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When Santano looks back on his old life in prison he comments that Fulsom was the "big time." He had more power there. Before the gang, if someone wanted something from him, "They just took it" because he was weak, but being in the gang stopped that because he became strong. He looks back on prison life with a certain sense of nostalgia and tells his girlfriend, "I loved it in there."
The gang allows him to be competent under horrible circumstances. He has been deprived of all the ordinary, normal experiences we take for granted, such as dancing, learning to drive a car, going to the beach, standing in the moonlight with a girl, and making love. All he has ever known is violence and the need to keep others afraid of him in order to protect himself. He's more or less ruined for life on the outside by his violent conditioning.
Santano's sense of identity is tied into his membership in the gang. This becomes clear when his girlfriend talks about him as two people. His concept of himself...
For anyone, having an identity is paramount to being a human being, but especially in the de-humanizing ordeal of prison life. This is what is meant by the title of the film, American Me. Me refers to inmates who have no other identity but that of criminals and don't know how to be anyone else. They have lost touch with who they really are.
I had heard that drugs were plentiful in prison and wondered how it was possible to use them under the noses of prison officials. The movie showed how it was done and how commonplace all the criminal activities are in prison. Once a prison sentence was thought of a chance to start over and become rehabilitated through training for a job and getting an education. But the film shows clearly that rehabilitation is not even a consideration. The focus is strictly on punishment and treating the prisoners as though they had no other identity but as criminals, as though they were not human beings at all.
However, some gang members specialize in multiple criminal activities such as street robbery, human trafficking and drug trafficking. Street Gangs Street gangs are the major concern to parents, school administrators and the communities because they recruit students and the youths across the United States to enhance the growth of gang memberships. Street gangs are the most prevalent type of gangs in the United States because they influence a strong control in
Gangs and gang-related activities are serious problems in American society. Books like Snitch, by Allison van Diepen, show that gangs are infiltrating almost every part of America and are leading to the proliferation of drugs, weapons, and human trafficking. However, gangs are not just talked about in novels like Snitch. Gangs are real, as I learned when interviewing a former gangbanger. Gangs have made such an impact on the people
S. (MS-13, 2012). More specifically, the gang's code is: "First is God, then your mother, then your gang. You live for God, you live for your mother, you die for your gang" (Lineberger & Padgett, 2011, p. 188). Prison where gang is strongest and weakest (geographically). The State of California in general and the Los Angeles region in particular (MS-13, 2012). Recent trends in membership. The gang's membership has swelled in recent
Hybrid Gangs in South Florida On Public Policy towards Volatile Movements South Florida has an increasing prevalence of criminal gangs in their communities and it is posing a growing threat to their security and safety. It is clear that in that region criminal hybrid gangs are spreading violence and fear in their neighborhoods making places like their parks unusable, and even bringing corrupt behavior passages to work and school, stopping legitimate businesses
deviance relates to the American Dream In his book, Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A., Luis J. Rodriguez uses his own experience and writing talents to tell the story of lives that are caught in the fire of bad luck. Children who happened to be born in some of the poorest neighborhoods of LA in the 1960's, 70s or 80s, as Rodriguez, were condemned to contamination from
Prisons An analysis of the purposes for prisons in the U.S. justice system. The corrections system in America has historically fluctuated between being dedicated to incapacitation, rehabilitation, and to being punitive in nature. They can serve all three of these functions at the same time. Current trends in criminal justice remain focused on punitive justice that fosters prison environments lacking rehabilitative services, but recent scholarship and public policy have indicated a slight