International Journal on Criminology Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 62

Organized Crime Behind Bars
Texas Mafia became my God. It had started this violent and murderous war with the
Aryan Brotherhood. My penchant for violence and brutality quickly gave me a place in
the gang and I got a reputation throughout the prison system in Texas pretty quick. By
18, I'd been promoted to lieutenant, after being in on one serious punishment of another
prisoner who had talked about the Texas Mafia to outsiders... At 20, I had reached the
rank of captain in one of the deadliest prison gangs. I was totally contaminated by their
way of thinking... I was sent to the McConnell Unit in Beeville, Texas, later known
as the “hate factory.” In that corrupted world gangs ruled. Violence, rape, murder,
homosexuality and extortion were a way of life. It was paradise for me. At McConnell,
I began to build my own system of perverse and violent power. At my discretion, men
were bought, sold, prostituted or beaten. This power blinded me so much I really started
to believe I could take on the system and win.” 176
In a closed universe, violence and intimidation are the weapons of choice for
prison gangs. They compromise the safety of other inmates and that of the prison staff.
The whole institution and its surroundings are concerned.
We have seen how extreme violence led the Nuova Camorra Organizzata to ruin.
Yet this is the usual way of gaining power, both individually and collectively, within the
prison world. It is also the normal mode of conflict resolution, even in its most perverse
forms such as the slow puncture method mentioned above.
In December 1972, the murder of Rudy Cheyenne Cadena, 177 charismatic leader
of the Mexican Mafia in Chino prison 178 resulted in thirty murders in the prison world
in the following weeks. 179 This “vendetta” is still ongoing and, according to experts, has
caused more than a thousand deaths over the years within the prison system and in the
streets.
Violence between members and non-members is common in South Africa, while
violence within a gang is exceptional and only occurs in specific circumstances, where
a member has breached the code. For example, although the 28s and 26s frequently
oppose each other, a certain respect remains. None, for example, would authorize an
inmate who committed an offense against a member of another gang to join their own
gang before the wrong had been righted.
In this context, the ability to fight and the nature of the crime committed confer
a status within the prison with a threefold objective: 180 it demonstrates the passage from
boyhood to manhood; it is used to mark the boundary between the space of the gang
and that of the guards; finally, it divides inmates into men and wyfies.
176
Smedley, Henry. My Life in Prison Gangs. Denver, CO: Bible Advocate Press, 2000.
177
The character of “Cheyenne” inspired the 1992 Edward James Olmos movie “American Me.” Shot
in the district of Ramona Gardens, East LA, the movie cost the lives of several people who agreed to
advise its producers, including a social worker, Ana Lizarraga (killed June 14, 1993), because certain
scenes offended the Mexican Mafia. Olmos himself was the victim of threats and blackmail.
178
Seventy miles east of Los Angeles.
179
Gang Beat 12, 4, Summer 2001.
180
Steinberg. Nongoloza's Children.
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