Governance and Prison Gangs

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (4) ◽  
pp. 702-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID SKARBEK
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Street Gangs ◽  
Market Failures ◽  
Drug Dealing ◽  
County Jail ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
Governance Institutions ◽  
Substantial Control

How can people who lack access to effective government institutions establish property rights and facilitate exchange? The illegal narcotics trade in Los Angeles has flourished despite its inability to rely on state-based formal institutions of governance. An alternative system of governance has emerged from an unexpected source—behind bars. The Mexican Mafia prison gang can extort drug dealers on the street because they wield substantial control over inmates in the county jail system and because drug dealers anticipate future incarceration. The gang's ability to extract resources creates incentives for them to provide governance institutions that mitigate market failures among Hispanic drug-dealing street gangs, including enforcing deals, protecting property rights, and adjudicating disputes. Evidence collected from federal indictments and other legal documents related to the Mexican Mafia prison gang and numerous street gangs supports this claim.

The Puzzle of Prison Order

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Skarbek
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
County Jail ◽  
Prison Life ◽  
Women's Prisons ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Violent Men ◽  
Prison Systems

The Puzzle of Prison Order presents a theory of why prisons and prison life vary so much. While many people think prisons are all the same—rows of cells filled with violent men who officials rule with an iron fist, life behind bars varies in incredible ways. In some facilities, prison officials govern with care and attention to prisoners’ needs. In others, officials have remarkably little influence on the everyday life of prisoners, sometimes not even providing necessities like food and clean water. Why does prison social order around the world look so remarkably different? This book shows that how prisons are governed—sometimes by the state and sometimes by the prisoners—is tremendously important. It investigates life in a wide array of facilities—prisons in Brazil, Bolivia, Norway, England and Wales, a prisoner of war camp, women’s prisons in California, and a gay and transgender housing unit in the Los Angeles County Jail—to understand the hierarchy of life on the inside. Drawing on theories from political economy and a vast empirical literature on prison systems, the book offers a framework for understanding how social order evolves and takes root behind bars.

scholarly journals Disempowering Mindfulness: Reflections on Discovering the Veils of Power in Well-Being and Good Intentions

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-95
Author(s):  
Everardo Carvajal
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Intervention Strategy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
County Jail ◽  
Educational Levels ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Wellness Intervention

Despite the widespread popularity of mindfulness as a wellness intervention strategy across educational levels, its proponents are susceptible to countering the intended area of improvement. This article recounts the cumulative reflections of an educator and his attempts to implement mindfulness into high school classes at the Los Angeles County Jail. Beginning with a layout of the physical and social settings, the article examines the ways that unconsciously practicing mindfulness will counter and potentially negate the possible benefits of mindful practice.

Profiling Inmates in the Los Angeles County Jail, 1996-1998

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Petersilia ◽  
Susan Turner ◽  
Terry Fain
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
County Jail

The Medicalization of the Los Angeles County Jail System, 1978–2015

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-90
Author(s):  
Armando Lara-Millán
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Substance Abusers ◽  
Homeless Persons ◽  
Budget Constraint ◽  
Gang Members ◽  
County Jail ◽  
Fiscal Retrenchment

This chapter presents the historical transformation of the Los Angeles County jail system in order to explain why medicine has becomes a useful tool for jailers. Jails were successfully pressured into providing expanded healthcare by various legal agencies at the exact same time that they faced unprecedent budget constraint. In response, jails began thinking of their inmates less as violent gang members and more as mentally ill, substance abusers, and less threatening homeless persons. Doing so allowed them to draw in funding from other agencies and to release thousands of inmates. In total this resulted in the mere circulation of inmates between general housing and medicalized space as the key solution to the jail’s fiscal retrenchment and legal demands.

scholarly journals Law, Violence, and Property Expropriation in Syria: Impediments to Restitution and Return

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Stubblefield ◽  
Sandra Joireman
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
Disproportionate Number ◽  
Property Restitution

After eight years of civil war, parts of Syria are now free from conflict. In recognition of the return to peace, the government officially welcomes back all who fled the country to escape violence. Yet, a pattern of property expropriation supported by the government during the war limits the ability of some to return and reclaim their homes and businesses. We argue here that intentional changes to law and policy regarding property rights during the war has led to asset losses for members of groups opposed to the government and created a barrier to property restitution and the return of these groups. We examine legal documents and secondary sources identifying government actions and their impact, noting the proliferation of laws that systematically erode the property rights of people who lack proximity, legal status, and regime allies. As the results of these laws manifest after the war, a disproportionate number of Syrians who opposed the government will find themselves without the houses, land, and property they held before the war began.

scholarly journals Differential Incarceration by Race-Ethnicity and Mental Health Service Status in the Los Angeles County Jail System

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (8) ◽  
pp. 843-846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oona Appel ◽  
Dustin Stephens ◽  
Sonya M. Shadravan ◽  
Justin Key ◽  
Kristen Ochoa
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
County Jail ◽  
Race Ethnicity

scholarly journals Rearrests of Noncitizens Subsequent to Immigration Removal From the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 105756772097545
Author(s):  
Jennifer S. Wong ◽  
Laura J. Hickman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
County Jail ◽  
Individual Level

Deportation or removal from the United States for criminal justice–involved noncitizens has been described as analogous to incapacitation. A common assertion is that if immigration authorities remove these noncitizens from the United States, future criminal justice involvement will be averted. The present study explores the hypothesized incapacitation effect of immigration removal and tests whether a record of prior removal predicts postremoval rearrest patterns. The sample consists of 521 foreign-born males with a verified immigration removal from the United States, following transfer into federal immigration custody from Los Angeles County Jail in 2002. California rearrests after the date of verified U.S. removal were tracked through 2011. Results indicate that 48% of the sample was rearrested at least once and 22% had three or more postremoval arrests. These findings do not support the hypothesis that deportation equates to permanent incapacitation. The study also found that a record of prior removal did not predict postremoval rearrest likelihood or frequency. As a single longitudinal study and the first of its kind, these results alone cannot inform responsible policy recommendations. The study does, however, highlight directions for further research and the pressing need for access to individual-level immigration data for empirical study and public distribution of results.

Estimating the Size of the Los Angeles County Jail Mental Health Population Appropriate for Release into Community Services

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Holliday ◽  
Nicholas Pace ◽  
Neil Gowensmith ◽  
Ira Packer ◽  
Daniel Murrie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
Community Services ◽  
County Jail
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