NCJ Number
133416
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1991) Pages: 66-69
Date Published
1991
Length
4 pages
Annotation
A proactive management model for detecting prison gang development was constructed on the basis of empirical information derived from a survey of 181 Texas officials.
Abstract
The respondents identified 11 relevant activities which they considered indicators of prison gang development. These are inmate requests for protective custody, finding of gang-related tattoos on inmate bodies, inmate disciplinary isolations of contraband possession, secret racial groupings of inmates, and inmate informants reporting emergence of inmate cliques. Inmate physical assaults on other inmates, police agencies reporting gang activities on the streets, inmate requests for inter-unit transfers, inmate families reporting extortion by inmate cliques, verbal threats made to staff by inmates, and physical assault on staff by inmates are also included. Interpretation of these findings requires consideration of frequency of occurrence of activities, variance of prison conditions within jurisdictions, and available skills of prison officials in the application of the management model to detection of prison gang development. Recommendations are presented to further enhance such skills of the prison officials. 1 note and 14 references