By Daryll Slimmer
Intelligence Officer
Part 2 of 2: Read Part 1
The relationship of the issues presented are complex, and the following sections will hopefully provide clarification and clearly illustrate examples of how staff profiling and manipulation occurs, as well as suggestions for training programs that would alleviate it, or bring the problem down to manageable proportions.
The first section will be directed to the actual elements involved in staff profiling. It will also provide examples of the methods used to conduct staff profiling. The second section will explore the methods gang members use to exploit dissension between line staff and administrative staff. The third section will deal with possible solutions to these problems.
Staff Profiling
The first element necessary to profile a staff member is dialog. A gang member will try to lead any conversation he is having with a staff member into areas that involve the staff members’ personal history. Gang members will attempt to elicit information such as: Racial orientation Is the staff member a racist; Political orientation Is the staff member right or left wing or an extremist; Family history Married, divorced, single or children; Sexual history Homosexual, heterosexual or promiscuous; Interests Fishing, sports, guns, hunting, etc.
The second element necessary to profile a staff member is for the gang member to determine if the staff member exhibits certain personality traits that will make him exceptionally susceptible to profiling. The categories, which most staff members who are susceptible to profiling, fall under the following:
- Racist Belief Systems
- Emotional Instabilities
- Sympathizes with white prisoners A Conflicts between staff members
- Sympathizes with Black prisoners B Conflicts between inmates and staff members
- Sympathizes with Hispanic prisoners C Fear of environment
- Financial Instabilities
- Greed
- Greed
- Addictions and Vices
- Financial difficulties
- Gambling
- Drug
- Sexual appetites
- Vulnerability
- Promiscuity or deviant sexual behavior
- Illegal sexual practices
Once a staff member has been determined to fit in one or more of these categories, the gang members will chose the method that he will use to work that officer.
Example 1 a b c
Staff member A is involved in a conversation with gang member B. During the conversation, the issue of race arises. Gang member B mentions that since the laws on crack cocaine were instituted the prison system continue to be overrun by black and minority inmates and that it is becoming increasingly difficult to do time. Staff member A replies that he can understand those complaints because it is becoming increasingly difficult for him and his fellow officers to do their job. They are constantly being assaulted or killed with no protection from the government, while at the same time the government is protecting the civil rights of minority inmates at all costs.
Gang member B then states that he and other members of his gang share the same view. They then develop a relationship with that staff member based upon their similar points of view. Staff member A now believes that the gang members will not let any of the minority gangs harm an officer or run the housing units.
Once a gang member has been successful at getting a staff members to talk about racial issues, he will begin to develop a relationship with the staff members based on these “shared” points of view. That gang member will then tell the rest of the members of his group to approach that officer on a racial level.
United front
Gang members will portray themselves as being racially united, dedicated to their cause, courageous and honorable. They will emphasize that they know that the staff member shares those same characteristics and that they respect him for that. The gang members will now begin asking the staff member to do small favors. The staff member, who has come to respect gang member B will comply with the requests feeling that it is the least he can do.
Staff members who share the same racial belief system often associate with each other. After the gang has profiled enough of these staff members they have whole groups of staff whom identify with them and whom begin to adopt parts of that gang’s culture and ideology. This officer will feel justified in assisting these gang members.
Ideology gangs use the theme of profiling staff members based upon racial belief system. The method may vary slightly according to which racial group is doing the profiling, but the goals and results are similar. Racial profiling is the most prevalent and efficient form of profiling used by prison gangs and has been used with a great deal of success.
While profiling staff members according to their racial belief systems may be extremely beneficial to prison gangs, it is detrimental to the Bureau of Prisons. As staff members adopt the culture and ideology of these gangs they become fragmented amongst themselves. With no unity between staff members and staff loyalties lying with specific prison gangs instead of with each other and the Bureau of Prisons, prison gangs can operate freely.
