1. What are security threat groups? What is their impact in local jails, and state/federal prisons? Can they be managed and if so, how?
Security Threat Groups (STGs) is the term used for inmate organizations or gangs and how they adversely impact prison security. Most STGs are racially founded with six major groups: the Aryan Brotherood, Black Guerilla Family, Mexican Mafia, La Nuestra Familia, Neta, and Texas Syndicate. Smaller street gangs with less organizational structure also exist.
STGs negatively impact corrections facilities to great extent. They cause a dramatic increase in violence with the potential to reach outside of facility and interfere with inmate rehabilitation. Many prisons have units that focus of STGs in an attempt to control STG influence and many methods have been practiced. Methods focused on changing inmate behavior rather than controlling it have been more successful. Classification systems have been developed focusing on inmate prison programming and cognitive behavioral treatment. The gathering of gang intelligence and the dissemination of this information to other law enforcement agencies and facilities have proven beneficial. Segregation of STG inmates have also helped decrease STG activity. These methods assist in decreasing prison violence, and the intelligence gathering and sharing further help develop STG intervention methods.