ERRI SPECIAL REPORT: HOW STREET GANGS CONTROL PRISONS

From ENN EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT-EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Monday, May 12, 1997 Vol. 1 - 132

ERRI SPECIAL REPORT: HOW STREET GANGS CONTROL PRISONS - PART 1
By Steve Macko, ERRI Crime Analyst

In the state prison located in downstate Menard, Illinois, an inmate by the name of Gino Colon takes a walk between two cell houses. Colon is dressed like a typical gangbanger on the streets of Chicago -- sunglasses, sweat suit, gym shoes and even a heavy gold chain with a stone-studded medallion hanging from his neck.

He walks around like he owns the place. In many ways ... he does. Almost all of Colon's 2,600 fellow inmates are locked down in their cells. At this time, a lock down was being enforced because of a serious incident at another state prison that has heightened tensions.

But Colon is within the rules to be just walking around. He even has a key to his room. That's room ... not a cell. Colon lives in what is known as the honor dorm. In the bizarre world of Illinois prisons, Gino Colon is said to be a model prisoner. He is also the 41-year-old co-leader of the infamous Latin Kings street gang in Chicago.

It is believed by many law enforcement officials and gang experts that Colon controls all manner of illegal activity that is perpetrated by the Latin Kings throughout the 26 adult prisons in the State of Illinois -- including the ordering the murder of a prison guard in 1989 and running a major drug trafficking ring. None of these charges can be proven and Colon certainly will not admit to them.

What he will acknowledge, however, is that he represents a very powerful reality about state prisons -- the central role that street gangs play in them. It is a world where about six out of every then inmates are gang members.

Colon has been in prison since 1971. He was convicted of murdering a rival gang member and for trafficking in heroin while inside of Stateville, located in Joliet. Colon said, "The gangs have an understanding with each other. We talk to each other to ensure that we don't have a confrontation. We try to keep the static down."

The way Colon describes it, it almost sounds logical. The gang is just another party at the negotiating table. The gang leader acts as a mediator. But the end result is anything but rational. Gang leaders run major drug operations from their cells. They use cellular phones and have gang underlings who act like butlers, serving gang leaders in prison meals of Cornish game hens or ham and eggs. The gangs conduct educational classes where inmates learn the history and rules of the gang.

In order to understand how the Department of Corrections can take back the prisons from the gangs requires an understanding of how deeply entrenched streets gangs are inside the prison system. Experts say that very little has been done in recent years to wrestle control of the prisons from the gangs. It is a disturbing portrait of a system that for more than 20 years has been unable and unwilling to confront the problems.

Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Charles Glennon, who has handled hundreds of cases involving inmates at the Pontiac, Illinois, Correctional Center, said, "It's a world turned upside down where the gang influence is so substantial that there are things that ought to be done that DOC administrators are not willing to do."

The Education Of A Jailed Gangbanger

Gangs signify their territory with graffiti in their neighborhoods. It is not surprising that they mark up their cells in prison in the same manner -- even though it is supposed to be against prison rules. Many cells in Illinois state prisons are adorned with gang insignia, such as crowns, five-pointed stars and pitchforks.

Prison Sergeant Warren Bowles of Menard says that the bars and walls painted a deep yellow signify the membership in the Latin Kings. A cell that is painted blue means a Disciple cell.

At Stateville, near Joliet, inmate Tony Matos was schooled in a formal education program that was taught not by Department of Correction employees, but by street gang members. Once a week, classes are held in the prison law library. The curriculum included the history, structure and rules of the Maniac Latin Disciples -- a notoriously violent Chicago street gang.

The course lasted three weeks and at the end, the students had to pass a written exam. It was said that all of it was conducted in full view of prison guards.

As the 26-year-old Matos, who is serving an eight year sentence for auto theft, said, "What could they do? Tell us to stop? Like we're going to listen?"