This is by no means meant to imply that all staff members are racist or attached to prison gangs. There are many staff members who cannot be racially profiled. However, there is a significant number of staff within any institution that can be racially profiled. This is because gang members have become efficient at creating the illusion that they share common beliefs with these staff members and that they respect them. In actuality, three things motivate gangs: Profit, power and prestige. To them, espousing racial beliefs and ideologies is nothing more than tools and will quickly turn on a staff member whom will not do their bidding, and will then attempt to have that staff member ostracized by his peers.
Example 2 a
Staff member A and staff member C are walking down the range delivering meals. They begin arguing about which one of them is going to run recreation after the trays are picked up. The argument continues as they leave the tier, becoming more heated, and both officers displaying animosity toward each other.
This conversation occurred in the presence of 12 inmates, including 4 gang members. Gang member B approaches staff member A the next day and tells him that he needs to talk to him alone. Gang member B tells staff member A that he overheard a conversation between staff member C and another staff member and that they were talking about staff member A. When staff member A asks what they were talking about, gang member B states, “Listen, I am going to tell you what they were talking about because you have always been alright with us. But you have to give me your word that this conversation will stay between us. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m ratting, or get caught in the middle by staff member C and his friends.”
Gang member B is then going to concoct a story and tell staff member A that,” I heard staff member C talking to another staff member that I didn’t recognize. He was telling him that he is getting sick of you trying to tell him what to do and that if you weren’t careful he was going to see you in the parking lot. The cop I didn’t recognize told him to let him know when he was going to see you because he wants some too.”
After staff member A responds and thanks gang member B for the information, gang member B is going to reply, “Hey, that’s no problem, you look out for us and we look out for you. Just don’t say anything to anyone else about this.” Gang member B will then begin cultivating a relationship with that staff member. The staff member will be reminded sooner or later that he owes a favor and will be asked to give the location of one of the gang’s enemies or some task that will compromise his integrity.
Profiling based upon conflict between staff members is based on opportunity. If staff members show animosity or disrespect toward each other within the view and hearing of gang member or other inmates it will be taken care of.
Example 2 b
Gang member B is housed on C Range in E Unit. An inmate that is disruptive is moved onto C Range. The inmate begins cussing at staff members, filing BP 8’s, banging on his bars and being a real nuisance.
Staff member A mentions to gang member B that the disruptive inmate is making life miserable for everyone and he wishes that someone would get him in line. Gang member B replies, “I’m going to pull him up in the morning. He won’t be causing you any more problems.”
The next day, during recreation, gang member B and his associates are going to approach the disruptive inmate. They are going to tell him that his behavior is bringing heat on the unit and that it is interfering with gang business. He will be told that if he continues giving staff a hard time and continues being disruptive that he will either be forced to seek protective custody. From that time forward the disruptive inmate will no longer act out. Staff member A and other unit staff will then thank gang member B for helping them to keep the unit quiet and running smooth. Staff members will begin to seek out gang member B and his associates whenever a problem arises within the housing unit. In return, gang member B and his associates will have preferred job assignments, passing of items from cell to cell without being searched, passing information onto other inmates and so on.
Staff will believe that they are merely using gang member B and his associates as inmate management tools. What they don’t know is that more often than not, the disruptive inmate was part of the ruse. Often times, gang members will select an inmate and order him to act out, harass staff, and so on, for the express purpose of manipulating staff into asking for the gangs help in alleviating problem.
Instead of using gang members to manage difficult inmates, staff members are being used to unwittingly assist gangs in their criminal enterprises, and the preferential treatment afforded to these gang members allow them to commit murder, assaults, traffic in drugs, communicate orders, etc. This form of profiling is especially effective at high security institutions.
Example 2 c
An institution hires new staff. One of the new staff members is assigned to watch the recreation yard. If he displays any signs of nervousness, gang member B will approach him and strike up a conversation. He will be personable and friendly and do everything he can to put the staff member at ease.
