Underground Economy of Prison 257of the traditional customs established between prison gangs and guards. Hunt and
his colleagues found that the new generation of prison gangs is needlessly violent
and unpredictable. Therefore, the behaviors of the new generation of inmate gangs
coupled with prison overcrowding has the effect of making prison life more unstable
and more difficult for prison guards to manage. This effect is expected to continue
into the future. Toller and Tsagaris (1996) found that the number of teenagers 15—
19 years of age, a target population for gangs, is predicted to grow 23% by the year
2005.Forensic Psychology and Policy ImplicationsWhen a prison gang begins to dominate drug trafficking, weapon sales, and other
underground economies of prison, correctional staff are placed at high risk and the
stability of the prison is jeopardized. As mentioned earlier, by the year 2005 there
will be an increase in the population of incarcerated juvenile gang members. Correc-
tional facilities need to increase their gang rehabilitation programs and intervention
tactics to meet this challenge. Therefore, public policy makers should develop an
appropriate budget plan to accommodate this dilemma in prisons. Additionally,
public policy makers and correctional administrators need to design programs to
help inmate facilities deal with the underground economy of prison.
Another strategy a public policy makers might adopt when addressing the un-
derground economy of prisons is to establish an Inspector General's Office. The
purpose of an Inspector General's Office is to review and audit records by officials
in the prison. Therefore, gang activity and guard corruption would be documented
and subject to review. Public policy makers might design an Inspector General's
Office to help alleviate the numerous responsibilities a correctional administrator
assumes. Consequently, underground economies in prison might be targeted and
eliminated at an efficient rate.
Public policy makers might also consider designing a gang-training program
tor correctional staff. A gang-training program is beneficial because it reduces the
chance that the illicit activities associated with the underground economy of prison
would undermine the integrity of the facility. Gang-training programs increase
correctional staff awareness of the underground economy of institutions. For ex-
ample, correctional staff are educated on how drug smuggling is conducted and
how prison gangs barter goods and services such as weapons and prostitution. By-
increasing underground economy awareness, correctional staff have an advantage
in quickly identifying underground economies and in taking steps to prevent them
from controlling their respective prisons.
Gang-rehabilitation programs might also be developed to help correctional facil-
ities deal with the underground economy of prisons. An effective gang-rehabilita-
tion program should be designed to segregate gang members as well as to pro-
vide a step-by-step rehabilitation system. Toller and Tsagaris (1996) suggest that a