A New Dawn: The terrorist gang

[Lucinda F. Boyd]

The worst type of terrorism is the kind that is effective.

This was my answer when I was watching a television panel that discussed which was worse, homegrown or international terrorism. For all the inter-agency fighting, the bottom line is that any successful terrorist attack is a bad one.

As correctional professionals, we are now on the front lines of this battle, and politics aside, there are some real threats we need to recognize and combat.

The gang mentality
When gangs — especially prison gangs — are founded, it is often for the same three purposes: idealism, profit, and protection.

In the early days of the modern prison gang, groups of men banded together to fight what they believed was an injustice. Groups like the Black Guerilla Family, La Eme and the Aryan Brotherhood quickly came into being. They ran along racial divides and offered messages of power and hope to disenfranchised youth.

Soon, as prisoners paroled or were released, these gangs became a driving force of violence in our communities, affecting almost every American city in some way. Splinter groups broke off to fight old gangs; many were even more violent and dangerous than the originals. A lucrative drug trade developed that, along with the promise of protection, keeps these gangs alive today, developing into an ever increasing threat to our safety.

Over the last decade, prison officials have worked hard to fight these gangs. Seclusion and isolation have so far been somewhat effective at keeping them under control, but now a new threat looms on the horizon.

The terrorist mentality
International terrorists are infiltrating our prison system. They bring with them a powerful and passionate message of anti-government propaganda, and an offer of notoriety. With a seemingly endless supply of money and drugs, many Middle Eastern terror groups lure in recruits with a promise of both moral and personal redemption.

The real threat is that while we are combating typical prison gangs, organized terror groups may sideswipe us. There have already been several examples of terror attacks planned on American soil by American inmates. For now, they have been unsuccessful, undoubtedly because of the work of the watchful officers that walk America’s toughest beat: our prisons. Yet the battle may just be beginning.

The difference between a terrorist and the average gangbanger is the enormous propaganda machine these new threats bring with them. Many terrorists have received training from their respective groups on how to blend into a new environment, and then change it from within. And with a steady cash flow on the table, things could get bad.

Many of our young gang members may start to listen to these new ideas, and there’s a good chance they’ll like what they hear: Preaching about the evils of America. When a young, confused inmate is told that he and his fellow inmates are nothing more than prisoners of a political agenda, those words could inspire him to join the terrorist faction preaching to him. Further, it is a very real possibility that many of our current gangs could align with terrorist groups.

With this new threat comes new responsibility. We have known for a while that some gangs are now using religion as a shield for their activities; to complicate matters, for some of these terrorist, their religion is their gang. This is not to say Islam is a gang. However, the distortion of the teachings of Islam has created many of the terrorist organizations we now face.

Steps forward
On the one hand, it is critical that we do not infringe on the freedom of religion. On the other, however, inmates have been using religious services — whether they are Catholic or Protestant — for the planning of gang activities for years. We must take care not to infringe on the rights of the genuine worshipper, while simultaneously meeting our responsibility to the public.

The most important thing you can do now is to get to know your religious leaders; they do not want to see a distortion of their religion any more than we do. Get to know the priests, the Imams, and other religious leaders in your prison. Make sure they understand that you are not there to stop worship, only to ensure the safety of the institution. You will usually find them very accommodating and easy to work with.

If we start to infringe on the worship of regular inmates, we may create a new monster, and feed the idea that the government is trying to shut down their specific religion. Many times the religious leaders will help you in keeping the balance between safety and interference.

Second, we need to recognize the importance of identifying and isolating those inmates who could spread the word of terrorism in our prison. If you have verified information that an inmate is spreading terrorist propaganda, it behooves you to take action immediately. We have to let these terrorists know that we will not allow them to operate their groups inside of our prisons.

Of course, not all terrorists will come from Guantanamo Bay. There is a good chance that there are thousands of previously unidentified terrorists in our prisons right now. One terror plot to damage a major California city was thwarted by an alert officer who found notes and plans during a routine cell search of a U.S. national inmate. The inmate had no obvious ties to traditional terrorist groups, but still managed to plan a major attack from the confines of his cell.

It is up to us to pay attention to the unusual.

Especially as new inmates enter our facilities, we need to be on top of our well-known prison gangs. Keep monitoring them for unusual behavior, and report anything you find to your gangs unit. It is critical in a post-9/11 world that we keep the lines of communication open, especially with outside agencies. If you are starting to hear whispers from your informants about new radical groups in your prison, follow up on those leads, and don’t be too proud to ask for outside help.

I will be following this article up with a more detailed account of what to look for when dealing with extremist groups; especially in cell searches. Until then, keep your eyes peeled, and feel free to email me with any experiences you may have had with these groups. The more we communicate, the more ground the gangs lose. Be safe and watch your six! .