Gang member B will tell the new staff member not to believe everything he has heard about gang member’s B gang, that they never harm staff and that they will not allow any other inmates to harm staff either. He will tell the new staff member that he seems like a decent guy, just trying to make a living and support his family and that he respects that decision. Gang member B will then tell the new staff member that if he runs into any problems with other inmates to let him know or one of the other gang members know about it and they will straighten it out immediately.
That new staff member will be relieved to find out that the situation was not as dangerous as he had expected and that there would be people looking out for him in the future. He will become used to going to gang member B and his associates with small favors when asked.
Gang members thrive in an emotionally unstable environment. Staff members are off balance and it makes them particularly vulnerable to manipulation. If the environment is not naturally unstable, gang members will create situations to make it appear as if it was. The mistaken belief that gang members can be used to control inmate population permeates all levels within the Bureau of Prisons. It is a fallacy which empowers gangs and leaves staff members in the position of having to bargain with and appease gang members in order to operate an institution. It also creates an atmosphere gangs can compromise staff integrity at will. As long as this belief persists, prison gangs will continue to gain power within the nation’s prison systems.
Example 3 a
Staff member A is talking to gang member B and mentions how hard it is to make ends meet with the high cost of living in his area. Gang member B will ask him how much he pays for rent or what his mortgage rates are, and he will try to get staff member A to reveal any financial difficulties he may be having.
If staff member A revels any financial difficulties than gang member B will begin cultivating a relationship with him. Whenever the subject of money comes up, gang member B will jokingly say that it is a shame that staff member A doesn’t work for him because he would never have to worry about money then.
If staff member A doesn’t rebuff him immediately then gang member B will continue to make similar remarks whenever the opportunity arises becoming more serious each time.
Gang member B will then wait until the staff member brings up his financial problems again. When he does, gang member B will begin his pitch in earnest. He will state, “Listen, I’ve gotten to know you pretty well since you started working here, and I’ve come to like and respect you a great deal. I don’t want to say anything to offend you, but I want you to hear me out before you say anything. I made a lot of money while I was on the street and I don’t really need a lot in here. I know you are not a criminal and I’m not going to ask you for anything in return, but I’d like to loan you the money to help get you back on your feet. I’ve got a ton of it and it’s not like I will miss it. I give you my word that it will stay between me and you and never go any further.”
If staff member A does not immediately report the gang member for attempted bribery, he will eventually be convinced to take the money. Gang member B is going to say anything necessary to convince the officer that there no, or few strings attached.
The moment staff member A accepts the money his life will never be the same. He will be in too far to get out without implicating himself and at the very least, losing his job. He will find out that gang member B did indeed have strings attached to the loan and that he would be paying it back by introducing drugs into the institution for gang member B and his associates. This form of profiling is less prevalent than racial or emotional profiling but the financial rewards are much greater for the gangs which use it successfully. Racial and emotional profiling lessens the integrity of the staff in general and leaves staff more vulnerable to this type of profiling than in the past.
Example 3 b
Staff member A and gang member B are having a conversation and staff member A mentions that they only difference between him and a convict is that he hasn’t been caught. He will listen attentively whenever gang member B is telling him a story about all the money him and his associates are marking and express envy at their success.
Gang member B will approach the staff member, usually with several one hundred dollar bills and offer them to the staff member. If the staff member accepts the money then the gang member will make a business arrangement with him to bring contraband into the institution on a regular basis for an agreed upon fee.
This scenario can be run with an infinite number of variations. Again, this type of profiling is less prevalent than racial or emotional profiling but becomes more prevalent than racial or emotional profiling when the integrity of the staff as a whole becomes compromised.
Example 4 a
Staff member A is a sports fan. He walks past gang member B’s cell and sees him watching a football game. He asks gang member B what the score is and a conversation about the team playing ensues. During the conversation staff member A mentions that he hopes his team wins because he has $50 bet on the game. Gang member B will tell the officer that he hopes the same team wins because he has money bet on the game with his bookie on the street.
