International Journal on Criminology Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 82

Organized Crime Behind Bars
especially the myths of the Number, inside and outside of prisons. Associations of gangs
formed outside persist inside and vice versa.
This osmosis between the prison and the street is well illustrated by the
Smotriachtchii 281 in Russia who, still today and even when free, ensure that the
customary rules of the prison still govern the parallel economy and the relationships
between criminal groups.
A MENACE TO SOCIETY
The few examples we have been able to give and many more besides, along
with the analysis we have made of them, reveal the gravity of the problem of
prison gangs: Trafficking, corruption, extreme violence, escapes, and osmosis
between criminal groups in and out of prisons, often replacing legitimate authorities,
all demonstrate little-known and inadmissible flaws in the prison system as we
understand it in states under the rule of law.
Prisoners have rights. This is the contract with those constrained to serve a
custodial sentence. Yet these rights are systematically violated by prison gangs, in some
cases to the ultimate extent, where the prisoner's life is forfeit. This is probably the
most alarming aspect of the existence of these organizations, and the most inexcusable
fault of those who remain silent or who tolerate their existence.
When a prison gang controls a prison from inside; when it is free to manage
its “business” inside; when it tortures or executes other detainees; when the prison
becomes a “criminal University” for any gangster desirous of education, promotion
and prestige... just what role is this prison actually playing in society?
Today, we see in most countries around the world that even where the freedom
of prisoners to come and go is strictly curtailed, their destructive influence is scarcely,
if at all, affected.
Careful observation of prison gangs in many of the world's prison systems
reveals a universal capacity to work around the constraints of imprisonment and to
overcome isolation. They all yield profits enabling them to corrupt whomever they see
fit; they will not hesitate to intimidate prisoners and prison staff alike, nor to eliminate
those who oppose them.
In the final analysis they murder with impunity. The dominant logic of
repression, in states considering themselves to be under the rule of law, is based on a
criminal philosophy best qualified as autistic, tirelessly recycling gang members to the
world they engulf and destroy, which endlessly regenerates them anew.
Although an emergent criminal phenomenon, prison gangs threaten the
foundations of life in society. The question that must be faced is whether they are the
only ones who stand guilty of this state of affairs?
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Literally, “one who watches”, who plays the role of judge, treasurer, mediator etc.
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