There are three major periods in the development of the penal institution that Irwin discusses. The first one, he terms as “The Big House”. Basically, this era had a prison that is the typical prison in all of the movies. It was a walled prison with large cell blocks that contained stacks of three or more tires of one or two man cells. (Irwin) This “big house” stood as the state’s most extreme form of punishment, directly before the death penalty. Many prisoners were black or other non-white races, but most in the Big Houses outside the South were white. Blacks were housed in special sections, special cell blocks, or at least with cell partners of the same race. They were the ones who help menial jobs. Blacks and whites seem to be segregated in all of their prison life in the Big Houses. After World War II, many states replaced Big Houses with correctional institutions. (Irwin) Correctional institutions were organized differently, housed different types of prisoners, and nurtured different prison social worlds. (Irwin) Due to the growing body of college-educated employees and administers of prisoners, parole, and probations, the government was convinced …show more content…
(Pyrooz, Becker, and Fliescher, 2011) Gang members enter prison with very high levels of crime in their background. The problem with prison gangs is the lack of research behind these groups. There are administrative challenges to gather such information. There are no field studies on prison gangs, and information about prison gang activity must be gathered through interviews with inmates, prison staff or prison records. (Pyrooz et. al., 2011) The main way that administrative have attempted to control the prison gangs is through suppression efforts. These efforts include separation and isolation of gang leaders, the preemptive segregation of confirmed gang members and prison lockdowns. (Pyrooz et. al.,