NCJ Number
86540
Journal
Corrections Magazine Volume: 8 Issue: 6 Dated: (December 1982) Pages: 6-19
Date Published
1982
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article names and describes California prison gangs, along with their origins, activities, and efforts by the California Department of Corrections (CDC) to control them.
Abstract
The Nuestra Familia (NF) is one of four major gangs responsible for most murders and assaults throughout California's prison system. Others are the Mexican Mafia, an arch enemy of the NF, the Aryan Brotherhood, a loose confederation of white motorcycle gang members and other hoodlums, and the Black Guerilla Family, a black gang that wars with the Aryan Brotherhood, the Mexican Mafia, and occasionally the prison staff, sometimes cooperating with the NF. The California prison gangs originated inside the prisons and have used the prison base to engage in criminal activity on the outside. They have long run traditional prison rackets in narcotics, gambling, extortion, and male prostitution. In some instances, particularly at Tracy and Soledad and on and off at San Quentin and Folsom, they have tried to take the operation of the prison away from the authorities. For the past 10 years, the policy of the CC has been to identify gang leaders and those members responsible for violence and lock them up in designated wings. The NF members are in special units at Tracy and Soledad, and the other gangs' leaders are 'locked down' in Folsom and San Quentin. While the policy has stabilized violence that was once rampant and uncontrolled, the gangs are still responsible for many of the hundreds of stabbings, assaults, and murders in the prison system every year. Additionally, the policy of 'lock down' for gang affiliation raises civil liberty issues.