The purpose of this name is to remove any recognition or publicity that the term "gang" would connote when referring to people who have an interest in undermining the system.
[4] Before the rise of large, formal prison gangs, political scientists and researchers found that inmates had already organized around an understood "code" or set of norms.
Sykes writes that an inmate may "bind himself to his fellow captives with ties of mutual aid, loyalty, affection, and respect, firmly standing in opposition to the officials.
The constant surge of prisoners coming into the system with no understanding of the status quo had disrupted the established equilibrium cohesion.
And as demographics inside prisons changed drastically, small groups centered on ethnicity, race, and pre-prison alliances were disrupted.
[8] They vet and manage tax-paying supplier gangs within prisons, regulate transactions, and control violence in the marketplace and on the streets.
This scope of supply also gains a reputation with consumers, who can then feel safe in being able to gauge the quality of product and credibility of suppliers.
Prison gangs have evolved into complex organizations with hierarchies and vote-based ranks and intricate coalitions with exclusive and often permanent memberships.
A gendered approach to prison gangs offers two arguments focusing on the idea of male domination and the inmate's adherence to a hyper-masculine ideal.
The fourth step, which prison gang members fit into, is called "the intransigent line," when the inmate refuses the authority of the institution and acts against it.
Skarbek (2011)[13] uses the example of the illegal narcotics trade in Los Angeles to explain how an alternative system of governance behind bars can lead to successful socioeconomic organization.
Since prison gangs gain a long-term profit if transactions in the illicit market run smoothly, they have the incentive to ensure that there is order and cohesion between suppliers and consumers.
Similar to stationary bandits that form governance out of anarchy in the model presented by economist Marcur Olson,[14] prison gangs are actors who have the ability to extract resources from their population by providing services.
They act to maximize their profit, not only by restraining the amount they extort, but by providing services that facilitate exchange and imposing "gang taxes".
Political scientist David Skarbeck writes, "Like the stationary bandit, prison gangs provide governance institutions that allow illicit markets to flourish.
"[3] The way that prison gangs consolidate and maintain power is also comparable to how actors behave in Charles Tilly's predatory theory of state-building model.
[17] Prison gangs engage in "war making," or monopolizing on force and occupying the power vacuum of state authority.
[19] He claims that norms and culture-like initiation rituals, rules about sex, and relations with guards and non-members are shaped by the direction of formation.
Discussing the organizational mechanism within prisoner gangs, Skarbek (2011)[13] argues that both explicit and implicit rules govern behaviors within these groups.
Ellickson states that close-knit groups rely heavily on specific norms and informal rules to achieve cooperation and to minimize transaction costs within governance institutions based on property rights.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Eme in California established the model of leveraging its power in prison to control and profit from criminal activity on the street.
The gang's activities fall into two categories: conventional crimes (distributing drugs, robbery, and murder), and illicit market exchange (protecting property, enforcing agreements, and handling disputes).
[15] Members of the Mexican Mafia are recognized by a "black hand" tattoo commonly found across their back, chest, leg, or neck.
[26][27] The group engages in a wide range of illegal activities including drug trafficking, loan sharking, and money laundering.
Perhaps out of its ideology and the necessity to establish a presence among the more numerous Black and Hispanic gang members, the AB has a particular reputation for ruthlessness and violence.
NorCal Peckerwoods (NCP): A Northern California-based White prison gang that began in San Joaquin County Jail and French Camp Honor Farm in Stockton, California in the mid 1990s.
Conservative Vice Lords (CVL): A primarily African-American gang that originated in the St. Charles, Illinois Youth Center outside Chicago.
The gang rose in 1993 at a soccer game at Taubate Penitentiary to fight for prisoners' rights in the aftermath of the 1992 Carandiru Massacre, when São Paulo state military police killed more than 100 inmates.
[43] The gang orchestrated rebellions in 29 São Paulo state prisons simultaneously in 2001, and since then it has caught the attention of the public for ensuing waves of violence.
[43] Political scientist Benjamin Lessing predicts that crackdowns and harsher carceral sentences will increase prison gangs' control of outside actors, and that beyond a point, these policies limit state power.