Not Bowing Down
Gang Resistance to Prison Co-governance in Southern California
Abstract
In the United States, some prison gangs control not only inmates, but also what happens on the street. Since most gang members eventually get detained and incarcerated, prison gangs will victimize or kill any resistors in jail and prison. In this paper, I examine such a case between the California prison gang, La Eme, and the rebel Maravilla gangs of East Los Angeles. La Eme controls almost all the Latino gangs in Southern California and enforces prison and street rules that “Southsider” gangs must follow. Between 1993 and 2006, the Maravilla gangs resisted La Eme’s prison co-governance and then experienced a violence and victimization perhaps unrivaled in the gang world. Through field research on the Maravilla gangs, this paper reveals how some gangs defy prison co-governance, which then makes them feel meaningful in the gang world.
References
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Weide, Robert. 2020. “The Invisible Hand of the State: A Critical Historical Analysis of Prison Gangs in California.” The Prison Journal 100 (3): 312–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885520916817.
Bruce, Lucia B. 2022. “A Decolonial and Depatriarchal Approach to Women’s Imprisonment: Co-governance, Legal Pluralism and Gender at Santa Monica Prison, Perú.” In Prisons, Inmates, and Governance in Latin America, edited by Máximo Sozzo, 233–258. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Camp, George M., and Camile G. Camp. 1985. Prison Gangs: Their Extent, Nature, and Impact on Prisons. Washington DC: US Department of Justice, Federal Justice Research Program.
Contreras, Randol. 2024. The Marvelous Ones: Drugs, Gangs, Violence, and Resistance in East Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Contreras, Randol. 2018. “Transparency and Unmasking Issues in Ethnographic Research: Methodological Considerations.” Sociological Forum 34 (2): 293–312. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12498.
Darke, Sacha. 2014. “Managing Without Guards in a Brazilian Police Lock-up.” Focaal – Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 68: 55–67. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2014.680104.
Dias, Camia N., and Sacha Darke. 2016. “From Dispersed to Monopolized Violence: Expansion and Consolidation of the Primeiro Comando da Capital’s Hegemony in São Paulo’s Prisons.” Crime, Law and Social Change 65: 213–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-015-9578-2.
Dias, Camila N., and Fernando Salla. 2013. “Organized Crime in Brazilian Prisons: The Example of the PCC.” International Journal of Criminology and Sociology 2: 397–408. https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2013.02.37.
Enriquez, Rene, and Ramon Mendoza. 2021. The Mexican Mafia Encyclopedia. 2nd Edition. Spartanburg, SC: Police and Fire Publishing.
Foucault, Michel. 2012. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage.
Goffman, Erving. 1961. Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. St. Louis, MO: Aldine Transaction.
Goodman, Philip. 2008. “‘It’s Just Black, White, or Hispanic’: An Observational Study of Racializing Moves in California’s Segregated Prison Reception Centers.” Law & Society Review 42 (4): 735–770.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5893.2008.00357.
Hunt, Geoffrey, Stephanie Riegel, Tomas Morales, and Dan Waldorf. 1993. “Changes in Prison Culture: Prison Gangs and the Case of the “Pepsi Generation.” Social Problems 40 (3): 398–409. https://
doi.org/10.2307/3096887.
Lindegaard, Marie R., and Sasha Gear. 2014. “Violence Makes Safe in South African Prisons: Prison gangs, Violent Acts, and Victimization Among Inmates.” Focaal – Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 68: 35–54. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2014.680103.
Lopez-Aguado, Patrick. 2018. Stick Together and Come Back Home: Racial Sorting and the Spillover of Carceral Identity. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
Mendoza, Ramon A. 2012. Mexican Mafia: The Gang of Gangs – From Altar Boy to Hitman. 2nd Edition. Spartanburg, SC: Police and Fire Publishing.
Morrill, Robert. 2013. The Mexican Mafia: The Story. San Antonio, TX: Munguia Printers.
Rafael, Tony. 2007. The Mexican Mafia. New York: Encounter Books.
Rhodes, Lorna A. 2004. Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Sanchez-Jankowski, Martin. 1991. Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Scraton, Phil, Joe Sim, and Paula Skidmore. 1991. Prisons Under Protest. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Skarbek, David. 2014. The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sozzo, Máximo (ed.). 2022. Prisons, Inmates, and Governance in Latin America. Springer London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Steinberg, Jonny. 2004. Nongoloza’s Children: Western Cape Prison Gangs During and After Apartheid. Braamfontein: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
StreetTV. 2021. “Lowell Street Gets Put on the Greenlight.” YouTube. 7:40. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U11iWleNbDE&list=PLQwhRJvmotyF1njuc0IH1rmzAFgVXYMXM&index=4.
Sykes, Gresham M. [1958] 2007. The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Trammell, Rebbeca. 2012. Enforcing the Convict Code: Violence and Prison Culture. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reiner Publishers.
Walker, Michael. 2016. “Race Making in a Ppenal Institution.” American Journal of Sociology 121 (4): 105–178. https://doi.org/10.1086/684033.
Walker, Michael. 2022. Indefinite: Doing Time in Jail. New York: Oxford University Press.
Weegels, Julienne. 2022. “Enduring Lock-Up: Co-Governance and Exception in Nicaragua’s Hybrid Carceral System.” In Prisons, Inmates, and Governance in Latin America, edited by Máximo Sozzo, 155–185. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Weide, Robert. 2022a. “Structural Disorganization: Can Prison Gangs Mitigate Serious Violence in Carceral Institutions?” Critical Criminology 30 (1): 113–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-022-09611-6.
Weide, Robert. 2022b. Divide and Conquer: Race, Gangs, Identity, and Conflict. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Weide, Robert. 2020. “The Invisible Hand of the State: A Critical Historical Analysis of Prison Gangs in California.” The Prison Journal 100 (3): 312–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885520916817.
Published
2024-01-03
How to Cite
Contreras, Randol. 2024. “Not Bowing Down: Gang Resistance to Prison Co-Governance in Southern California”. Swiss Journal of Sociocultural Anthropology 29 (1):55-68. https://doi.org/10.36950/sjsca.2023.29.8825.
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