Prison gangs a problem in Humboldt County too

[Christina Marie]

Prison gangs a problem in Humboldt County too
by Christine Bensen-Messinger, 6/7/2006

While many Humboldt County residents think of gangs as a problem in big cities such as Oakland or Los Angeles, three officers who work in the Humboldt County jail said during a presentation Monday afternoon that in the past five years gangs have started to become a problem here as well.

With Pelican Bay Prison, the state’s highest security prison, located just miles outside of Crescent City, and the jail often serving as a holding place for inmates on their way to state prison, Senior Correctional Officer Jason Benge said more people than county residents might care to acknowledge are affiliated with prison gangs.

“A large majority of our populous has spent time in state prison,” said Humboldt County Sheriff Gary Philp.

In a slide show presented to the Rotary Club of Eureka by Humboldt County Sheriff’s Sgt. Marco Luna, Benge and Correctional Officer Jeff Dishmon, many gang-affiliated inmates’ faces were blacked out because they are local residents.

There are five validated gangs in the California Department of Corrections: the Aryan Brotherhood, the Nazi Lowriders, Nuestra Familia, Black Guerrilla Family and the Mexican Mafia.

Benge said when an inmate is brought into the county jail he or she is interviewed by officers who have the ability to determine whether he or she is involved in a gang.

“A lot of them aren’t afraid to tell you they’re in a gang,” he said, adding that they are concerned about being housed with opposing gang members.

“We have to determine who they can go with (and) if they’re a heavy enough hitter, we have to isolate them,” Luna said.

While there are five validated prison gangs in the state, Dishmon said there are 11 local street gangs, many of whose members end up in the county jail at some point.

Benge said those gangs are referred to as “disruptive groups” and are the “muscles for the validated prison gangs,” whose members are locked down.

Officers use the definition given in the California Penal Code to determine whether an inmate is affiliated in a gang.

Penal Code 186.22 (a) states: “Any person who actively participates in any criminal street gang with knowledge that its members engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity, and who willfully promotes, furthers, or assists in any felonious criminal conduct by members of that gang.”

If a person is charged with a crime and a gang enhancement can be added and proven, his or her sentence will be longer.

“(That penal code is) how all the people I work with make the gang crimes stick against people,” Dishmon said.

Of the five gangs “validated” by the CDC, the Aryan Brotherhood originated in 1967 at San Quentin State Prison and includes white males, Benge said.

The Nazi Lowriders first organized in the California Youth Authority in the mid 1970s. They are primarily found in Southern California, Dishmon said.

The Black Guerilla Family originated in 1966 at San Quentin State Prison. It was founded by former Black Panther George L. Jackson, Benge said.

“They’re kind of slowly fading away,” he said.

The Mexican Mafia, which Dishmon referred to as “one of the most notorious gangs out there,” originated in 1957 at the Deuel Vocational Institute, a youth offenders’ facility in Tracy, Calif.

La Nuestra Familia originated in the 1960s in Soledad State Prison.

“La Nuestra Familia, they’re the farm workers,” Benge said. “The Mexican Mafia, they’re … the people on the streets.”

While their signs and symbols differ, he said, most gangs use numbers and other symbols to identify themselves.

“You’ve got these guys who put (these symbols) on their bodies and when they walk across the prison yard they show off as much of it as they can,” Benge said.

The reason it is important for county residents to be aware of these gangs is because at some point, most prisoners get out, he said.

“As we all know, these guys get out of our prison sometime or another, they get paroled,” Benge said. “I think (gangs) are becoming a bigger problem nationwide.”

http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDi ... leID=11953

[MyGatSayBangBang]

i dont think being a gang member means they have to get added sentences. I consider my set as my religeon. My god, my savior, my family. And im sure others do also

[Christina Marie]

i dont think being a gang member means they have to get added sentences. I consider my set as my religeon. My god, my savior, my family. And im sure others do also

In CA there are many laws regarding belonging to a gang, doing a crime for the benefit of a gang that can potentially add substantial time to ones sentence.

[GTS]

i dont think being a gang member means they have to get added sentences. I consider my set as my religeon. My god, my savior, my family. And im sure others do also

In CA there are many laws regarding belonging to a gang, doing a crime for the benefit of a gang that can potentially add substantial time to ones sentence.

gang enhancement charges have screwed many homies

[Christina Marie]

i dont think being a gang member means they have to get added sentences. I consider my set as my religeon. My god, my savior, my family. And im sure others do also

In CA there are many laws regarding belonging to a gang, doing a crime for the benefit of a gang that can potentially add substantial time to ones sentence.

gang enhancement charges have screwed many homies

That and firearm enhancements.