stevesboo23
02-09-2005, 09:22 AM
Gangs all there -KATHLEEN HARRIS, SUN OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA -- Canada's prisons are becoming overrun with a sophisticated network of ethnic, biker and aboriginal gangs -- and officials are bracing for numbers to soar even higher, Sun Media has learned. At last count 1,678 federal inmates - more than 8% of the prison population - were identified as being affiliated with gangs. A "conservative" estimate expects the number to climb by at least 200 within two years.
Internal documents from the Correctional Service of Canada obtained by Sun Media through Access to Information reveal a trend of increasingly varied gangs emerging behind bars.
A snapshot in late 2003 counts 51 different gangs operating behind bars, from white supremacist, Asian, aboriginal and cult gangs to motorcycle, Mob and terrorist groups.
Gang members pose "serious threats" to institutions through contraband drugs and weapons, abusing the canteen systems, intimidating and extorting other inmates and corrupting staff and public officials, according to one internal CSC document.
"The area that seems least affected is inmate visiting," the document reads. "Prison gangs take care to protect the visiting privilege since visiting is a major means of trafficking items (money, drugs, contraband, etc.) back and forth between prison and the street."
Violence between rival gangs sometimes spills over to the general population, a CSC report notes.
According to the same document, prison gangs have "been known" to engage in arson, strong-arm robbery, homosexual prostitution, prostitution through private family visits, slavery, murder, pornography, protection rackets and rape.
Luciano Bentenuto, CSC's national project manager for organized crime and criminal gangs, said a police crackdown on organized crime is the "major" factor for rising numbers.
"We tend to get whatever the law enforcement officials end up targeting on the street and we just get who they end up convicting in the courts," he said. Bentenuto said street gangs have tripled in Canada's penitentiaries in the past four years, adding most arrive already wearing colours. CSC policy encourages "disaffiliation" and works to minimize security threats through trained intelligence officers.
But Bentenuto admits isolating and/or rehabilitating each one is an impractical goal.
Sylvain Martel, national president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said CSC's lax policies leave gang members "running the show."
Gangs control the trafficking of narcotics and deadly weapons, he said.
Martel rebuffed CSC claims that few offenders join gangs after they're incarcerated, insisting they join for status, privileges - and survival.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2005/02/05/921418-sun.html (http://http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2005/02/05/921418-sun.html)
OTTAWA -- Canada's prisons are becoming overrun with a sophisticated network of ethnic, biker and aboriginal gangs -- and officials are bracing for numbers to soar even higher, Sun Media has learned. At last count 1,678 federal inmates - more than 8% of the prison population - were identified as being affiliated with gangs. A "conservative" estimate expects the number to climb by at least 200 within two years.
Internal documents from the Correctional Service of Canada obtained by Sun Media through Access to Information reveal a trend of increasingly varied gangs emerging behind bars.
A snapshot in late 2003 counts 51 different gangs operating behind bars, from white supremacist, Asian, aboriginal and cult gangs to motorcycle, Mob and terrorist groups.
Gang members pose "serious threats" to institutions through contraband drugs and weapons, abusing the canteen systems, intimidating and extorting other inmates and corrupting staff and public officials, according to one internal CSC document.
"The area that seems least affected is inmate visiting," the document reads. "Prison gangs take care to protect the visiting privilege since visiting is a major means of trafficking items (money, drugs, contraband, etc.) back and forth between prison and the street."
Violence between rival gangs sometimes spills over to the general population, a CSC report notes.
According to the same document, prison gangs have "been known" to engage in arson, strong-arm robbery, homosexual prostitution, prostitution through private family visits, slavery, murder, pornography, protection rackets and rape.
Luciano Bentenuto, CSC's national project manager for organized crime and criminal gangs, said a police crackdown on organized crime is the "major" factor for rising numbers.
"We tend to get whatever the law enforcement officials end up targeting on the street and we just get who they end up convicting in the courts," he said. Bentenuto said street gangs have tripled in Canada's penitentiaries in the past four years, adding most arrive already wearing colours. CSC policy encourages "disaffiliation" and works to minimize security threats through trained intelligence officers.
But Bentenuto admits isolating and/or rehabilitating each one is an impractical goal.
Sylvain Martel, national president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said CSC's lax policies leave gang members "running the show."
Gangs control the trafficking of narcotics and deadly weapons, he said.
Martel rebuffed CSC claims that few offenders join gangs after they're incarcerated, insisting they join for status, privileges - and survival.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2005/02/05/921418-sun.html (http://http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2005/02/05/921418-sun.html)