SPECIAL REPORT: Prison Staff Manage, Protect Dangerous Gang Members

By ABC-7 Reporter/Anchor Ken Molestina

EL PASO COUNTY — There’s a subculture inthe Sun Citythat is rarely ever seen.Its rituals and members don’t thrive under the sun on our city streets, rather, within the confines of steel bars and white walls.

Unprecedented access to the El Paso County Jail Annex revealed active gangs make up nearly half of the population. The facility is home to some of the most notorious gangs in our area. Some were created within correctional systems while others were created in the outside …what gang members often call the “free world.”

“[They include] Barrio Azteca, Sureno’s, Folk, Blood, Crips, Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate, and some Arian brotherhood,” said Sgt. Alberto Telles, a Gang Intelligence Officer at the annex.

The list of gangs locked up at the annex is long … thesame could be saidof their activities inside the prison.

“A lot of extortions, they’ll extort non-gang members for commissary, pay protection,” saidSgt. Telles. “When [extortions fail], we have a lot of assaults.”

Several officers at the annex are specifically assigned to the Gang Intelligence Unit. Their job is to make sure they stay astep ahead of every and any illegal gang activity within the facility’swalls. “If you lose sight of what’s going on in that cell block, you can get assaulted or somebody could get hurt,” Telles said.

Detention officers at the facility must be familiar with all the gangs, their tattoos, and their affiliations. New inmates come in, are strip-searched, photographed and then catalogued.

Everyone knows violence can break out at any moment and it’s a risk that keeps the detention staff on alert.

One of the tools detention officers use to keep the gang activity down is the segregation ofknown gang members.Officials said they are kept locked in their cells for 23 hours a day so they don’t intermingle with other inmates or gang members.

Therelationship between officer and ganginmate isbest described by those who know it best.

“I would think it’s common respect.[We]talk to each other because[we] have to,” said an inmate at the facility, addingit all boils down to basic human interaction.”At some point, the inmate is going to need something from the officer.”

The one thing both officer and inmate agree on is that peace is in the best interest of both parties. Their relationship is like a chess match that goes back and forth … pieces on both sides of the board stay balanced until a final outcome.

The same cannot be said for inmates who have been “x’d out” or disaffiliated from their gangs. “I still fear for my life,” said a recently-exiled inmate. “I have to watch my back everywhere I go.”

Being “x’d out”from a gang usually means the ex-gang member has a “green light” on them … it’sessentially an ordered hit that can happen at any moment and something officers have to stop from happening.

Officers have to gaininformation from informants in and out of the jail tomake sure those prone to hit and get hit don’t cross paths. “[If you’re] an ex-gang member, then you already know what’s coming … “It’s going to happen one day, and deep inside, I’m scared for my life,” said an ex-inmate.

“An order will come out and that inmate needs to be assaulted,” said Telles. It’s a fact of prison life Telles said haunts inmates for the rest of their lives. It shadows most as they try to re-associate themselves with the outside world.

Someare able to puttheir violent lifestyle behind then,others fall prey to it and continue.

Still, as long as these dangerous men are in their custody, it’s the officers’ job to keep them safe and keep the peace.

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