by Eric Tischler

About the author: Eric Tischler is associate editor of Corrections Today, a monthly journal for correctional officers.

While the debate over corrections' role in rehabilitation vs. punishment rages on, one thing is certain: Prisons are supposed to help put a stop to crime. However, the presence of prison gangs casts the feasibility of even this modest measure of success into doubt. A popular euphemism for prison gangs is Security Threat Groups (STGs), and that term is accurate; the threat to security that these groups pose is very real. California Correctional News notes that "if anyone could organize the various black gangs, they would overrun the prisons and jails." From drug trafficking in the institutions to inciting riots to murder, STGs pose a threat to correctional institutions.

Cory Godwin, correctional program administrator for the...