...Modern-Day Prison Gangs and How They Operate Angel Ruby March 21, 2013 American River College Modern-Day Prison Gangs and How They Operate There are several different prison gangs currently in power within the prisons today. There is the Mexican Mafia, La Neustra Familia, Black Guerrilla Family, and The Aryan Brotherhood. Though each gang has separate syndicates, these four gangs remain the most influential (A. Ruby, personal interview, March 19, 2013). How these gangs operate depends on the prison they occupy. While each of these gangs was initially created to survive in ethnically segregated situations that is not the case any longer. Currently the aspirations of these gangs have to do with protection, money, and reputation, they are very organized and efficient (A. Ruby personal interview, March 19, 2013). La Nuestra Familia was formed in the mid 1960’s to protect rural Mexican-American inmates from predator gangs, primarily from the urban Mexican-American inmates affiliated with the Mexican Mafia (Gangs OR Us Gang Identification, 1999). They represent northern California and are identified by their tattoos which are normally a dagger or sombrero with the letters “NF”. The NF use to operate through three categories (cat.1, cat.2, etc.). The higher the category you were in, the higher your rank within the gang. They later abolished that structure to try to institute equality inside the gang. They created a “mesa” which was an order of six members (A. Ruby, personal...
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...Power and Abuse Leaders with high authority have a potent influence on society. Power can either nurture subordinate people or ravage their self-worth through rules and demands. Abuse occurs because malicious impulses are not repressed nor denounced. Dictators notoriously kill several civilians, yet because of their position, they avert castigation from civilians. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of boys descend into savagery as Jack’s power ascends. “The Struggle for Iraq” by John Schwartz describes the process by which normal college students turn spiteful when they become prison guards. Lord of the Flies and “The Struggle for Iraq” illustrate how boundless authority often leads to sadistic behavior. Jack Merridew, a stubborn and fascist teenager in Lord of the Flies, represents man’s descent into savagery and brutality. After being elected as leader of the hunters, he tries to emulate Ralph’s position as chief. As he gradually gains power, the hunt -- along with violence -- turns into an unhealthy obsession. He convinces other boys to hunt because of the thrill; eventually, nearly every survivor chants, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in” (75). As more boys join the assembly, Jack’s thirst for barbarism becomes immense: “The forest near them burst into uproar. Demoniac figures with faces of white and red and green rushed out howling...star naked save for the paint and a belt was Jack” (140). As Jack exalts, he starts abusing the boys for no apparent...
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...to keep security to a certain level in a certain prison or jail facility by stopping and preventing any disturbances such as assaults and escapes. Correctional officers must supervise the activities of inmates daily. They must make sure that the inmates do not break the rules and finish their assignments. Correctional officers supervisor expect them to perform their job correctly while interacting professionally to the inmates. The officers are expected to show no signs of weakness while performing their job duties. Correctional Officers play a very vital role in the criminal justice field. Their jobs are very dangerous when dealing with inmates that are in jail and prisons. ”The role they take in is very different from other law enforcement jobs within prions and jails.” (Seiter, 2011). The function of correctional officer is to help aid prisons by gaining power and control over regulations throughout the prisons and jails. They also are responsible for criminals who have committed a crime and been arrested, which now are awaiting trial. Correctional Officer functions are to enforce and keep order, supervise activities of inmates, aid in rehabilitation and counseling of offenders, search inmates for contraband items and report on inmates conduct. Corrections work is stressful, hazardous, and always challenging. Faced with staggering budget cuts and burgeoning prison populations, correctional administrators struggle to balance limited resources to meet management...
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...The prison structure described in the article is very similar to high school. They are both intimidating and make people feel uncomfortable. In both situations it is also very easy to get into the wrong crowd and lose focus. However, some people are able to find outlets and safeguard their future. One very important and popular outlet for people is music. Music programs like the one discussed in the article, Musicambia, can change lives and improve a person’s future. Music programs and opportunities offer a safe place to be creative and escape the intimidating environment. Prison structure and high school are very similar. Neither of the two have the most welcoming environments. They are both very intimidating and people may not feel comfortable...
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...abusive relationship, it became the beginning of the end for me. In an effort to protect and defend my children and myself, I committed an act that left my attacker seriously hurt. Rather than stay and face the music, I ran away. I later turned myself in but with no representation and my side of the story never heard, I was convicted of a crime I did not commit and given 10 years in prison with 5 years to serve. Since getting out of prison, I have felt like society is against me. It feels like people I know along with the legal system keeps holding my criminal record over my head. Rather than helping me and my children to make a better life for ourselves, people continually remind me of what I did and that I am a felon. The legal system is no better. Instead of funding programs to help a person become a productive citizen, the legal system keeps pushing people back into the streets by not giving them a chance to learn how to survive once you have gotten a criminal record. Along with this, you have to struggle everyday just to make it in this society. Living becomes an everyday struggle because you can’t...
