The situation is so bad, the report recommends that gang members should be separated from the rest of the prison population to allow staff to regain control.
There is a “unofficial hierarchy” among prisoners in New Zealand, and gang members are generally at the top. “It enforces informal rules and codes, which are often built with your own interests in mind,” a multi-year study of the country’s prisons found.
Written by Jarrod Gilbert, a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury and author of a book on gangs, the “Impact of Gangs on New Zealand prisons” report, depicts a prison where gangs provide “access to protection, goods, status and brotherhood” as incentives for recruits.
Those who are not part of a gang will be identified and targeted immediately.
“Yeah, as soon as you have your… mobile, they immediately ask you with a glass window, ‘Who are you?”, a prisoner told the study.
“If you’re not with anyone, they’ll come back and tell the boys.
While prisoners are not directly pressured to join the gang, pressure in the prison environment means that gang membership is “a reasonable and common choice,” the report says.
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“Many people who make this choice may regret it later, but the difficulty of gang exit means membership usually continues.”
Fighting and attacks are common, with most not being reported to staff.
“Gangs are the unbalanced drivers of this violence,” the report said. “It is sometimes known as taxing or standing, in person face to face, forcing them, and especially among gangs, as taxing or standing, but is considered an acceptable behavior.”
Interior view of Auckland South Men’s Prison in Auckland, New Zealand. Phil Walter/Getty Images
The most commonly stolen and highly popular items are nicotine lozenges and chicken dinners, the latter being particularly respected as a source of rare solid protein, in contrast to other staple meats, minced meat.
Reducing the artificial rarity of such items, Gilbert says, increasing its value is a simple solution to adoption.
But inevitably, the fear tor will last to some extent, as it is a way for gangs to establish and demonstrate their control.
“Yeah, you had to pay rent to members of the established gang that have been around for many years, because of what they did and who they were in terms of gang membership,” one prisoner told Gilbert.
“You had to pay them a week of chicken to almost save them from getting hurt in the stomach area, because that’s where they’re attacking now.
“For a special chicken night, get some nice chicken, and then everyone has to give it to this guy, whether it’s him and his companions.”
Gang membership is disproportionately Māori when compared to both the overall population and the prison population, with 70% being Māori and 14.3% in Europe.
Gang members are more violent
Inmates with gang ties are very likely to be violent criminals. Since 2010, the percentage of gang prisoners who have been jailed for violent offences has not fallen below 50%. In 2023, I was sitting at 56%.
Within New Zealand prisons, gang affiliates were involved in the attacks at nearly twice the height of those without recorded gang connections.
The newer “Rastyle” gang, consisting of younger members enthusiastic about “making marks,” was responsible for a higher level of violence than the more established patched gangs.
But most of the time, the gang maintains what Gilbert calls an “armed ceasefire.”
“The reality of prison life is that members can always be moved to units that have been outweighed by other gangs, but in most cases it simply means they are not worthy of being involved in a dangerous conflict,” his report states.
One prisoner is quoted as saying, “You always have incidents from time to time, but at 99% of the time, nothing happens.”
Along with attacks on other prisoners, gang members are disproportionately responsible for assaulting prison staff.
This has been identified by staff as an important concern and has become more serious in recent years.
“I’ve seen other phenomena happening in prisons that I wouldn’t have seen 20 years ago, 30 years ago,” one prison told Gilbert. “Even female officers under attack, even non-mandatory staff are being assaulted. Nurse, program provider. You just never saw it back then, you know, it just didn’t happen.”
The cell is depicted inside the new MT Eden Corrections facility in Auckland, New Zealand. Phil Walter/Getty Images
Voluntary quarantine becomes more popular
The report suggests that voluntary separation is a good option for prisoners – gang victims and those who want to leave the gang carried a considerable stigma as they were perceived as a place for informants and child sex offenders.
If carefully planned, prisons can also establish separate wings of gangs. However, non-gang members placed in such units were at a much higher risk of danger than anyone in the unit with mixed gangs.
“A balanced number of units is less likely to see a single gang abuse their power, resulting in less overall violence and less harm related to gangs,” the report states.
Another option that Gilbert says is most effective is to try to distribute members evenly from different gangs through different wings, but of course this depends on the number of prisoners constantly changing.
“If the numbers are evenly balanced, it’s much better. Without a doubt. One prisoner said, but another said, “There was only one of all the gang members. I was there who classified them as a killer bee, one bandid, one black power, one gang (Mongrel Mob). So we were all equal and we all hang out together. It was odd. But it was all good.”
Gilbert said prisons need to provide far greater support to those who want to leave the gang.
“Unless you sign on for protection or go to a unit at risk. Unless you leave the unit, no. Unless you sign on for protection… you’re going to get hidden (be-stroke) every day,” one prisoner told Gilbert.
Actively promoting a neutral gang unit or an entire prison with additional freedom and privileges to join the gang could also have consequences.
For those who are already involved and those who want to go outside, voluntary separation is an option, but there are a few issues. Most notably, Gilbert says, “social psychological barriers from the highest to lowest levels of prison hierarchies.”
“The actual number of prisoners in voluntary separation has remained stable over the past five years, but in that time, the prison population has declined (large), which corresponds to a significant proportional increase in its use. In 2018, 24.5% of the prison population was voluntarily isolated, but as of 2023, that percentage rose to 35.08%.”
However, separation risks creating “two parallel prison systems… gang and gang systems and non-gang systems.” If this were to be achieved, it would not be due to design, but would lead to a continuous situation. ”
“The majority of the flat prisoner structures that once existed were replaced by prison hierarchies based on the “Might-Makes-Right” in the spirit of “all people” who sought to quell conflicts and stand-overs for the benefit of prisoner solidarity.”
“This privileged and promoted gang membership, creating a hostile environment for other prisoners. It also poses a major challenge to prison management. The prison environment has become a gang environment on the surface.”
