I feel that secure housing units and the step down program now in place may play a role in helping to reduce some gang activity in prisons. However, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations out of 500 inmates who signed up for the step down program only 150 were accepted into it and that has been over the passed four years (Orr, 2013). They are not really seeing a reduction in gang activity, gangs have special languages and hand signs in order to communicate with others that officers are not aware of. Some of the inmates in SHU have never even committed a serious crime yet, they are housed in these units for months and even years. It can not be healthy for their psychological well being either. In my opinion, if a gang member wants something done whether on the inside or the outside, they will find a way to make it happen. Any noise that may be heard in SHU can have a meaning to another gang member however, it may have no meaning to any of us (Orr, 2013). Gangs have the ability to intimidate not only citizens in a free society but other inmates in the prison in order to get things accomplished, they intimidate guards threatening their lives or that of their families in order to get things done on the inside (Allen, Latessa, Ponder, 2016).
