White Supremacist Prison Gangs in the United States: Origins, Subculture, Ideology, Hierarchy and Case Law
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31558/2519-2949.2024.4.4Keywords:
organized crime, prison gangs, white prison gangs, racism, supremacism, supremacist prison gangs, USA, United States of America, prison violence, torture, torture preventionAbstract
This article is focused on the study of one aspect of the phenomenon of prison gangs in the United States, namely the activities of white supremacist prison gangs.
The relevance of the study is due to the fact that as of 2007, there were at least 30 thousand gangs in the United States, uniting more than 800 thousand members. In 2009, about 900,000 gang members lived in local communities across the country, and about 147,000 were in U.S. prisons. As of 2011, an estimated 1.4 million gang members were involved in criminal activity or at least were members of 33,000 gangs.
Today, prison-based “white” supremacist prison gangs are one of the most active and violent segments of the white supremacist movement in the United States. Aryan-power and Nazi-affiliated prison gangs – both inside and outside prisons – are an important aspect of law enforcement and judicial practice in the United States, both at the federal and state levels.
Most US states have at least one white supremacist prison gang; many US states have more. These prison gangs tend to be larger than other white supremacist groups, with hundreds of members and some with more than 1,500 members. Moreover, most prison gangs have a significant number of “associates,” accomplices (including women) and supporters in addition to “officially” admitted members.
At first glance, these problems and processes seem to be a thing of the past.
Nevertheless, the problem of the existence and functioning of prison and street gangs in the United States is a “live” issue that is the subject of contemporary political debate and research.
The political aspects of this problem deserve a separate study, given that prison gangs have become and continue to be a priority of political discourse even in the recent US presidential election, where both candidates accused each other of not paying enough attention to the problem of prison gangs and, moreover, even indirectly stimulating the spread of prison gangs in the United States – especially gangs of “imported” origin.
Therefore, the considerable political and legal relevance of the problem of white and other prison gangs in the United States has led to further research of these issues.
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