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...Malcom X The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told by Alex Haley is about a man who transformed the history of America. Malcolm X was an exceptionally critical figure that contributed in influencing American social life. He was a famous figure who voiced the struggle, anger, and principles of African Americans. Malcolm X preached what he believed in about racism, discrimination, and segregation. His struggle for the fight for inequality went through many variations. The three alterations that really changed the way Malcom believed and preached was during his transformation in prison, the conversion into the Islamic religion and the major transformation of all was his pilgrimage. Most importantly it was while in prison, Malcolm X was introduced to the Islam faith by one of the prisoners. He received teachings from the Muslim faith, which made him realize that, his people were being oppressed and...
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...Corrections releases prisoners on a daily bases. The time that these prisoners spend within the four walls of a prison cell varies by years. Once released a large percentage of them end up back in prison because they lack the skills needed to function successfully in society. The other problem that they encounter is being able to find a job. Many job applications today ask if the applicant has ever been convicted of a felony, those that must answer yes are given less job opportunities than those that have not. Also, if they have been convicted of a felony it becomes part of their permanent record and when a place of employment completes a background check this individuals felony shows up. Released prisoners going back to...
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...Taxman Throughout Andy’s struggle, he continues to save his hope and be an inspiration for all other inmates, including Red. Andy keeps his cool and his swagger though his struggle with the sisters. I think that that triumph is how Red becomes inspired by Andy. Andy finds ways to keep his cool and finds ways to keep his sanity. Andy’s courageous and self confident determination to make something of himself and to become free no matter what the cost inspires Red to find his own freedom free in the end. Andy finds ways to keep his sanity through all the hardship he goes through with the wardens, the sisters, and himself. Red sees how Andy uses the rock hammer and the rock blankets to make beautiful sculpted pieces of stone and Red realizes that is how he keeps his calm and his sanity throughout his time in Shawshank prison. This hope that Red sees in Andy’s eyes is what inspires Red to keep on believing and hoping for his freedom. After Brooks Hatlin paroles, Andy takes his place as the librarian. Andy sees how small and dingy the library is, so Andy makes it his job to increase the size and content of the prison library eventually making it the best prison library in Maine. While tarring the roof of the license plate shop, Andy overhears Byron Hadley’s windfall inheritance problem and he helps him save every cent of his money through tax loopholes. So from this point on Andy becomes the prison tax man making him an indispensable prison asset. Andy also helps inmates...
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...Keem Avraham Adisa Chaney Social Work 305 October 14th, 2015 Learning from History A Retrospective Journey on Shahid and Connie Watson and the Life Skills Academy It is a truth universally acknowledged that social action creates stronger platforms for people to succeed and communities to develop more opportunities for improvement and involvement. Along with that universal truth, we must also acknowledge the fact that most of this change, most of these platforms, most of these improvements were started and spearheaded by the unspoken heroes and leaders of this world. Considering their 2.5% recidivism rate and their success in guiding people out of institutionalized and community-fenced prison systems, it is safe to say that Shahid and Connie Watson are two of the world’s greatest unspoken heroes. Shahid Watson is a native of Newark, New Jersey. Being one of five children, with parents and siblings who were involved in mainly drugs and violence, he had his sights set on getting out of his environment to create a better life for himself. After being homeless as a result of his familial situation, he graduated form high school in the top 10% of his class and was accepted into Rutgers University where he studied Business Administration (Watson, Shahid). As a result of the gang violence, drug abuse, incrimination, and the cycle of children being born into all of these categories, the Life Skills Academy was established in 1994. Life Skills Academy began out of a partnership...
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...These students are also more likely to end up in situations similar to their parents or in a struggle to provide for themselves successfully. John Hagan, the professor of sociology at Northwestern University, has worked with children of incarcerated parents and studied their future after their parent’s incarceration. He found that “almost no children of incarcerated mothers make it through college” and that “these people are now in early adulthood, and they’re really struggling” (Reckdaul). Students with incarcerated parents become unmotivated and less willing to work hard in school or other academic areas. These students feel that there is no point in trying and drop out, as they expect to follow in their parents’ path regardless. The incarceration of parents can cause children to lower expectations and set limited goals for themselves...
