True Colors

According to the official position of the state, we do not have any gangs in our prison system.

Yeah, right.

I'd like some of whatever they are smoking, please.

I can look out on the yard at any given time and point out the Crips wearing blue and the Bloods wearing red and the Treetops and MST's in green. They wear colored hoodies and sweatpants and shoe strings and hats.

And we sell them to them in the canteen.

Isn't that nice of us.

Yet...... policy clearly states that offenders are not allowed to wear gang related items inside the fence.

But...... but.......

Yeah.

It appears that strict adherence to policy takes a back seat to the money that rolls in from the sale of these items.

And we let them buy stuff from outside vendors like Eastbay and Sports Authority that seem to specialize in that sort of thing. I don't blame those companies, they are just selling the stuff that young urban people wear. I wouldn't wear any of that crap myself, but I sure wish I had invested in them back in the early days. Wouldn't be working here now.

So why do we let them do it?

Money, I suspect. There's alot of it to be made. And that's what it's all about.

Vinnie hypothesized the other day that we might be allowing them to wear these things so we can more easily identify them. It's a possibility.

I know it's alarming to see the clusterings out on the yard at times. If you see all the guys in red at one end of the yard and all the guys in blue at another and all the skinheads sitting off to the side looking amused and all the old guys heading back into the house, then you know trouble is brewing.

At those times I go and clear out some cells and make sure we have plenty of blank files on hand because somebody is getting locked up.

I guess as long as the red is only fabric dye and not pepper spray or blood, then I'll live with it. But in my opinion, they should all have to wear black and white stripes again. Or pink, like they did in texas. Texas rocks. They get away with crap we never could here.

Gee, make them all wear pink. Do you think they would consider prison to be a cake walk like they do now?