Just like on the street, the gangs in prison have a hiearchy. But in prison, it probably is even more rigid than it is on the outside. In the prison, the gang leaders can exert more control over their underlings. It is said to be a matter of routine that when a new inmate comes into a prison, he is given a questionaire so that his gang credentials can be verified.

In prison, the gangs have chiefs of security, foot soldiers, enforcers, gang investigators and gang treasurers. It is the daily job of some gangbangers to do nothing more than stake out the telephones on galleries and only allow their members to use them. Others act as drill instructors, leading gangbangers through jumping jacks, sit-ups and other exercises.

One inmate at Stateville held the position of cell-house security guard for a major gang. Everyday, the inmate strapped two or three knives to his chest with a 6-inch wide elastic bandage. He also knew the price to be paid if he failed in his duties. It was his job to make sure that nothing was stolen from any his fellow gang members cells.

In prison, the gangs cooperate with one another more than they do on the outside. They divide prison jobs. They get the choice jobs by threatening guards and other employees. This type of pressure allows the gangs to cluster together.

Gangs are better able to control inmates for two simple reasons: (1) The punishment that they can deliver is more severe than any- thing that a warden can do and (2) inmates know that there is very little that prison guards and officials can do to protect them.

Most violence in prisons is linked to gangs. Most of the assaults and murders in prison can be tranced to internal gang problems. In the last ten years, 37 inmates have been murdered in Illinois prisons -- most were linked to gangs.

Non-gang members in prison are called "neutrons." They have been forced to pay between $10 to $50 per month to the gangs just for the privledge of being incarcerated and being allowed to live in prison. Non-gang members are known to be forced to smuggle drugs or hide weapons for the gangbangers. Sometimes they are sold for sex.

One non-gang member at Menard in 1988 was attacked and stabbed six times by a Latin King enforcer for refusing to hide a knife. The inmate did survive the attack. Another non-gang member at Menard was repeatedly sexually assaulted because he refused to join a gang.

From ENN EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT-EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Tuesday, May 13, 1997 Vol. 1 - 133

ERRI SPECIAL REPORT: HOW STREET GANGS CONTROL PRISONS - PART 2
By Steve Macko, ERRI Crime Analyst

The Perks Gang Leaders Receive In Prison

While being supposedly punished for their crimes, gang leaders over the years have been able to become captains of industry. They have presided over lucrative black market enterprises dealing in drugs, gambling, booze, sex and even their own restaurants. Being behind bars seems to offer no impediment in making money. They reportedly spend hours a day talking business on their cellular telephones, even though such devices are supposed to be illegal while in prison.

Their prison cells are often filled with amenities such as VCR's, portable clothes washers and even small electronic digital scales for weighing out drugs. The gang leaders usually get the easiest or best prison jobs.

Maniac Latin Disciples leader Fernando "Prince Fernie" Zayas, who is being incarcerated for a triple homicide, used to work as a plumber and painter at Stateville Prison, located near Joliet, Illinois. Now that might not sound like a real easy job, but what it did was allow Zayas the freedom move about the entire prison.

It is said to be widely believed by law enforcement experts that prison officials want to keep gang leaders happy so that they will, in turn, use their powers to prevent full-blown serious incidents such as a riot or a major fire.

The Illinois Department of Corrections dispute this version of how prisons are run. But there are too many stories to say that gang leaders are not receiving special treatment. DOC officials say that deals have not been made with gang leaders. They say that gang leaders just happen to be most often well-behaved inmates and that entitles them to better treatment and more freedom.

Gang leaders do, seemingly, accumulate the best comforts and privledges that prisons have to offer. Gangster Disciples leader Larry Hoover lived for many years, despite being convicted of murder, at the Vienna minimum security prison. At Vienna, Hoover used to walk around in sweaters, neatly pressed trousers, argyle socks and $300 alligator-skin loafers. He, too, was considered to be a model prisoner. Hoover was just convicted of federal charges and will be moved to a federal prison soon, where he will find prison life to be just a tad more unpleasant.

