Examines the role of prison gangs and their members in controlling life in prison.

It has been called the most dangerous gang in American history. In Los Angeles alone it is responsible for over 100 homicides per year. Although it has fewer than 300 members, it controls a 40,000-strong street army that is eager to advance its agenda. It waves the flag of the Black Hand and its business is murder. Although known on the streets for over fifty years, the Mexican Mafia has flown under the radar of public awareness and has flourished beneath a deep cover of secrecy. Members are forbidden even to acknowledge its existence. For the first time in its history, the Mexican Mafia is now getting the attention it has been striving to avoid. In this briskly written and thoroughly researched book, Tony Rafael looks at the birth and the blood-soaked growth of this criminal enterprise through the eyes of the victims, the dropouts, the cops and DAs on the front lines of the war against the Mexican Mafia. The first book ever published on the subject, Southern Soldiers is a pioneering work that unveils the operations of this California prison gang and describes how it grew from a small clique of inmates into a transnational criminal organization. As the first prison gang ever to project its power beyond prison walls, the Mexican Mafia controls virtually every Hispanic neighborhood in Southern California and is rapidly expanding its influence into the entire Southwest, across the East Coast, and even into Canada. Riding a wave of unchecked immigration and seemingly beyond the reach of law enforcement, the Mexican Mafia is poised to become the Cosa Nostra of twenty-first-century America.

In discussing the management of prison gangs and disruptive groups, the manual advises that the strategy should be to respond to the specific nature of the problem. Where gang activity is rare and a gang culture is not in place, the transfer of gang members out of State may be an effective preventive mechanism. Where gang membership is large, but is only a small proportion of the inmate population, effective control may be achieved by housing known gang members in separate facilities. Where gangs are already entrenched in the institutional culture, prisons must find strategies, such as gang intelligence programs and prosecutorial units, to lessen the impact of gang activities on the nongang inmate population and to reduce gang influence. In examining institutional disturbances, the manual addresses the causes of disturbances, stages in the development of a major disturbance, early warning systems, the management of institutional disturbances, specialized resources for institutional control, and a return to normalcy. A section on staff training discusses general legal considerations in training, the role of the training academy versus the role of the institution, training exercises, and training for special units. Other sections of the manual address post-disturbance activities, case studies, and legal aspects of the management of prison gangs and disturbances.

When most people think of prison gangs, they think of chaotic bands of violent, racist thugs. Few people think of gangs as sophisticated organizations (often with elaborate written constitutions) that regulate the prison black market, adjudicate conflicts, and strategically balance the competing demands of inmates, gang members, and correctional officers. Yet as David Skarbek argues, gangs form to create order among outlaws, producing alternative governance institutions to facilitate illegal activity. He uses economics to explore the secret world of the convict culture, inmate hierarchy, and prison gang politics, and to explain why prison gangs form, how formal institutions affect them, and why they have a powerful influence over crime even beyond prison walls. The ramifications of his findings extend far beyond the seemingly irrational and often tragic society of captives. They also illuminate how social and political order can emerge in conditions where the traditional institutions of governance do not exist.