Gang & Security Threat Groups Issues In Jail Today By George W. Knox

Summary

This article Gang & Security Threat Groups Issues In Jail Today was written by George W. Knox from May through June of 2022. This article was written based on the information and feedback from the NGCRC 2019 jail survey. It is an article that compares surveys that are similar in topics that were conducted in 1993 and 2019 being the most recent. Some of the comparisons from the two surveys were gang increase and the percentage of jail classification systems that takes gang/STGs membership into account. They also compare questions such as, “Do your staff receive formalized training in dealing with gang problems”, or “Have gang members been a problem in terms of assaults on your staff”?

The result of the survey dictates that gang density

I believe gangs are rising because people want to have protection while being in jail because they know that someone is watching their back, and if they don’t join a gang, their likelihood of being a victim is going to increase. It is also difficult to leave a gang after you join because it usually ends violently when you are trying to leave, even death can be an outcome of this. Even when you leave jail, you are still considered to be part of the gang and recruit more people on the outside to commit more crimes. This can include dealing drugs, all the way to assassinating someone. There are so many gangs out there, the worse the crime, the easier it is to join a gang. Most gangs used to be based on race, or ethnicity, but nowadays most accept people based on the crime they have done or have a family member in the gang already. Going back to the training of jail staff, it is difficult to even train them on gang members if it is not being updated on routine bases because gangs are rapidly changing and making new ones. Some gangs are built from bigger branches into smaller groups of people that get along, which greatest more branches as it gets bigger. Not only has there been an increase in gang members increased but also the number of gangs that are in jail. This could have multiple factors, such as crime, race, beliefs, etc. Learning the patterns of gangs does help jail staff know which gang a new inmate is most likely to join, which could have secluded gang members, and know their rituals and plans beforehand to try to manage the gang problems. I don’t see this problem being fixed anywhere in the near future until jails are taught more about jail-related problems in jail and how to deal with them in detail. Most people are