Security Threat Groups/Gangs In Prison - Research Paper Example

In society, these gang members are associated with organized crime, drug trafficking, violent activities, extortion, racketeering, theft, and other felonies. The Aryan Brotherhood According to prison correction facility worker Tracy Barnhart (2009), “The Aryan Brotherhood (AB) originated in San Quentin prison in 1967. Originally, this gang was established to provide protection for White individuals from Black and Hispanic groups, most specifically the Mexican Mafia. According to the FBI, although the gang makes up less than 1% of the prison population, it is responsible for up to 26% of murders in the federal prison system.

” (Barnhart, 2009) The Aryan Brotherhood is recognized as being a White Supremacist organization, with affiliation with Nazi, KKK, SS, and other hate-filled ideologies mixed with white-racist beliefs. This gang requires a member to murder another opposing gang member as a requirement for initiation, and in consequence the gang membership is considered for life with the completion of the initiation. Authorities report this gang formed and strengthened in prisons in California, subsequently spreading across the country in both Federal and State prisons.

This group can be viewed as being in decline following the successful arrest and prosecution of gang leadership on racketeering charges and the decline in popularity of racial hate views in the general population. The Aryan Brotherhood are responsible for many “murders for hire” within the Prison system according to Barnhart, as well as potentially heroin trafficking. (Barnhart, 2009) The degree of murders this gang is associated with in proportion to its membership illustrates the danger the Aryan Brotherhood represents in the U.S. Prison system.

Black Guerilla Family The Black Guerrilla Family was founded by George Jackson in San Quentin Prison in 1966, the same year that the Black Panther Party was formed by Huey Newton in Oakland. (PrisonOffenders, 2011) The Black Guerrilla Family is inspired and dedicated to radical Marxist liberation teachings which justify and condone a violent response to structural social oppression. This gang was strongest in the Oakland, California area relating to its founder, but also spread to other locations such as Chicago and is believed to have as many as 9,000 current members despite little recorded organized gang activity after the 1960s.

(PrisonOffenders, 2011) This gang can be said to be mostly active in California State and Federal Prisons. The gang is related to personality-driven leadership and can be said to be in decline since its members were involved in several high-profile crimes in the 1960s that were documented in song by figures such as Bob Dylan and John Lennon. This gang may be involved in narcotics trafficking within prisons, attacks on other prisoners and correctional staff, and in arms or weapons trafficking.

The ability of gang members in this organization to kidnap and murder a judge as well as stage several prison break-out attempts of its leadership illustrates the danger of the Black Guerrilla Family. The Folk Nation The Folk Nation has been described not as a gang but as an alliance of