White Supremacist Prison Gangs in the United States | Page 20

zled Aryan Brotherhood members serving life terms, the average felony prison sentence in most states is only 2-3 years,
so gang members are often back on the streets relatively quickly. Moreover, many white supremacist gangs now recruit
on the streets as well as behind bars. Another source of recruits is gang members’ own children: some gang members
actually groom their own teenaged children as future potential members or “prospects” for their gangs. One can find
such children identifying with their parents’ gangs on social media.

Ideology and Subculture
White supremacist prison gangs are significantly different from other types of white supremacist groups. The most
important difference is that prison gangs are a form of organized crime. Almost all white supremacist prison gangs give
a higher priority—often a much higher priority—to criminal motives such as profit than to the ideological motives most
important to more “traditional” white supremacist groups. Some prison gangs even formally enshrine this priority in
their constitutions or by-laws.
The nature and purpose of their white supremacist ideology is also different from many other white supremacist groups.
First, their version of white supremacist ideology is often cruder than that of neo-Nazis or other white supremacists.
The earliest prison gangs often cobbled together their own “homebrewed” versions of white supremacy, occasionally
influenced by literature from outside extremist groups or from Ku Klux Klan members or by other extremists placed
behind bars. Other, more ideological types of white supremacists often shunned members of white supremacist prison
gangs, both behind bars and on the streets, frequently claiming that the gangs “poisoned” the white race by selling
drugs to whites.
This is still true today, to some degree, but to a lesser extent. In recent years, the expansion of white supremacist gangs
into the streets, coupled with their strong Internet presence, has both allowed white supremacist prison gang members
more access to broader white supremacist propaganda and ideology, while also creating increased connections between
white supremacist prison gang members and other white supremacists.
Beginning around 2006, the growth of social media websites increasingly fueled these connections. The Anti-Defamation
League’s Center on Extremism has examined thousands of social media profiles of white supremacist gang members.
Although one might think that members of organized crime groups might be reluctant to use social media websites,
nothing could be further from the truth; such sites have become an important way for members of such groups to keep
in touch with each other, bond with each other, reinforce group values and ties, and even occasionally issue instructions.
Social media has also allowed gang members to make contact with a variety of other white supremacists and one can
often see the Facebook profiles of white supremacist prison gang members containing “friends” who are fellow gang
members and associates but also “friends” who belong to a plethora of a number of other white supremacist groups or
causes.
The growing popularity of Odinism—a white supremacist version of the modern revival of ancient Norse religions—
among both white supremacist prison gang members and other white supremacists has also led to increased connections. A number of white supremacist gang members now consider themselves Odinists. They may belong to Odinist
groups with “prison ministries” or join free-world Odinist groups when out of prison.
These various connections have resulted in some white supremacist gang members—and even some gangs as a
whole--becoming more ideological. The White Knights of America, for example, a Texas- and Arizona-based gang, have
not only built connections with a number of other white supremacist groups but have even created their own group
website, one that looks little different from the websites of many neo-Nazi, Klan, or other white supremacist websites.
Despite these increasing ties, white supremacist gang members as a whole are definitely less ideological than their counterparts in other racist movements. Whereas the majority of members of a group like the National Socialist Movement

19 White Supremacist Prison Gangs in the United States