Essay on the Prison Gangs, Tattoos and Intervention Programs

Prison gangs are criminal groups that emerge and operate within the particular prison system. They depend on the available resources in prison to carry out their activities. However, the complex nature of various prison gangs increases the concern of the correctional departments to create and enforce intervention programs that will aim at exploiting their potential to improve the lives of the jail inmates. Although the behavioral pattern of the prison gangs varies globally, there are six major California prison gangs. They include the Neta, Aryan Brotherhood, Black Guerrilla Family, Mexican Mafia, La Nuestra Family and Texas Family. The criminal justice system is fond of sending the wrongdoers behind bars but neglects the illegal raising movements within the cells that can still heighten security risk in the cells. The primary aim of these groupings sends a clear message of system failure in controlling the criminal minds. The motivating factor in joining the prison gangs' is the need for the sense of belonging and self-protection. Additionally, use of tattoos is on the rise since it denotes an identity and affiliation to a particular gang, it also gives an insight of the different structural formation. Each tattoo pattern has a different meaning. This paper discusses the nature and types of prison gangs, their networking around the globe and their link to particular symbol patterns and the intervention programs to offer to such groups to enhance better living within the prison walls in the United States.

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Neta is a prison gang that was founded in 1970 by Carlos Torres-Iriarte in Puerto Rico prison. The group objective is to rebel against prison guard administration. More so, the team is also responsible for many deaths in Oso Blanco prison because of the frequent violence. The founder of the jail gang did set rules that prohibit the use and supply of Narcotics to its members, however, due to the spread of its roots over the years in New York, the groups engages in drug trafficking and control of prostitution in New York streets. The gang uses tattoo symbols to identify its members (Crank & Catherine 97). For instance, the identification constitutes a Puerto Rico flag, the heart has a letter "N" in the middle, and then the hands are crisscrossed. Its primary colors range from white, red and black. Each symbol has its significance, for example, the Puerto Rican flag is a show of pride, and the heritage symbol was in place after gaining freedom during the Spanish rule. The red color symbolizes the blood shade during the war of liberty; the white color is a symbol of liberty and freedom. The N letter is an abbreviation of the gang name, Neta. The image below is a symbol for Neta criminal syndicate:

Retrieved from correctionsone.com

Aryan Brotherhood is another prison gang that is a dangerous prison gang since the history of blacks' movement in 1950's. It has tremendously increased its membership in United state with over 20, 000 members within the prison cells and outside the cells. It is made to protect whites against other races in prison such as the blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. It has an astonishing motto, which states, "Blood in, blood out." Murder to them it is a routine. However, just like the new breed of Neta prison gang, it carries out criminal activities such as drug trafficking, extortions, prostitution, and gambling. The gang member on the street engages in illegal activities such as illegal firearm business, impersonation, and manufacturing of heroin (Joyce 733). It also conducts vicious killing of non-member inmates as a way of sending a terrible message about their firm pledge. Members of this gang are identifiable using the gang tattoos. Their tattoo has a shamrock inscribed with triple six numbers, abbreviation AB, a short form of the band's name; the two lightning bolts represent the Hitler's double SS and swastikas. The diagram below is an illustration of the tattoo symbol for the gang:

Retrieved from https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/aryan-brotherhood

Black Guerilla Family is another notoriously ranked prison gang; George Jackson is the founder of the group in 1966 in San Quentin prison. He was shot dead during a prison break in 1971. Its symbols include machetes, rifles, BGF letters and a dragon. It implies an active armed militia group that is ready to fight against its aggressors. It is composed of the black race with a membership number of 9,000 having an affiliation with Nuestra family as well as Crips (Reiter 580). The gang's operations include an attack on the Marin County courthouse in 1970 and kidnapping attempt of Harold Hailey. It is a key player in Baltimore violence that has led to deaths of many civilians. The figure below shows the tattoo symbol of the gang:

Retrieved from: http://www.policemag.com/photogallery/photos/2/murder-ink-gang-tatoos/254.aspx

