End of Week 5

How is it already mid-February?! Time is flying by! Here is a recap of what happened last week:

Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History: Nané (the executive director of Barrios Unidos) and I met with an employee at the Museum to discuss our upcoming event named "Jazz for Freedom." This event is in partnership with the upcoming museum exhibition: The Kinsey African-American Art & History Collection, one of the largest private collections of African American art and artifacts spanning 400 years of history. Community partners are organizing events in conjunction with the museum, so the BU Prison Project is hosting an event which raises awareness about mass incarceration in the criminal justice system. We will have live music & dancing from local African-American artists, organization tables, and will showcase our Interactive Prison Cell. I will also conduct my research survey to those who participate in the Prison Cell.

Barrios Unidos Prison Project Interactive Cell

Criminal Justice Council Meeting: After the meeting at the museum, I was invited to attend this meeting with my boss and one of my co-workers. It is a fairly important group of individuals who hold various positions in Santa Cruz, and other surrounding counties, such as the head of the probation department, the sheriff, several police chiefs, public defenders, attorneys, judges, and representatives of community organizations. This organizational body was founded with the intention of reducing gang violence, but has expanded its mission over the years to include a general focus on crime & poverty. Overall, the meeting was very informative: looking around the room, I realized that these are the people who pull the strings in this city.

Deutron Kebebew, the director of PAPÁS gave a presentation about his program, which supports father involvement and co-parenting. He started out by discussing and watching the trailer for the movie, The Mask You Live In (which was made by the creators of the movie Miss Representation): 

"The movie follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America's narrow definition of masculinity." I have not seen the movie, but the trailer alone makes me want to host a screening!

So back to PAPÁS - from their website: 

PAPÁS is a community-based social justices program raising awareness for social change while engaging in action-oriented activities that lead to progressive social transformation. We are providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services that strengthen family relationships, help fathers/father-figures become more empowered and involved with their children, and provide a more positive environment for the children’s social-emotional development. Our mission is to honor and promote fathers and father-figures through advocacy and education to support their role in strengthening family and community relationships. In addition to providing direct services, we actively promotes awareness and education that builds social consciousness around the importance of having a father friendly services within social service agencies and a supportive community.

From Deutron's presentation, here are the facts:

• 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.
• 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes.
• 85% of all youths in prisons grew up in a fatherless home.
• 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes.

Here are some facts on teen parenting:

• 3 in 10 teen American girls will get pregnant at least once before age 20. That's nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies every year; meaning that about 750,000 men are also involved in teen pregnancies.
• Parenthood is the leading reason that teen girls drop out of school. More than 50% of teen mothers never graduate from high school.
• About 25% of teen moms have a 2nd child within 24 months of their first baby.
• 8 out of 10 teen dads don't marry the mother of their child.
• Teen dads are less likely to finish high school than their peers. 
• Absent fathers pay less than $800 annually for child support.
• Paternity, for any child born to teen parents, can be established before the child turns 21.
• Children who don't live with their fathers are 5 times more likely to be poverty-stricken than children with both parents at home.
• Teen fathers face a lack of teen parent programs to help them.

These numbers would probably be reduced if there were more support for preventing unwanted pregnancies in the first place and resources for family planning. For those who participate in the parenting classes, some measurable outcomes that parents receive are: reduced stress and anxiety, more relationship and co-parenting satisfaction, they employ less harsh discipline methods, and these parents have decreased scores on the Child Abuse Potential Questionnaire (a nationally standardized instrument). To make a lengthy explanation short, this organization is well supported and is doing phenomenal work in the community to help fathers become involved in their child's life.

Georgia's Finest

From yesterday's headlines . . .

46 Georgia Department of Corrections Officers Arrested in Drug Trafficking Sting

The FBI has arrested 46 former and current Georgia Department Of Corrections officers in a two year drug trafficking sting that spanned throughout nine facilities in Georgia.

Five of those officers arrested were members of the COBRA unit, an elite group of corrections officers in GA DOC whose specialty is breaking up correctional facility-run drug rings.

The federal investigation found that guards and other corrections staff were smuggling contraband such as liquor, tobacco and cell phones into the cell blocks for money. Inmates used the illegal cell phones to commit crimes such as wire fraud, money laundering and identify theft.

The 46 officers along with two civilians and one inmate that were facing charges were expected to go in front of a federal magistrate in groups on Thursday. They were then expected to be turned back over to the custody of the Federal Marshals at undisclosed locations in Georgia, while they await trial.

. . . talk about corruption! Could they have been charged with a gang enhancement as well? This group of criminals could very well fit the definition of a gang!

