And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 06:57:40 -0500
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Brotherhood/Posse Edmonton Institution
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Friday, March 12, 1999
Brothers behind bars
The Edmonton Max attempts to keep a lid on
native gangs
By IAN MCDOUGALL, EDMONTON SUN
A former member of the Indian Posse doing time at the
Edmonton Max angrily raises his tattooed arms and storms out of
the room.
Amid paintings and photos depicting native role models, prisoners
hurl accusations at prison officials in a discussion in the office of
the Native Brotherhood.
The topic that sets off the exchange is gangs at the prison. The
prisoners are angry the topic has been brought up in the space that
to them is as holy as a church.
"It's the only place we have to come to leave the gang stuff at the
door,'' says one. "We have come a long way.''
The skirmish ends and everyone turns to listen as native elder
Frank Daniels starts talking.
"The problem goes back to something,'' he says. "They don't have
anything. Usually they're victims.
"I don't blame these young people at all. They enter the institution
and they still have to protect themselves so they band together."
The Brotherhood, a loose conglomeration of native inmates,
teaches them about their culture - from religion and drum
ceremonies to building teepees. It's one way prison officials hope
to control the growing ranks of native gangs at the Max.
New warden Chris Price has promised a zero-tolerance policy
towards the gangs - tempered with compassion from staff who will
help members leave the gangs.
The Brotherhood is the compassion. Zero tolerance takes the
tougher form of stripping gang members of their colours when they
enter the prison and surveillance and monitoring of new prisoners
to make sure they're not associating with gang members.
"Just because you're incarcerated, that isn't going to change the
lifestyle,'' said prison spokesman Chuck Andrews.
"You can't force people to change.''
Corrections officers are fighting an uphill battle and are having to
learn fast. Although the young prisoners listen respectfully when
the elders speak, their anger towards their captors simmers behind
the razor wire that surrounds the prison.
The first gangs, the Manitoba Warriors and the Indian Posse,
started trickling into the Max after Manitoba's infamous
Headingley Jail riot in April 1996. Their numbers swelled in the fall
of 1997.
As of December there were 24 known Indian Posse members,
eight Manitoba Warriors and about five members of the Native
Syndicate.
Their ranks were complemented by four members of the Alberta
Warriors, an offshoot of the Manitoba gang, and gangs like
Edmonton's own Redd Alert.
At times they live together peacefully. At times, tensions explode.
Last summer saw the culmination of the growth of the gang
population at the prison. It was one of the worst corrections officer
Jamie Cook can remember.
A war over the prison's drug turf was being waged between the
Manitoba Warriors and the Indian Posse, two gangs loosely
affiliated in the past but more than happy last year to battle for
control through assaults, stabbings and general mayhem.
Things quieted down after city police were called in and laid about
100 charges - about half gang-related - against 70 inmates.
"We're learning more,'' said Cook. "I think we're making
headway.''
Cook works as an Institutional Preventive Security Officer - a
form of prison intelligence officer. His jovial smile sits atop a beefy
frame that would be a major barrier in a cellblock scuffle.
The main problem he and other officers face is how to stop the
gangs from growing inside the jail, where members find kinship
among their brethren. He is not optimistic.
"They're recruiting all the time," he says. "You can't stop it."
One method is to separate the troublemakers from the general
prison population and send them to other prisons - similar to the
divide-and-conquer policy that brought the Manitoba gangs here in
the first place.
The favoured locale for incorrigible gang members is eastern
Canada, where, Cook says, the aboriginal gang members are
dominated and silenced by outlaw bikers.
"There's not a lot of aboriginal gangs (out east),'' he explains.
"There's other gangs that have more power like the Hells Angels
and Rock Machine.''
Sending the prisoners away from their gang brothers is effective
because it takes them out of the group which they depend on for
survival, Andrews said.
But elders and prison officials agree that gangs won't disappear
because of anything done behind prison walls. Something on the
outside has to change.
"Ultimately, the proliferation of gangs will continue as long as the
community doesn't intervene to prevent them from going in that
direction,'' Andrews said.
"When the gang no longer offers the protection or the comfort or
the alternative to a family, it loses its attractiveness.''
Or, as one prisoner in the Brotherhood's circle put it:
"It all stems from poverty and racism. You want to do something
about the gangs, do something about poverty.''
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks, Creator
of the Manchurian Candidate
born New Brunswick
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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