Video content

Abstract
In this paper I am going to about the video of social structure theory, with covering the following topics. I will discuss how the video supports a social structure theory, the primary subject and content, social issues discussed, and major principles of sociological theory addressed. I am also going to discuss, in the last part of this paper, what are some possible ramifications for a social policy change. The video that I have selected to go hand in hand with this paper is the “Pelican Bay State Prison: War Zone” to best fit with my beliefs of social structure theory being the top reason for criminality evolving.
Video Supported
In the video that I have viewed, “Pelican Bay State Prison: War Zone”, there was a lot of information in it that supported crime evolving from a social structure theory. The prisoners that are in Pelican Bay State Prison set a goal to get into this prison because it is more like a reward than a punishment. The reason that it is a reward to these prisoners is that only the meanest most violent prisoners that are gang leaders out of prison. These gang leaders still run the gangs while they are in prison and are fearless. These gang leaders come from the only family that they have ever known and would give their life for the gang. Most prisoner, gang leaders are only educated in the streets and nowhere else .In the video it talks about how Pelican Bay State Prison is known for the thousands upon thousands of gang leaders that set a goal to end up there for more recognition. The prisoners that end up in Pelican Bay go in strong and hardcore, and when they come out they are not weaker but stronger and more dedicated than ever to be the gang leader that they are. The gang is not lost without their leader right beside them because they know they will be keeping in touch with the leader on a regular basis. It is a life that is wanted by these gang leaders and members that will rise to the top of the gang.
Primary Subject The primary subject that is discussed in the video is how the gangs are ran from these gang leaders being inside the confines of Pelican Bay. The prison is trying to fight back and put a stop to the gang activity but it is doing no good. The prison was made to try and keep the gang leaders and members from continuing this activity of violence on the street and put them into a scare but the gang members and leaders come to Pelican Bay to hone their skills instead of losing touch of them. The prison is a war zone, with violence at every corner and communication to the outside to order killings. This state prison has not been the upper hand for the law enforcement to keep gangs at a low but a backfire situation.
Social Issues
The social issues that are raised in this video are the controlling of gangs through the prison in many different ways. The gang leaders in Pelican Bay run drugs through communication techniques used while in prison, and if there is a problem that needs to be taken care of through murder, then it is up to the gang leader to order the call. Pelican Bay wants to stop this running that the gang leaders do but it is not as easy as it seems. The battle of keeping the gang leaders from running the gang still while in prison is more of a war instead of a battle. There are so many different views that the prison staff has to look at in each battle of this war that goes on each and every day in the Pelican Bay State Prison.
Major Principles
There are two main principles that I see that are addressed in this video. The two principles are lack of healthy home growing up and gang life being the only home these prisoners of Pelican Bay has ever had. The prisoners that are in Pelican Bay State Prison have never had any other life except for the gang that they come from. The life of gang violence is what occurs on a daily basis in the prison and the gang leaders even control the murders of some individuals that have acted against the gang in a manner that the gang feels threatened in some way. The gang members and leaders that are in this prison have all they know in the gang that they belong in and will give their life for the gang.
Theory Reviewed
The social structure theory was brought about by theorists that have studied the lives of criminals and where they came from starting in the beginning of that criminals’ life. As the criminals
’ lives were studied; it became apparent that there was a link to how the juveniles became criminals in this life. The most seen criminality comes from individuals that fail to graduate school. Therefore, when an individual continues in education the act of crime becomes less and less.
Prisoner’s Society When an individual fails to graduate, it is usually because the lack of family support is not there as it is needed. The family support helps tremendously, but when a family becomes broken the child suffers. When the child suffers from that broken family, that child will look for the support from another source. The support that a child, majority of the time, finds is not a good kind of support. There are groups such as big brothers and big sisters clubs that can help a child in a good way, but unfortunately that child ends up looking for the support in gangs which leads to the criminal life of that child. Society is the main influence on who becomes a criminal because it fails to reach out to the youth that do not have family support. I believe that it is very easy to see when a young person needs help, maybe because I know that God has called me to reach out to youth. In this world we have two forces which are good and evil. This has been proven time after time in the past, present, and will continue in the future by events that have and will mark history. In the world of criminal justice the good is law enforcement and the bad is crime. If society was to reach out to young people instead of being scared of the youth, then the crime will decrease and law enforcement will conquer. So if society would just change their social policy and start caring for other individuals then, in my beliefs of the social structure theory, the world could become more peaceful as the result from less crime.
