The prison has become a much more dangerous place since the coming in power of California’s big four gangs. Prisoners are being forced into doing their bidding while they involve these unwilling participants in drug trafficking, contraband smuggling, and assaults. The same is what professor Vasquez says in lecture 2 for week 1, that if they order a crime; the inmates have to get it done. In case they refuse, they have to face ‘consequences’.
The urgency to take action on these prison gang members is because they have the power to be extremely notorious and they never forgo an opportunity to prove the same. These gang members are regularly kept locked up for a good part of the day, and when they are moved back and forth in between showers and mealtimes, they are taken in handcuffs. Despite that, they are able to think of ways to get messages to one another and to their correspondents that are not within prison walls.
Their power can find proof in the fact that even though these gangs represent only 10% of the total prison population, they still constitute a quite significant portion of crime happening within that prison population. For them, prison is simply not a deterrent.
Moving towards the solution of the problem with these big four prison gangs, it is essential to first realize that these gangs mostly associate the people of their own race. This is what professor Valdez also mentions in the lecture 4 of the first week. So if a person belongs to the Latino race and a gang member of the same race is under assault, that inmate is expected to back his cell mate otherwise matters do not go according to his will.
This makes our distinction into races partly responsible for the creation of gangs within the prison walls. The solution to this would be the complete opposite of what we are doing as of now. We have to make sure that we come together as a community and try and understand one another better. This is so that resentfulness does not brim amongst us on the basis of our race and ethnicity and so that people who are minorities do not have to think of themselves as not parts of the community.
The mental abilities and the intense propensity to commit to a life of crime is what urges us into an action far more inhumane than the one we have so far been enforcing. This is because there are people who force us to revisit the matter of capital punishment, and that is exactly what they should be given. One fine example is that on inmate Christain Knite. He was brought to prison while he awaited the hearing of a case he was sure to be found guilty for. While in the wait of that trial, he committed cold blooded murder as a rite of passage into the Mexican Mafia. Even today, he recounts his criminal accomplishments with pride and shows no remorse for it.
We would also not be unique or the first ones in imposing the capital punishment because it has remained the practice of the middle ages. The faith of people back then was that a person’s punishment should be only as big as his/her crime. So if these inmates do not think of crime as a sin, we can also allow our conscience to make this one sacrifice for the good of the rest of the world. Because with these bold and ruthless people in prison, even the other inmates can never feel safe.
Solitary confinement can be another option of punishing the members of the big four prison gang population. The effect that this confinement and distance from human contact can be quite profound on even the toughest prisoner, and this is one step that we can take to assert control and order on them.
The effect of this punishment is described by one inmate in quite a detail. He complained that he was not allowed out of those solitary four-walls even once in 24-hours and that in four to five days, the illusion of time became lost on him. He could not differentiate night from day. He only found a thread of consciousness after the rain started tapping outside his window several days later.
In their present state, the prison gangs have the society crippled too because their influence extends far beyond the walls of the most maximum security prison. This is why it is important to take action against them as soon as we can. Breaking their power could be the only option which could bring us some semblance of a peaceful life and can allow us to make a choice on our own behalf.
All of these measures are important so that no one person would even have to worry and fear consequences of what the gang members may do to them if what their wish is not turned into a command. If there is ever a right time for tackling populations like these who have simple no remorse, it is long gone. These are people who remain in lock up most of their life, yet they manage to make home-made weapons inflict harm. They are people that cannot be trusted.
List of References
Valdez, P. (2016, August 23). A Clear and Present Danger. Retrieved from EEE canvas: http://replay.uci.edu/media/public/summer2011/p_gangsOL_week_1_lec_2_-_Flash_%28Large%29_-_20110516_03.44.21PM.html
Valdez, P. (2016, August 26). Get out of Jail. Retrieved from EEE Canvas: http://replay.uci.edu/media/public/summer2011/pgangs_OL_week_1_lec_5_-_Flash_%28Large%29_-_20110516_05.07.59PM.html
Valdez, P. (2016, Agust 22). Introduction by Prof. Valdez & Rene Enriquez. Retrieved from EEE Canvas: http://replay.uci.edu/media/public/summer2011/pgangOL_week_1_lec_1_-_Flash_%28Large%29_-_20110516_03.01.57PM.html
Valdez, P. (2016, August 24). Punishments. Retrieved from EEE Canvas: http://replay.uci.edu/media/public/summer2011/pgangsOL_week_1_lec_3_-_Flash_%28Large%29_-_20110516_04.19.50PM.html
Valdez, P. (2016, August 25). Standard of Human Decency. Retrieved from EEE Canvas: http://replay.uci.edu/media/public/summer2011/pgangsOL_week_1_lec_4_-_Flash_%28Large%29_-_20110516_04.49.37PM.html
