Prison gangs in South Africa: A description

Abstract

Very little has been reported on prison gangs outside the United States of America and, judging from the available literature, prison gangs may be mistaken for a particularly American phenomenon. However, the non-reporting of the phenomenon in other countries does not necessarily preclude its existence in those countries. Prison gangs occur in parts of the South African prison system, particularly among Black and Coloured males in maximum security institutions. In order to make material available for cross-cultural or cross-national analyses, the origins of South African ‘number’ gangs are traced and the structure and functions of the gangs described. Some comparisons are drawn with American counterparts. It is tentatively concluded that the ‘deprivation’ (functional) model on patterns of response to imprisonment (or prisoner subculture) is too limited to explain the origin of prison gangs and that the ‘importation’ model is more appropriate. However, the closed paradigm (functional) perspective may be useful in explaining the maintenance of gangs in prison.