“When you look at the theory, the strains might not necessarily come from people’s frustrations with acquiring The American Dream, but rather a mixture in strains such as homelessness, abuse and neglect, subcultures, deviant values and frustrations about poverty.
Meaning, there might be more than one factor in play when a person is “influenced” to commit a crime by interacting within an imposed economic class. A person might encounter one of these factors by themselves and not decide to succumb to peer pressure or let his/her abuse trauma lead them to a life of crime. A person might face poverty but have enough resilience through family values to make a choice of lawful actions. (Inchaustegui, 2013) ”
PBSP Structure Shock The building of the Pelican Bay State Prison is not like all other prisons and that is one of the things that I believe keep prisoners from wanting to change their life. In all buildings, the architecture in it can keep a mood set a certain way and can prevent happiness from occurring. The architecture of the Pelican Bay State Prison is not a happy one at all; and it is almost like being in a solitary confinement throughout the entire interior of the prison. Each one of the cells do not have a window and is nothing but metal everywhere, which makes for a cold eerie feeling to be surrounded by darkness and cold.
“Long term-solitary confinement, which is either for months or years, or goes on forever, as at Pelican Bay, connected with absolute idleness — that is, the individual is socially isolated to the extreme, but also has nothing meaningful to do: This causes human breakdown. This destroys people as human beings,” says Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist who specializes in forensic work. Kupers has served as an expert witness on over 20 class action lawsuits concerning prison conditions. He says there’s a whole litany of effects that solitary can have on a person, including massive anxiety, paranoia, insomnia, depression and suicidal thoughts. Kupers says people often pace and clean their cells compulsively. Furthermore, their eyesight suffers from not being able to look at a distance. Inmates find it hard to concentrate enough to read, Kupers says. (Greenspan and Mars, 2013)” “Above all, he says, inmates report being terrified that anger at their circumstances will “get out of control, and they’ll be in more trouble, and they’ll have a longer term in solitary.”That’s just for a normal, stable person, Kupers says. For prisoners with a history of, or predisposition to mental illness, solitary can bring on a breakdown.
(Greenspan and Mars, 2013)” “Life of the Law reporter Nancy Mullane says that compared with other prisons she has visited, there are actually some good design elements in the Pelican Bay SHU. Inmates can get natural light from skylights outside of their cells, which drifts in through doors made of a perforated metal. These porous doors also allow for inmates to communicate with each other, even though there are no lines of sight to any prisoner from within the cell. (Greenspan and
Mars, 2013)” “But on the other hand, cells don’t have windows. Inmates never get to see the horizon.
The only times prisoners get to leave the cell is to visit the shower, or the exercise yard, an empty, windowless room not that much bigger than a cell, with 20-foot high concrete walls. And while many SHU prisoners have a cellmate, Terry Kupers says that sharing a cell is often worse than being alone. If not solitary confinement, per se, call it a kind of “binary confinement.” (Greenspan and Mars, 2013)”
A Solitary Life
A sentence to prison is one thing for a prisoner to have to deal with, but to be sentenced to prison and then spend a good amount of time in solitary confinement is another. The prisoner that has to deal with being in solitary confinement ends up with a total mind change that effects that prisoner for the rest of the life. The main reason that a prisoner returns back to their same lifestyle and does not try to better their self is that while in prison, the treatment they receive; will set in their mind that they are not good people and there is no hope for them. The sentence along with solitary confinement sends the prisoners’ mind farther into a deeper and darker setting that will not come out of the life of crime.
“Associate Warden Williams says that without the SHU, the gang problem would be even worse. But after almost 20 years, California is now holding more inmates in solitary confinement than it ever has — and its gang problem is worse than it has ever been. And over the years, the violence rates at Pelican Bay have actually gone up. Williams says he worries a little that segregation could be making the inmates worse. (Sullivan, 2006)” "I can't totally disagree that it may affect the inmates in some kind of way," Williams says. "It may make them mad for a while. But the benefit of these security housing units is that we take the people who go out there and cause the trouble, and we lock them up here, to get them off the mainline so that it can functions the way it's designed to — and the way we would like it to, and the way the inmates would like it to. (Sullivan, 2006)” “Almost 95 percent of the inmates in Pelican Bay's SHU are scheduled to be released back into the public at some point. They'll spend a few weeks in a local prison before rejoining society, with little, if any, preparation for how to live around people on the outside. And for every inmate that leaves, there is another one waiting to take his place. (Sullivan, 2006)”