California Weather

Earlier this week, as my family and friends were taking "snow days" in Georgia, I was running home at Monday afternoon to catch the last rays of sunshine. It was 70 degrees, so I changed into shorts and my legs were almost the same light khaki color. I have to find more excuses to go outside during work.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on the left

The weekend prior, I was skiing in Truckee and the snow conditions were perfect! It may not snow again this season, so driving to the mountains was urgent. After three years of no skiing, I picked it up by the third run - I'm not as good as I was when I was eleven-years-old and skied every weekend. For those of you who do not know, I spent a decent portion of my life in north Lake Tahoe, so it was nice to see this type of winter (at least six feet of fresh powder), as opposed to Georgia winters (frost if it's cold enough). I'm lucky to have grown up in both places, but this area of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range is quite magical . . . 

View of Donner Lake from Old Highway 40

Donner Lake

Donner Lake

Panoramic view from the top of Sugar Bowl, the second oldest ski resort in CA. You can see Donner Lake on the left.

Chewy playing with his favorite stick

From the top of Glacier Way, the view of Donner Lake and the Donner Summit train tunnels . . . and Highway 80.

Humans of New York: Inmate Stories

Since 2010, the very popular blog Humans of New York has collected portraits and interviews on the streets of New York City (reminds me of my blog from freshman year of college). Recently, they have been covering inmates from five different federal penitentiaries across the north east. What I like about this series is that it puts a personal face to those who are behind bars. It makes me question if the correctional system is fulfilling its mission and goals in the most effective way possible. That's a conversation for another day, but here are a few of the stories:


“I’m sixty-two now. I have three more years. I sold heroin. A lot of it. I had forty people working for me. If you were to ask me thirty-four years ago what it was going to be like in prison, I couldn’t have imagined. It’s been the same thing every day. Everyone I care about is gone. My mother passed. My father passed. My brother and sister. If I look backwards, I’ll lose my mind. I just try to keep busy and take it one day at a time. I’ve done every self-help program in the system. I’m the lead facilitator for the Men of Influence program. We teach behavioral skills, financial management, and entrepreneurship. In the five years that I’ve been in charge, we’ve graduated 250 people, and only one has come back to prison. I tell them: ‘Don’t let me be your future.’ And if I could say one thing to everyone who reads this interview. I want to apologize for the harm that I caused. If I could go back in time and correct it, I would. But that’s what I’ve been trying to do for the past 34 years. I grew up in the Baltimore projects. Everyone that I knew had nothing. I was trying to improve my life with the information that I had at the time. I grabbed the wrong rope. I’m sorry if I caused generations behind me to go astray. It wasn’t my intention to bring pain to the community. And I really think that when I’m released, I can be an asset to society.”
(Federal Correctional Institution: Cumberland, Maryland)

"I got caught up in a little something. I've got twenty days left. Nobody knows I'm here. I've got somebody updating my Facebook page for me. All my friends think I'm in Hawaii right now." (Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York)

“I was alone with four kids. My mother was sick. I was making $500 a week working at a restaurant in Harlem. This Colombian woman told me she could help. She said, ‘We need honest people like you.’ I really needed the money. They gave me a job as a transporter. I drove cocaine from Manhattan to Massachusetts. They gave me some extra to sell at the restaurant. I only had a few clients. I did it for two years. I never did any drugs myself. Then I was set up in a sting by the same woman who got me started. I knew I’d done wrong but I’d never been in trouble before. I thought I would do a little time in jail. The detectives told me: ‘You’re a leader. You’re this. You’re that.’ The lawyer told me to sign these papers. I didn’t understand what to do. They told me I didn’t have a chance at trial. They told me they were helping me. I was given 25 years.” (Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn)

“He’s a beautiful person. He always tells me: ‘We’ve got tofind a way to win by losing.’ In the eyes of society, we’ve lost already. Everyone in here is a loser. We can either be angry about it, or we can keep trying to grow. He’s always correcting my Spanish and giving me quizzes. He used to be an engineer, so he’s been tutoring me in trigonometry. He’s been a blessing to me. He’s helped me to not be so angry. He’s always so happy and optimistic. And I don’t know how he stays so positive. Because I’m getting out of here in 40 months. He’s doing life.” (Federal Correctional Complex: Allenwood, Pennsylvania)

“I was studying landscape 
architecture at Penn State anddealing drugs on the side. At the age of twenty, I got arrested with a quarter pound of mushrooms and a pound of marijuana. I assumed my life was over at that point. I didn’t think I could bounce back from a felony charge so I pretty much gave up on everything. I started doing cocaine and heroin while I waited on my sentencing, and I’ve been an addict ever since. I’ve spent a total of fifteen years in prison for various drug charges. My last arrest was for producing Fentanyl. It’s extremely difficult to make—it’s stronger than heroin and a much more complicated molecule than meth. I only know of one other person on the east coast who figured out how to make it. There were so many laws in place to keep people from getting the materials. I had no resources and no connections but I studied organic chemistry and found a way. When I finally got caught, all they wanted to know was how I did it. That’s the problem with my addiction. I’m smart enough to get around anything. So there’s never been anything to stop me but myself.”(Federal Correctional Complex: Allenwood, Pennsylvania)

