an open hand signifies blood connection).  You hear expressions, catch phrases, thrown back and forth.  And you wonder, if a 50+ year-old white guy with no exposure to gangs pre-incarceration can spot it, why can’t the officers?

You then realize the prison knows who’s in and who’s not.  The investigators’ office has a “gang board” with pictures of members by rank.  So why is it tolerated?  I’ve written before about the young gang leader “Live”, recently indicted for ordering hits on wayward gang members from inside the facility.  Everyone knew Live was a high-ranked blood.  Once a week he found himself talking to investigators.  And yet, at least monthly, new members were brought in.  What does the facility do about it?  Nothing.  It appears the status quo is easier to deal with than aggressively challenging them.

Things are worse at higher levels.  Extortion, robbery, attacks, these are common place at higher level prisons and the parties responsible are the gangs.  You want drugs, cigarettes, gambling? It’s the gangs who control it.  And for all the talk of “gang intervention” DOC officials spout, they are virtually impotent when confronting it and defeating it.  Gangs are thriving in prisons.

When I was in Virginia’s despicable Powhatan Receiving Unit, I was housed with a high ranking member of the Crips.  In the cell next door, a blood leader.  Both men knew my legal background and asked if I would review their guys’ pending appeals.  Frankly, doing legal research helped pass the time and kept me sane as I struggled daily with 23 hour lockdown and living in filth and despair.

“How much you charge us?” the blood captain asked.  “Nothing,” I said.  “Well we need to show our appreciation,” my Crip cellmate said.  “What kind of food do you like?”  I thought a little bit then said “pretzels and ginger ale” (both items were available on commissary but I hadn’t been to the store yet).  That afternoon, two six packs of ginger ale and three large bags of pretzels showed up on my bunk.

That night, it was my floor’s turn for 30 minutes out of our cells.   I grabbed a ginger ale, my cup and a bag of pretzels and headed down to the first floor to sit by the fans.  After grabbing some ice for my cup, I poured my soda and sipped on it savoring the drink and the salty pretzels.  A guy I’d met on arrival sat down with me.  Ernie was my age.  A white guy back in prison for drug use, he’d been at receiving a month before I arrived.  He was noticeably upset.  “What’s the matter Ernie?” I asked.  “The gang bangers,” he said.  “They came in my cell and took all my commissary.”  Sodas, cereal, snack foods.  Fifty dollars worth taken and there was nothing he could do.  You can’t tell.  Snitch and get beat, or worse.

I realized the ginger ale and pretzels I was enjoying had been stolen from Ernie – and some other “non-affiliated” guys.  I couldn’t prove it, but I knew.  I went back to my cell, got a six pack and bag or pretzels and gave them to Ernie.  Then, I told the two gang leaders I didn’t want anything else from them.

DOC could break the gangs.  But, prison fosters gang life.  All the training in the world for DOC teachers won’t stop gangs from flourishing in here.  Gangs survive because this environment feeds them.  Change prison culture, kill gangs.  Or, keep doing what you’re doing and the cycle continues.