Gang member B will use every opportunity that arises to bring up the subject of sports and gambling with staff member A. He will begin telling him how much money he wins each week gambling and claim to have inside knowledge on point spreads. He will begin offering staff member A picks and other advice on gambling.
Finally, when staff member A is comfortable with gang member B and their sports related conversations, gang member B will offer to give the staff member the name and location of his bookie. He will tell him that his bookie is a personal friend of his and will give him the best lines in the area. Gang member B will have it prearranged so that if the staff member shows up at the location he was given, one of his associates will book bets with the officer giving him betting lines that he can’t lose on.
Once the officer has won several bets and begun to bet increasing amounts of money, the associate on the street will begin giving him the regular betting lines. The officer will then begin losing money. The associate will give the officer an open line of credit and allow him to continue to bet even when he doesn’t have the money to cover his loses.
The entire point is to get staff member A in serious debt from which he has no chance of recovering. Gang member B will then have his associate on the street start threatening the officer, telling him if he doesn’t pay off his gambling bill he will have him physically harmed.
When staff member A approaches gang member B and tells him about the problems he has run into paying off his gambling debts, gang member B will offer to talk to his bookie. Meanwhile the associate on the street will continue to pressure the officer to pay the debt.
Gang member B will then tell staff member A that he talked to the bookie on the street and that he tried to convince him to allow the officer some more time to pay the debt. He will then tell him that the bookie will not listen and that he fears that the officer is about to be harmed or killed for failing to pay the debt.
Gang member B will wait several days and then approach staff member A with an offer saying, “Listen, I hate to see you in trouble like this. These people are serious and they won’t play games with you. You either pay them or they will hurt you. What I am going to do is have my people go over to the bookies today and pay off your bill. It’s a lot of money and I’m going to need it back, but I’ll work out a deal with you so that it won’t create any real hardship for you.”
If staff member A is in that deep, he has no choice but to accept the offer. Gang member B is going to tell the officer that instead of making him pay back the debt in chase he is going to do him a favor and allow him to pay off the debt by bringing in a small package each week. Gang member B will then give the officer instructions on how the packages will be delivered to him and when to bring it into the institutions.
Once staff member A has been compromised it is a simple matter to keep him in debt. His credit line for gambling will be re established and the cycle will be repeated. This type of profiling, while not as prevalent as racial or emotional profiling, is fairly common. The problem lies with unstructured dialog and inadequate training.
Example 4 b
Staff member a and gang member B have developed a relationship and get along well. Staff member A mentions that he can’t wait for the weekend because he is going to a party and is going to get wasted. Gang member B will start telling the staff member about parties he had been to in the past and ask him if drug prices are still the same and if they are easy to find in this area.
If staff member A answers these questions then gang member B will begin telling him that he can’t believe how high the prices of drugs are in that area and that he can get them much cheaper. He will start quoting prices far below the street value, saying that whoever the officer or the officer’s supplier is, he is ripping him off.
These conversation will continue until gang member B and staff member A talk about drugs and the drug culture on a regular basis. Gang member B will inevitable offer to supply the officer with drugs at a very low price or even for free. In return, he will ask staff member A to bring a small package of drugs into the institution for him on a regular basis.
The above is a general example. There are many variations to this theme. Gang members are constantly looking for staff members who exhibit signs of heavy drug usage or addiction problems. This problem also lies with unstructured dialog and inadequate training. It is further exacerbated by the national drug problem which affects all levels of society and by no means exempts correctional workers.
This type of profiling is not as prevalent as racial or emotional profiling yet it is common enough. It is also more prevalent in coastal regions and institutions that are located in close proximately to large cities where drugs are more readily available and the drug culture is more firmly embedded than in rural regions.
