Texas Syndicate

In the mid-20th century, around the time of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, radical inmate gangs appeared in state prisons in California and Texas. In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the existence of six major prison gangs in the California Department of Corrections: Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia, Black Guerrilla Family, Aryan Brotherhood, Nazi Low Riders, and Texas Syndicate (TS). The Court cited (vs. street gang members in prison) the virtual absence of noncriminal, nondeviant activities by its members as a distinguishing feature of prison gangs. The Court wrote that prison gang members are violent zealots devoted to acting out as prison gangsters while proclaiming and advocating a separatist, racist creed and that prison gang members are violent, racist murderers who ...