Prison gang tattoo recogniton : a correctional officer's survival guide /

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to explain the need for creating a handbook of inmate tattoos and their meanings for correctional officers. In order to accomplish this goal, the history of the art form of tattooing, the history of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the history of prison gangs within the Federal Bureau of Prisons have been discussed. However, an important goal of this thesis is to provide correctional officers with information so that they have the ability to recognize inmate tattoos and interpret their meanings. This study was then narrowed to focus on the five Disruptive Groups that currently exist within the Federal Bureau of Prisons. A collection of federal, state, and private sources were used to complete this project. A handbook for correctional officers of prison gang tattoos and their meanings was created during this project. The handbook focuses on the five Disruptive Groups previously mentioned. The study also proposes the creation of a centralized database that would track all inmate tattoos. The main idea behind this creation is to help monitor the criminal activity of prison gangs and to better track their movement. Four categories of inmates will exist within the database. The first category of inmates that will exist within the database are members of Disruptive Groups. The second category of inmates within the database will be those inmates who have gang affiliated tattoos. The third category of inmates within the database will be inmates who have tattoos but the tattoos are not gang affiliated. The fourth category of inmates within the database will be inmates who do not have tattoos.