“This is my fifth time in prison. Every crime I’ve committed has come from my addiction. Best case scenario is I get out of here, rebuild my life, and join the one percent of people who have beaten a meth addiction. Worst case scenario is I become no more than what I am today. And honestly, if I mess up again, I hope it kills me. Because I don’t want to keep hurting people. I’ve cheated my kids out of normal lives. My seventeen-year-old daughter is in a home for teen moms. My twenty-one-year-old son is in jail. My eighteen-year-old daughter is doing OK. She’s got a job at FedEx and goes to college. She hates drugs and thinks the world is a good place and that nobody is out to hurt her. She wants to help me. She wants me to come live with her when I get out. I don’t think that’s a good idea.” (Federal Correctional Complex: Hazelton, West Virginia)

Gangs (of California)

What if gang members dressed like Daniel Day Lewis?

Before I get into the topic of gangs, I'll allow the National Institute of Justice to explain what a gang really is:

There is no single, universally accepted definition of a “gang.” Many state and local jurisdictions have developed statutory definitions. The following are common criteria for classifying a group as a gang.

• The group has three or more members, generally aged 12–24.
• Members share an identity, typically linked to a name, and often other symbols.
• Members view themselves as a gang, and they are recognized by others as a gang.
• The group has some permanence and a degree of organization.
• The group is involved in an elevated level of criminal and/or delinquent activity. 

This definition refers to what some call "street gangs" and does not generally include organized crime groups, hate groups, or groups driven exclusively by ideology.

How convenient! So, under this definition, any group of deviant individuals can be loosely defined as a "gang". So a church teen group, all wearing the same t-shirt (or symbols, colors, stick-on tattoos on their foreheads) could be considered a gang if they all say, downloaded music illegally, right? That's a criminal act! But I wonder how many songs would they have to download for them to end up in juvenile hall? 

As an aside, when discussing juvenile delinquency, it is important that we distinguish between those who associate with delinquent peer groups and those who are legitimate members of a gang. Joining a gang is considered a special phenomenon that exists outside the normal realm of adolescent deviation . . . more on this in a future discussion

Okay back to the subject:

Because of the broadness of the word gang, studying, recording, and following gang activity can be very problematic for researchers, law enforcement, social service agencies, and policy makers. It's not like there is a complete list or database of known and verified gang members out there. Sure, we may know who some of the leaders, bosses, or shot-callers are, but how can law enforcement know for certain if a specific group of juveniles are apart of a gang? Gangs may not keep a file cabinet of member records, but anything is possible!

Further, gang-related crimes are not distinguished in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (a database for U.S. crime statistics), so measuring accurate figures and trends of gang activity is next to impossible. For example, in the UCR, a "homicide" is not designated as being different from a "gang-related homicide." Certain sentences, however, can receive a gang enhancement depending on the circumstances of the crime and the accused's gang affiliation.

In terms of a operation, some gangs are very well-organized, have a clearly defined hierarchy, and can operate just like the Chicago Outfit (tax evasion included). Other gangs may not be as complicated in form and will have a loose structure with no definitive leader or organizational structure. Additionally, not all gangs operate drug traffic rings as their chosen deviant activity or as a main source of income. Oftentimes, those who are involved in drugs do so on their own accord, without the organizational support of the gang. Youth gangs tend to be involved in violence or entrepreneurial activities, but drug trafficking gangs do exist.

In California, there are about 40 identified gangs, but in prison, most of the inmates belong to one of California’s six main prison gangs: Nuestra Familia, the Mexican Mafia, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Black Guerrilla Family, the Northern Structure, or the Nazi Lowriders (the last two are offshoots of Nuestra Familia and the Aryan Brotherhood, respectively). In prison, guards must be sensitive to the prison gang dynamics: "The inmates interact like volatile chemicals: if you open their cells in such a way as to put, say, a lone member of Nuestra Familia in a crowd of Mexican Mafia, the mix can explode violently." 

For prison security reasons, it is not uncommon for officials to house inmates according to race, as gang membership is usually divided by strict racial and ethnic lines. In prison, membership in a gang can offer protection, a sense of macho-ism, and camaraderie. Depending on the institutional dynamics, an inmate who was not affiliated with a gang before entering prison might be now.

And that my friends, was a superficial description of gangs. Like any student, I don't know everything about gangs, but I could definitely keep talking about the subject. As an organization, Barrios Unidos actively reduces and prevents gang violence in a nonviolent way through culture and spirituality. We take the topic very seriously. I have been working for this organization for 3.5 weeks, so I am still learning a lot and I will likely discuss this topic in a future post.

In the meanwhile, check out David Skarbek's book description of: The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System

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.