Prison Gangs Behind Bars and Beyond

This book draws on a four-year ethnographic study conducted in the prisons and on the streets of Greater Manchester, England, to examine gangs and organised crime in the North of England. It includes the personal testimonies of active prison gang members and major organised crime figures, many of whom are behind bars, and some active street gang members. It presents an holistic account by exploring the linkages that exist between prisons and the streets, including the lines of continuity between gangs on both sides of the prison walls and how gang affiliation straddles this divide. It offers data on the region’s drug market (specifically Class A drugs) as this market is the lynchpin of the underworld, both within and without prison. It also includes the perspectives and insights of prison officers, police detectives, youth workers, active and former street gang members and the parents of deceased gang members. This is a ground-breaking, contemporary study, analysing Englishgang compositions and activities, with its findings and results based on qualitative interviews and ethnographic research.

Dev Rup Maitra is Lecturer in Criminology at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Portsmouth, UK, and a non-practising barrister. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn as Hardwicke Scholar and holds degrees from the University of Bristol and the University of Cambridge. He was ESRC Scholar at Trinity Hall, a Member of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology Prisons Research Centre, and is Fellow of the Higher Education Academy