Example 5 a b c
profiling according to sexual appetites usually involves a number of factors which when combined leave a staff member vulnerable to the predatory instincts of gang member and other inmates. Given the amount of variable involved in sexual profiling, general, rather than specific examples will better illustrate what gang members and other inmates are looking for in this area.
Male gang members and other inmate will look for female staff members whose physical appearance or personality traits set them apart from the social norm. Gang members look for female staff members who have physical deformities or are overweight, emaciated, unattractive, exceptionally shy and who exhibit personality traits consistent with low self esteem.
The key element in the above examples whether the staff member considers herself attractive or unattractive is low self esteem. The gang member will always be searching for the staff member who doesn’t quite fit in with her peers. He will go out of his way to show her kindness, compassion, caring and sympathy. He will prey on her fears and weaknesses and do everything he can to manipulate her into a position where she becomes emotionally dependent on him.
Once the gang member has developed a relationship along these lines he will begin to use the staff member for a variety of purposes. He will start with small things like asking for information concerning what was discussed at roll call, to finding the location of other inmates. This will soon escalate and the staff member will be asked to bring in drugs, handle money, etc. This type of profiling is fairly common and is a result of unstructured dialog and inadequate training.
Male gang members will also look for staff members who are homosexual. The will then attempt to involve that officer in compromising sexual situations, usually with a homosexual inmate chosen for the task and then confront the staff member with their knowledge of his activities. The officer will then be blackmailed or extorted into working for the gang. As social mores change and homosexuality loses the stigma attached to it, this form of profiling becomes less prevalent and less effective.
Gang members will also look for staff members who are always talking about sexual matters and exhibit promiscuous or deviant behavior. A gang member will involve the officer in conversations of a sexual nature, let him view his pornography, and at the same time find out as many details about the staff members personal life as possible.
The gang member will be using these conversations to find the area that will turn this staff member promiscuity or deviant behavior into a liability. If the officer is married, has children, is involved in deviant behavior which would be extremely embarrassing or illegal, he will be vulnerable to blackmail or extortion.
The gang member will then use the details that the officer has revealed about his personal life to set the officer up. He will have an associate on the street arrange for the staff member to be approached by a person that fills his sexual criterion. That person will be instructed to develop a sexual relationship with the staff member. The officer will then be confronted with proof and details concerning his sexual activities and be threatened with exposure if he does not succumb to the gang members demands. The staff member will then be coerced into assisting that gang in its criminal activities.
The examples used in regard to the five categories already listed by no means exhausts the subject. While inmates have always used some of these methods to attempt to manipulate staff, it was usually a single inmate trying to corrupt a single staff member. The increasing growth and sophistication of prison gangs has led to a new dynamic in staff/inmate interactions. The emphasis is no longer being placed on the corruption of individual staff members. Instead, the emphasis is being placed on compromising the integrity of whole sections of staff.
Since there is a new dynamic and gang leaders and gang members are using more organized and innovative methods to gain control of correctional institution, new methods are needed to counteract their success. Current correctional philosophies which do not take into account all the factors involved in the problem of staff manipulation will become increasingly ineffective. If gang members are using innovative methods to manipulate staff and gain control within correctional institutions, then the Bureau of Prisons needs to develop innovative methods of their own to control gang members and their activities, including their efforts to compromise staff.
Staff members working in a correctional institution are subject to the same foibles and frailties which afflict any other member of society. Their job places them in constant daily contact with inmates, many who have spent the better part of their life preying upon the foibles and frailties of many members of society. The dangers a correctional officer faces under the conditions of daily contact are by no means limited to the threat of physical harm or clumsy attempt at corruption by single inmates.
Gang members allow staff members to see only what they want. They work as an unified group to manipulate and control staff. This profiling and manipulation presents a greater threat to staff and administrators than other danger they are currently facing. Until the problems of unstructured dialog is addressed, staff will continue to supply gang members with the information needed to profiling them.