The Mexican Mafia is another highly profiled prison gang. The group was founded by Hispanics in Arizona prison in 1974. During that time, the gang split into two, the "Califus Faction" which maintains the original structure of the mafia group and the New Mexican Mafia. It is one of the best criminal organizations because it has a strict set of rules that allows each member to vote for leaders. The group has expanded in size and operations in California since its development. The major activities conducted by the gang entails control of narcotics in the California prisons. According to Tony Raphael, an author who wrote about this band states that it has the best intelligence and networking system than any other rival groups like Aryan Brotherhood and Black Family gang (Dooley, Alan & David 268). Besides, the group's operation runs up to the streets of Los Angeles controlling manufacturing and selling of illicit drugs. However, the prison inmate and the supporters across the streets take the command on issues such as attacking errant members and collection of taxes from other drug lords. The amount collected is used in keeping the incarcerated leaders in prison safe. It s feared that the mafia group is meant to stay as long as there exist rogue correctional department officer and lawyers in the criminal justice system. However, the gang's tattoo varies because they belong to a varied group. However, the most common tattoo design is the five-pointed crown usually drawn on the upper hand and a five-pointed star on the different hand in the middle of the first finger and the thumb. The symbols show the religion background or the blood ties shared among the prison inmates. It is also easy to identify a Mexican Mafia group member due to images of Lady of Guadalupe, a favorite saint for Hispanics and praying hands, a clear indication of praying to God for forgiveness.

Besides the Mexican Mafia, Black Guerilla family gang, Aryan Brotherhood and Neta prison gangs, Nuestra family is anther ruthless prison gang in the United States. Like Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia gang is complex in nature within the jail cells and on the streets. It is purported to control the flow of drugs in Northern California. It is responsible for driving youths into homicide cases an affiliation of Norteno criminal group (Roth & David 225). Their tattoo design comprises of the word Nuestra or Nortenos, binary number 14 which is the 14th alphabetical letter "N." Sometimes they are identifiable with red bandanas. Another prison group is the Texas Family; it is a criminal syndicate based in Texas prisons. It carries most of its operations within the Texas correctional facilities and its streets. Texas Syndicate members include both the Hispanic and the whites (Mitchell 25). It includes the Mexican immigrant prisoners referred to as "Border Brothers." Its formation followed after aggressive nature of other prison gangs such as the Aryan Brotherhood and Neta. The tattoo associated with this syndicate has the abbreviation of the letters "TM" signifying the Texas Mafia group, at the tip of these letters there extended devil tails and arrows.

The United States is one of the few countries that still experience the effect of prison regardless of the efforts that are placed by the system to control their activities. The inability of the US criminal justice system to manage the situation is ironical considering that American states are in the forefront to enhance the level of security. In fact, the US has one of the most mature legal systems that should set a standard for other nations to follow. For the system to be successful in doing away with the gangs there should be efforts to address the foundation of the groups. For instance, drug-smuggling in the streets breeds the increase in the number of the gangs in prisons. The lack of jobs for the youth also facilitates the emergence of the groups as the jobless individuals revert to illegitimate methods of making a living. In as much as the criminal justice system in the United States is committed to maintaining justice among its residents, the institutions face various challenges that undermine its operations (Gottschalk 13). The systems that constitute the criminal justice system such as the judiciary and law enforcement organizations lack effective approaches to ensure that they deliver their mandate. The correctional system in the United States faces by ethical and technical controversies regarding the application of laws and procedures. The issue of prison gangs remains on top of the overall debate that point to the weaknesses of the judicial system in the US. It is essential for human rights organizations, law enforcement agencies, and legal scholars to find an amicable solution to the conflict of ideas on prison gangs. It is evident that whereas the proponents of the capital punishment have strong claims to support the idea, it is still difficult to ignore the controversial bit of the practice Criminals are a vulnerable population in the society and governments should launch initiatives to eliminate them. However, it is not justifiable that executions are the most appropriate approach that can be used to stop crimes. For this reason, the government of the United States should apply alternative methods to punish serious offenders. Life needs protection as per the Constitution and, therefore, the government and the correctional facilities should introduce methods that seek to protect the welfare of the inmates. The issue of prison gangs continues to be a threat the quality of life of prisoners, making it necessary for the concerned agencies to be versatile in addressing the matter. However, this approach is expensive because a lot of resources are required to establish the networks of the gangs and break them.

The prison gangs are bothersome to the state because they disrupt the performance of the criminal justice system. The gangs threaten the staff of the correctional facilities as well as other inmate. Some reports from the correctional facilities in the United States indicate that the quality of life in prisons is under threat due to the existence of the gangs (Wood 203). It is also essential to note that the efforts by the management to clamp down on these groups have not been successful because of the deep-rooted networks of the group which makes it difficult to end them. Their presence in prisons introduces a new task to the government to monitor their operations and control their activities, a situation that makes the management of detention facilities expensive to the state.

The intervention programs to use prison gangs to better their lives in prison are significant in avoiding cases of murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping, and extortion. The principal purpose of the correctional facilities is to change the behavior of the offenders. The criminal justice system should not rely on executions as mechanism...