Arizona has Prison Gang Problem
If you take the
time to study and reveal the truth about prison gangs inside Arizona, you might
be surprised just how badly they are being managed and controlled when other
states are doing a better job at combating the steady increase of gang
activities and recruitment efforts inside prisons.
It is very
important you take the time to know what is happening as it impact community
safety more than you may realize. The study of gangs and various security
threat groups (STG) has been ongoing for decades now and have revealed some
fundamental basic control mechanisms to address their growth and activities.
However, these
control measures are only as good as the effort put forth in the enforcement
and delivery of the identified tools to reduce an explosive and potentially
dangerous problem behind the prison perimeters as much of the same type of violence
spreads out to our communities once they are released and under the state’s
supervision while on parole.
Sadly, we have seen a new dangerous
trend documented in Arizona that has not been given the attention it requires
and current matters can cause extreme and dangerous situations for our law enforcement
community and innocents within our community. Some may remember not more than a
few months ago during October, 2014, a DPS officer was shot by a gang member during
a traffic stop. The officer was
badly injured as they searched for the suspect who had gang network support and
who were willing to aid and abet a fleeing felon in Phoenix, Arizona.
Another case in
point is the recent mass shooting yesterday, in Mesa, Arizona where a suspect,
an individual identified to be a member of a neo-Nazi White Supremacist group,
shot one individual fatally and then went on a shooting spree that injured many
more. One can only speculate how this individual was thinking as he randomly
and violently spread his hate and contempt amongst his innocent victims who
didn’t see this attack coming nor were the police prepared for it as well.
The correctional system failed the
citizens as they dropped the ball on effective gang strategies to win this war
against security threat groups inside prisons. They allowed gangs of various
races to exploit their weakness and this includes legislative responsibility to
fund prisons accordingly to provide a safe and secure environment to the best
ability and practices available to ensure public safety measures are intact.
What can be
done to reduce such threats? What must be done to control and manage such
violence? The answer has been there all along since summaries and conclusions
have revealed effective tools and best practices to deal with such a special
problem today.
The scope of
the Arizona prison gang problem shows a reality check that 25.9 % of the males
were gang members before imprisoned. Only 38.2 % of the males had tattoos
before entering prison. This validates the assumption that many received their
tattoos while incarcerated.
Nobody likes to
admit a failure rate in controlling or managing prison gangs. Only 16.7 %
report to represent a severe gang problem. This is a most underrated
measurement to avoid being forced into stricter and tighter gang controls by
the public, the legislators and the governor.
Almost all
correctional institutions acknowledge that inmates do join gangs or are
recruited into gangs (94.2%) after being incarcerated when they were not gang
members on the streets. The best estimate is that 11.6 percent of the male
inmates were not gang members on the streets but did in fact join a gang or STG
after being incarcerated (3.7 percent for female inmates). Some 63.6 percent of
the respondents felt that gangs’ members have significantly affected the
correctional environment.
This is a mean
average computed amongst 49 entities and this puts Arizona somewhere in the top
ten to show disruptive group presence or existence. Out of 49 states, only a
small number of correctional systems (15.7 %) report having a program that
encourages inmates to quit their gang membership.
If you have
paid attention over the years, Arizona stopped reporting their gang combating
efforts in a sign that they have surrendered and coping with weak and poor management
practices to “control and contain” them at the very basic levels while their
growth has exponentially been damaging to the corrections environment.
The best
estimate is that 9.46 percent of the inmates who enter prison as gang members
will quit their gang while incarcerated. A fifth (20.3%) of American prisons
now have programs for inmates who want to renounce gang life. Arizona is not
one of those states that implemented such gang diversion programs and instead
seen the rate increase in alarming proportions.
This establishes
the baseline for increased problems and violence related to gangs inside
Arizona prisons. Gang leaders have been able to influence to create a
for-profit business behind the razor wire that consists of drugs (87.8 %),
protection (76.2 %) gambling (73.2 %) and extortion (70.1%). These are the
major contributors to the series of violent assaults on other prisoners as well
as staff.
Just like on the
outside, gangs dominate over 60 % of the prison yards within the state. A
figure that will be disputed but backed up with solid evidence that this
includes such “rackets” as sex (45.1%) food (56.7%) and clothing (40.2%).
Confiscation of
money inside prisons range from $ 280.00 dollars to as high as $ 7,500 showing
them to have a strong affiliation with loan sharking at ridiculous interest
rates. Again, this is a mean average and various on the open yards.
Most disturbing
for the community are the numbers that reflect 73.6 % remain their affiliation
with the gang after serving time and a whopping 82.2 % is contributed to
recidivism rates costing taxpayers millions more than often funded for in the
prison budget.
Most (88.4%) of
the more dangerous security threat groups that exist in American prisons today
also exist by the same name in the outside community. In other words, most of
the dangerous prison gangs are also street gangs.