To address this problem comprehensively, the training of new employees would have to include: making them aware of the dangers that staff profiling presents to them; the methods which they can expect gang members to be using in order to profile and manipulate them; and ways to counteract those methods. It would also be necessary to retrain current staff members.
Taking advanof perceived weakness
This section pertains to the problems that arise from any open signs of dissension or division between the line staff and management. Gang leaders and gang members are able to exploit the slightest hint of dissension or division between these two groups.
It is inevitable that some degree of friction will exist between line staff and management. In most businesses this friction might be considered normal. In the field of corrections it is disastrous.
Both line staff and management view the disputes and dissension that arises from such friction as purely internal matters which affect no one beyond those persons employed by the Bureau of Prisons. However, both line staff and management fail to take into account that there is a third party involved in all such disputes and dissension.
The third party consists of gang leaders, gang members and other inmates. Disputes and dissension between line staff and management do not occur in a vacuum. Gang members utilize these disputes at every opportunity and make every attempt to influence and enlarge the disputes until an artificial division occurs between line staff and management, placing them into opposing camps where an us against them mentality takes root and where any appearance of common ground disappears.
The failure to recognize and take into account the influence that this third party has on these disputes and dissension has led line staff and management to develop a distorted view of each other. Line staff comes to view management as being insensitive to their needs, unsupportive, distrusting and pro inmate. At the same time, management comes to view the line staff as contentious, inordinately susceptible to corruption and abuse of power and as adopting the cultural more and ideologies of the inmates in their charge.
This atmosphere of distrust and the division it creates between line staff and management would appear to benefit neither party. Yes, it exists. It becomes increasingly difficult for the parties to develop amicable solutions to mutual problems or to settle disputes in a manner that addresses and accommodates both party’s needs. This in turn leads to the further polarization to internal factors they will continue to maintain a distorted view of each other, and this distorted view will continue to become self fulfilling prophecy. Line staff will be contentious and susceptible to corruption and abuse of power and management will be insensitive, unsupportive and distrusting.
However, when the external factor, gang members, gets included into the equation it becomes clear who the benefactor to the polarization between line staff and management is.
Gang leaders and gang members have spent years identifying the flaws in the Bureau of Prison’s operating procedures. They are constantly alert for any sign of dissension between line staff and management. As soon as it is detected, it is exploited. The dissension, distrust, and division between line staff and management creates the window of opportunity through which gang members can successfully profile staff, control inmate populations and operate criminal enterprises that are detrimental to the Bureau of Prisons.
The leaders of the major gang operating within the Bureau of Prisons give their members instructions on what image they want them to project to line staff, what image they want them to project to management and specific rules of behavior concerning their interactions with both parties.
One such rule of behavior that can easily be observed is that gang members will always side with line staff in any dispute between line staff and management, even when it would appear to be in their disadvantage to do so.
Gang members have constant daily contact with line staff. Line staff make no effort to conceal their disputes with management. Thus it is a simple matter for gang members to detect dissension between the two groups and exploit it. Whenever line staff voices their displeasure with an administrative decision or their dislike for a particular administrator within the hearing range of inmates, gang members will go into actions.
Gang members will sympathize with the complaining staff members, telling them that they feel it is a shame that a warden, associate warden, captain, etc., treats them worse than they do the inmates. They will constantly agree with line staff that management treats them with contempt, disrespects them, shows no regard what so ever for officers personal safety, and continuously implements insane rule changes which line staff are then expected to pay head to and enforce, and then bear the brunt of the inmate’s wrath at having their daily routines disrupted. Gang members use every opportunity to reinforce line staff’s belief that while they are on the yards and working the housing units, risking their lives, management is sitting in comfortable offices trying to devise new ways to make line staff’s working conditions even more dangerous and miserable.