Former corrections prison investigator Michael Heltsley said, "Larry's very much feared." Heltsley believes that Hoover was responsible for a 1978 Pontiac Prison uprising that left three prison guards dead. "He can pick up the phone and make one collect call and four or five major institutions would burn down," Heltsley said. "They have always played, 'Let's Make a Deal' with him."

Stateville prison guards tell stories about another high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples -- one Robert "Big" Lowe. It was said that Lowe walked anywhere he wanted in the prison to conduct gang business. He often carried a leather-bound brief- case and was escorted by a number of large inmates who acted as bodyguards.

Stateville Captain Glenn Malone said, "Big Lowe had his own cook. he controlled two cells. One where he lived and one where he kept all his supplies, like canned goods, meats and bread."

Another Gangster Disciple leader, Ernest "Smokey" Wilson had just a good 'ole' time while in prison. Just because he was behind bars didn't mean his large drug operation back at the infamous Cabrini-Green public housing complex in Chicago had to slow down. According to law enforcement and gang experts, Wilson was able to accumulate an astounding cache of contraband while in prison.

In 1992, Wilson's cell was raided. Confiscated were a cellular telephone, four cellular phone batteries, 13 bottles of expensive designer cologne, a Casio mini-color television, a calculator, an electric iron, two hot pots and ... a portable washing machine.

Several Stateville employees told investigators that they suspected fellow employees had helped Wilson get some of the contraband items. Most of the items could be concealed and transported in a briefcase or a bag. But what about the portable washing machine? No one seemed to know how he got that.

Prison Businesses

Some of things that gangs do in prison can be called outrageous and others are absurd. In 1995, Stateville officials uncovered hundreds of pounds of food that was stolen by the members of the Gangster Disciples from the prison kitchen. The food included hamburger meat, huge rolls of sliced turkey, a large number of canned hams and boxes of frozen seafood. Big Lowe used the food to run a thriving cell-house restaurant.

The Gangster Disciples were said to run the largest food outlet at Stateville. But it was said that they had a lot of competition from other gangs.

One inmate said that Stateville, at times, reminded him of the old Maxwell Street in Chicago. The inmate said, "I've seen guys with 20 or 30 cheeseburgers walking up and down the gallery shouting. 'I've got cheeseburgers! I've got cheeseburgers!' Or, 'Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!'"

However, the cell-house resturant business is nickels and dimes compared to the money that gangs can make by trafficking in drugs in the prisons. Inmates say that for many years, marijuana, heroin, cocaine and LSD flooded into Stateville, Menard and Pontiac prisons. They said that drugs were as easy to get behind bars as it was out on the street.

In 1995, almost 25 percent of 1,188 maximum-security inmates tested positive for drugs. Some of the smuggling methods that are used are, to be honest, ingenious. One inmate at Pontiac once hid marijuana in his prosthetic leg.

At Menard, gangbangers would hit golf balls filled with cocaine and marijuana over the wall of the prison to their buddies in the prison yard.

Most often, drugs are smuggled into the prisons by women working for the gangs. The women hide the drugs in shoes, bras, wigs and other clothing. A woman can stuff a drug-filled condom in her vagina or tape a bag of drugs under her armpit.

Once inside the prison, the women remove the hidden contraband in the visitor's washroom and then pass it to an inmate during a kiss, a hug or even a handshake.

While the drug trade is important to the street gang members in prison, there is only one other thing that is even more important and that is weapons to defend oneself. The gangs often cooperate with one another in trafficking drugs and procuring weapons.

Roger Cowan, the assistant warden at Menard, said, "When it comes to contraband, the gangs unite against the administration. They work in cahoots."

ERRI will continue to examine and report on conditions and situations in America's prison system. As increasing numbers of prisoners are incarcerated, the problems inside the institutions continue to grow in both volume and intensity.

The ENN EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT is a subscription publication of the EmergencyNet NEWS Service, which is a part of the Chicago-based Emergency Response and Research Institute. This publication specializes in Law Enforcement/Fire/EMS/Disaster and Medical Issues.

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