There is no
consensus which gang is the most dangerous when comparing prison gangs as they
each have their own rules and operate in various tactics and strategies to
maintain control. Some 20.4 percent of the facilities reported that gang
members have been a problem in terms of assaults on staff; a third (33.7%)
reported gang members being a problem in terms of threats against staff.
Gangs or gang
members account for an average of 20.6 percent of all institutional management
problems is a finding of the present research; and gangs account for an average
of 26.3 percent of all inmate violence. It is believed through anecdotal
evidence gathered, the rate is much higher for Arizona. It is estimated that
34.5 percent of the illicit drugs smuggled into prisons today are smuggled in
by prison gang members.
Prison gangs
control 41.7 percent of the illicit drug trade (sales) behind bars, a factor
that has increased by more than ten percentage points over the last decade.
Gangs control a third (33.6%) of the illegal gambling behind bars. It is
estimated that 31.5 percent of all inmate assaults involve gang members.
The suspect in
the Mesa shooting is a card carrying member of a White Extremist Gang who may
not join an alliance with other gangs but rarely function or operate on their
own without consulting or merging strategies with other White gangs to co-exist
inside prisons.
The study on
prison gangs revealed, “fueling the growth of white gangs is the fact extremist
ministries have had a substantial impact on proselytizing behind bars, this was
indicated by the institutions reporting “inmate outreach” from Christian
Identity and groups like World Church of the Creator (WCOTC). Some 29 percent of
the prisons indicated inmate outreach from the Kingdom Identity Ministries,
36.6 percent indicated inmate outreach from the Church of Jesus Christ
Christian, and 45.9 percent from the WCOTC.”
The top ten
white prison gangs/STG’s, in terms of their spread nationwide are: Aryan
Brotherhood, Aryan Nation, Skinheads (various factions), Ku Klux Klan,
Peckerwoods, Aryan Circle, White Aryan Resistance (WAR), neo-Nazis (various
factions), Dirty White Boys, and the United Aryan Brotherhood.
Many other such
gangs obviously exist and the top fifty were described in this report. The
World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) was the top leader in this area, and there
was substantial overlap with the white gang list. The uniqueness of white
gangs is the presence of multiple factions rather than a single faction such as
there are for the other races.
Arizona has
week policies for controlling gangs inside prisons. There is a consensus
(84.9%) feel there is a need for tougher rules for gang control. Many
correctional institutions (74.9%) have specific disciplinary rules that
prohibit gang recruitment, because most (94.2%) also believe that some inmates
may have voluntarily joined or may have been recruited into a gang while
incarcerated. Less control translates into gang proliferation and growth.
Most (70.6%)
agreed with the idea that bargaining with an inmate gang leader is similar to
negotiating with a terrorist yet many are doing exactly such a practice without
making it known publically or officially on the record method of dealing with
prison gangs.
A low-balled
percentage (again suspected embarrassment or failures to commit or enforce
drives this number) only 12.7 percent indicated that staff in their facility
sometimes find it necessary to negotiate with gang members in order to keep the
peace. Almost all (91.5%) endorse the belief that zero tolerance is the
best approach for dealing with gangs and gang members.
Various
corrections issues that need to be identified:
·
Few
(14.5%) reported that their state has a separate correctional facility for
confidential informants. (Exponentially higher is Arizona)
·
Few
(2.6%) allow prisoners to exchange funds with each other. (Common practice in
AZ)
·
About
half of the prisons (47.1%) allow prisoner to prisoner mail (Common practice in
AZ)
·
(79.4%)
agree that it is a major potential security problem.
·
Respondents
estimated that 12.2 percent of the inmates were mentally ill.
Perhaps what is
important about gangs and STG’s in America today is nothing more than the
promise implied or explicit that our correctional institutions will afford safe
environments in which to work for the correctional officers and staff employed
there, and the two million plus inmates who reside in these facilities.
The sad fact is
Arizona has an extreme number of staff assaults by inmates because of the negative
dynamics created by gang warfare and predatory behaviors. In a move to
intimidate staff, gangs rule the yards in a most extreme manner with no
controls in sight for the near future as there are insufficient resources
available to combat this invasion of gang members.
Few in American
society know the true meaning and significance of being a “correctional
officer”, indeed most commonly a somewhat derogatory term is used instead to
refer to this occupational sector: “prison guards”.
Many uninformed
and naïve citizens continue to marginalize these correctional officers by the
label of “prison guard”, a term or phrase or identifier that does not reflect
the rise of a professionalism within the field of corrections. However, their
rank and file are dwindling as funding is cut and budgets for prisons are short
sighted creating improved conditions for gang growth and activities.
Credit:
The Problem of Gangs and Security Threat
Groups (STG’s) in American Prisons Today -Recent Research Findings from the
2004 Prison Gang Survey by George W. Knox, Ph.D. Copyright © 2005, National
Gang Crime Research Center. http://www.ngcrc.com/corr2006.html
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