Date: Fri 04-Sep-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Public-safety-Garner-gangs

Full Text:

Public Safety Panel Hears About Garner Close Custody Program

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Staff members at Garner Correctional Institution, the state's high security

prison on Nunnawauk Road, look at gang affiliation as an addiction in seeking

to rehabilitate the crime gang members incarcerated at the sprawling facility.

On September 1 Garner Warden Remi Acosta and Major Ray Rivera explained to

Garner Public Safety Committee members the psychology of gang members and what

Garner staffers do in trying to reform them into useful members of society.

"This is something that's not going to go away. When you talk about gangs,

they've been here since the late 1800s," Warden Acosta said of crime gangs'

presence in American society.

Gang members have been deprived of a normal family structure and therefore

seek the equivalent of a family structure and security through gang

membership, he said. Members become psychologically dependent on their gang,

becoming addicted to the gang and its perceived benefits, he added.

Gangs derive their power and influence through coercive methods and fund their

operations through illegal activity, he explained, noting that gangs' primary

illegal activity involves the sale and use of drugs.

Gangs control the sale and distribution of drugs in prisons and inmates are

coerced into gang membership through access to drugs, according to the warden.

To deal with prison gang members, Garner uses "close custody" prisoner

handling methods.

Thirty groups of correction officials from other states and countries have

visited Garner to see the close custody program in action and learn how they

can use aspects of it their prison systems, Warden Acosta said.

In the strictest phase of close custody, inmates are kept in their cells 23

hours per day, may have two monitored telephone calls per week, have three

showers per week and may have non-contact visits with their immediate family

only. Inmates are kept in their cellblocks as much as possible when receiving

prison services.

In successive phases of the program, inmates are treated less strictly. If

they adhere to program rules, they eventually are released from "close

custody" and are transferred to other prisons.

More than 600 inmates have completed the "close custody" program and only 25

men have been returned to it due to disciplinary problems, the warden said.

Police Chief James E. Lysaght, Jr, lauded the DOC for it's work in prisons to

rehabilitate inmates.

Garner, which opened in November 1992, was the site of a prison riot in April

1993. Another riot at Garner in September 1993 resulted in the start of the

"close custody" program. In December 1993, the "close custody" program

instituted a set of phases through which inmates progressed. Inmates completed

the first "close custody" program in May 1994.

Garner has a gang intelligence unit which identifies gang leaders and gang

members. The unit monitors the gang members' telephone calls and mail. The

unit uses computer links with other agencies to keep tabs on gang members.