Member for life.. or death
at Pelican Bay. I’m pretty sure handle this.”
Over the years, California has tried many methods to control the gangs but most have resulted in failure and this has allowed recruitment to grow in other areas of America, so for now all the gang leaders are sent to Pelican Bay.
In countries such as China, being shot in the neck is a deterrent to any prisoner wanting to start up a gang, but in American the gangs are mostly left to their own devices to ensure smooth operations in the prisons.
The thinking in Pelican Bay is that by restricting the leaders and keeping them under surveillance, they can control the gangs better.
The leaders are kept in the Security Housing Unit (SHU), away from the main
I can prison population. But it hasn’t damp- ened their creativity in sending their orders to their minions. Last year, gang members used the drainage pipes of their in-cell toilets to communicate across blocks and coordinated a statewide hunger strike by inmates to protest against the conditions in the SHU.
When gangs want you dead, it can be swift and brutal. In 2009, Edward Schaefer was convicted of killing a nineyear-old girl after he hit her with his motorbike while drunk. He was sentenced to prison for 24 years but after only 10 days at San Quentin was stabbed seven times in the neck and chest by an affiliate of the Aryan Brotherhood.
The weapon, made by his attacker, Frank Souza, was a 7in “bone crusher” made from a metal bunk bed. When asked why he killed Schaefer, Souza said: “All I got to say, nine-year-old girl.”
This wasn’t a random killing – it was the AB signalling there are acceptable crimes and unacceptable crimes and anyone found guilty of the latter will die.
The power of the gangs cannot be underestimated but experts agree the only way to reduce their influence is to build smaller prisons with fewer inhabitants. Until then, they will continue to grow in strength and influence and wield their “monstrous power”.
In 1988, Willie Bosket – a self-confessed “prison monster” – stood in the dock and said: “I laugh at this system because there ain’t a damn thing that it can do to me except to deal with the monster it has created.”
THE Mexican Mafia, also known as La Eme (Spanish for “M”), was formed in 1957 when 13 members from Hispanic street gangs teamed up. It’s believed to be the most powerful gang in California prisons, with up to 400 official members and around 990 associates.
Its main source of income is controlling gambling and prostitution within the prison systems, extortion and distributing drugs. Members are closely connected to Mexican cartels.
EX-BLACK Panther gang member George Jackson founded the BGF in San Quentin State prison in 1966.
Its aims were removing racism and toppling the American government. The gang is acknowledged to be the most political of the largest US gangs.
The BGF often recruits members from other street gangs when they are imprisoned. According to estimates, there could be as many as 300 full BGF members and up to 50,000 associates. Their activities include drug trafficking, car theft and murder.
● A member may not be an informant, or rat.
● A member may not be a coward.
● A member may not raise a hand against another member without approval.
● A member must not show disrespect for any member’s family.
● A member must not steal from another member.
● A member may not be homosexual.
● A member must not politic against another member or cause dissension within the organisation.
● Membership is for life. It’s mandatory to assault/kill all dropouts.
● La Eme comes first, even before family.
● A member must not interfere with another member’s business activities.
THE Nuestra Familia was created in 1968 to protect Latinos from the Mexican Mafia, who are their fiercest adversaries.
This has resulted in a longrunning gang war.
The gang’s main activities involve smuggling and distributing drugs into prisons.
The Nuestra Familia are said to have been responsible for at least 600 murders over a 30-year period.
Imprisoned Nuestra Familia gangsters have strong links on the outside and use gang members who have been released to smuggle drugs and contraband into the prison system.