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...Lane McVicker Goodrich History 101-Western Civilization 26 November 2012 Analysis of The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas There have been many written records discovered since the period of the Roman Empire, and even earlier, though a vast majority of those discovered have been written by men. Documents written by women were incredibly rare, especially taking into account the time period and the role women were appointed for many centuries. One of the very few surviving texts written by women was from a martyr named Perpetua. She was a young women who documented her own struggles, as well as the struggles of another woman and acquaintance named Felicitas. She recorded their fight and strong efforts of living out their faith, expecting a child, as well as their days in prison that led up to her death. Perpetua's diary-like inscriptions of her personal life is now very important and useful in obtaining a glimpse into what it might have been like for women of this era, as well as what her goal was in trying to persuade her audience. The manner in which Perpetua documents the events that lead to her death ostensibly hint at what her purpose in documenting her time was in the first place. Perpetua's calm and collected nature of writing is meant to motivate other Christians at this time to proclaim and stand firm in their Christian beliefs. The Roman Empire, reigning for nearly five hundred years and through the life of Christ, played a significant role in the establishment...
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...Compensation for the Wrongfully Convicted By: Jeromi Beans EG 372 The federal government needs to act on the issue of compensation for the wrongfully convicted. The first documented case of compensation of the wrongfully convicted happened in 1989 (The Innocent Project). The problem is that people have been convicted and spent long amounts of time in prisons and they were innocent of the crime. Later being exonerated by DNA testing, these people cannot get the time they spent locked up back, so this leaves only money to compensate them for their time. Some states have a program for this and others have caps on how much someone can receive, while others just do not compensate the wrongfully convicted at all(The Associated Press 2008). The problem has gotten big, as far as the people being exonerated in the states where they do not compensate the wrongfully convicted; these people feel that they should be compensated just like the others in states that do compensate. The people being exonerated and released from prison have no health care and struggle to get health care if at all (Soria, 2011). There have been 25 states to have exonerations from DNA testing (Resurrection after Exoneration). “A study by the Berkeley, California-based Life After Exoneration Program found that after their release; half of exonerates are living with family, 2 in 3 are not financially independent, 1 in 3 lose custody of their children, 1 out of 4 suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. All...
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...answer a few questions. Firstly, how do you think Red and Andy’s friendship develops throughout the film? LUCY: Fantastic question! I believe Red and Andy’s friendship developed majorly throughout their time in prison. Both Red and Andy started out as complete social opposites, Red presumably from a poor background and Andy from a privileged white background. They both ended up learning new things from each other. Red takes Andy under his wing and shows him the way to do things in prison. Both characters gain mutual respect for each other whilst being in prison. Red and Andy struggle to survive the horrors of prison, but in...
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...offender? These questions are what this story revolves around. Sorry for the Loss is a short story from 2008, written by welsh writer Bridget Keenan. The story is told in the third person from the point of view of the story’s main character, the prison chaplain Evie. This makes the story very personal, as the reader gets access to Evie’s thoughts on prison life and on some of the major themes of the story. One thing to note is that almost all of Evie’s thoughts are related to the prison, which creates a sense of confinement, something that ties in well with the setting of the story. The story begins in medias res, which means that the reader has no background information about Evie or the prison, and is immediately presented to the main plot of the story. Furthermore, the story contains an open ending, which does not give the reader full closure on the main plot nor the major themes. This composition creates a sense that the actual plot is less important than the themes it explores, and that the story is not a character study, but rather a study of the themes through characters. The story’s main character, Evie, has worked as a prison chaplain for about a year. She is still not entirely comfortable in her job, and prison inmates still scare her quite a bit. She is very religious, and finds peace in prayer, which she describes as almost being a drug for her....
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...“A leader is someone who demonstrates what is possible” - Mark Yarnell and Nelson Mandela is living proof. During his darkest moments in prison, Nelson Mandela was driven by the power of words to motivate and inspire. The simple lines from a poem written by William Ernest Henley, inspired Nelson Mandel to, after almost thirty years in Prison, become “the Masters of our fate, the captains of our souls.” (William E. Henly, 2012) Nelson Mandela was born the fourth son of the Chief of the Tembu tribe on July 18, 1918 in Transkei, South Africa and from the beginning he describes that his childhood was a “form of apprenticeship shaped by knowledge of his ‘destiny’, in which he would ascend to office as the key counsellor to the Tembu chiefdom.” (Lodge, 2006) Ironically, Mandela’s name given at birth was Rolihlahla; roughly translated as ‘troublemaker’. As a young man he was always fighting for South Africa’s cause, and by doing good for the people, trouble always seemed to follow him (Lodge, 2006). At the age of nineteen, Mandela enrolled in Fort Hare University, where he began studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree (Lodge, 2006). While at the school, he became involved in the local politics in the school and was eventually asked to leave. Soon after being expelled from Fort Hare, Mandela moved to Johannesburg, where he met a man named Walter Sisulu, whom Mandela would come to form a lifelong friendship with (Lodge, 2006). Sisulu was so impressed with Mandela upon meeting him that...
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