The line staff are told repeatedly that it is the gang members who treat them with respect, not management and that it is the gang members who keep them out of harms way and protects them and gang members who realize that the line staff is made up of good and decent men and women just trying to earn a decent living at a difficult job, not management. Since neither line staff or management consider gang members to be players in their internal disputes, it is easy for gang members to maintain the illusion that they are actually concerned about what happens to line staff.
Gang members are merely repeating and exaggerating upon the sentiments already held by the line staff. The constant reinforcement of the staff’s own sentiments and beliefs makes the gang member appear to be sympathetic to the line staff’s constant struggle with management.
The line staff in turn becomes more sympathetic towards the gang members whom seem to be supporting them. This leads to the line staff to come to view the gang members as their allies and come to view management as the common enemy.
Line staff and management are now locked into this distorted view of each other. Gang members will then use the same process to convince staff that informants, whether staff or inmate, are also the common enemy. They will portray informants as management dupes who work for the administration in setting up staff members and inmates alike.
More common ground is created between line staff and gang members and staff comes to believe that by disclosing information about the whereabouts of informants, the information which they are supplying, that they are weakening management’s position and strengthening their own. Management is then placed in a position where they must view the line staff as adversaries and the us versus them mentality becomes imbedded in all future disputes.
As long as line staff and management continue to consider this division to be a natural outgrowth of their internal disputes, the cycle cannot be broken. However, once the third party influence is taken into account, it can be eliminated and measures can be implemented to prevent the problem from reoccurring.
There is clear distinction between staff profiling and the manipulation of line staff and management through the dissension and division which separates them.
Staff profiling requires that a gang member modify his behavior and opinions to mirror those of a specific staff member. It requires a one on one approach and takes into account factors such as personal history and character flaws. The manipulation of staff through the disputes and dissension which exist between line staff and management is more dependent upon the image which the gang as a whole tries to project.
Gang members try to project the image that their group is honorable, courageous, united and powerful. They speak of their gang (i.e. Aryan Brotherhood, Mexican Eme, Black Gangster Disciples, etc..) as possessing integrity and loyalty and that the word of a single gang member binds all members of the gang.
Gang members use this image to convince line staff that they are more similar than different. They actually attempt to practice some of these virtues, as long as there is a staff member or administrator present to observe them. Gang members repeatedly use catch phrases and words, then match them to their actions and over the years they develop an image that line staff, administrators and other inmates come to believe in and accept.
Once the gang’s image has been developed, it becomes easier for the line staff to consider them as potential allies. It also makes administrators believe that they can approach a gang leader and ask him to give his word that he will correct a certain situation or have his gang cease certain activities.
As long as line staff and management believe this to be true, they will continue to be manipulated and set against each other. The image that the gangs have developed are a matter of convenience at best and completely illusory at worst.
The reality behind a gangs inner workings is the opposite of the image which they project to staff and administrators. Gang members act honorable, courageously and united only so long as they have an audience. When staff and administrators rarely see is that as soon as there are no eyes upon them, the code of conduct and the behavior which gang members exhibit no longer exists. Within the gang’s treachery, deceit, and betrayal are the norm.
Gang members view staff members and administrators alike as the enemy and have no respect for them whatsoever. If it is more convenient to give an administrator their work and then break it then gang members will do so. In order for the Bureau to counteract the gang influence within its institutions, they must first see them for what they are and not by taking the image that they project.
About the author
Daryll Slimmer began his career in corrections as a Juvenile Detention Officer at the Salem County Correctional Facility. After a little over a year with the SCCF, he joined the Federal Bureau of Prisons as a Correctional Officer at FCI Fairton, N.J.. He later assumed the position of Intelligence Officer with the Special Investigative Services (SIS) at FCI Fairton. He recently returned from a 15 month tour in Iraq and is currently serving as a Training Assistant with the NJ-PTAE (Pre-mobilazition Training Assistance Element) with-in the New Jersey National Guard. After the deployment of the 50th IBCT in June, he will be returning to FCI Fairton as a Senior Officer Specialist.”