Bloods street gang has a grip on the New Jersey prison system.

The State Commission of Investigation report released Tuesday shows the Bloods and other street gangs run their crime operations from inside prisons with ease.The report shows drugs and smuggled cell phones are plentiful.The panel calls for statewide reforms, including better security inside prisons and stronger management of inmates' money.The commission says inmates who want to take advantage of rehabilitation services and re-entry programs deserve protection against gang violence.State officials said the two-year investigation included interviews with witnesses, field surveillance and document analysis. The commission first investigated street gangs in 1993, then concluded that gangs were the "new face of organized crime" in New Jersey in 2004.
Law enforcement efforts have succeeded in putting more gang members behind bars, the commission said, but have created new challenges for state prisons."The growing influx of convicted gang members . . . has transformed the prison system into a breeding ground for gang-related criminal activity at a level far more expansive than ever before," reads the report.Currently prison staff monitor inmate phone calls, read mail and receive training on how to deal with gangs. But the commission said that is not enough."That New Jersey's correctional system has absorbed this deep and violent gang flood thus far without a catastrophic incident -- especially in an era of severe budgetary stress -- is more a testament to hard work and circumstance, to ingenuity and sheer luck, than to the supposed structural soundness and viability of the system as a whole," reads the report. "Those who manage and staff these institutions go to work every day in what amounts to a defensive holding action against worsening odds, and all too often, as they reach for practical tools to get the job done properly, they find the system lacking."According to the report, a top Corrections official believes up to half of all state prison inmates are involved with a gang, either by choice or through extortion. Corrections spokesman Matt Schuman said the department has not yet reviewed the report, and declined to comment on it. He specified other ways the department is fighting gangs, including a rehabilitation program at Northern State Prison in Newark.
"It has proven to be very successful, and a lot of other states have emulated parts or all of what they do there," he said.Schuman also said the department has started using dogs trained to detect cell phones, locating 75 since October.The commission identified an East Coast chapter of the Bloods gang as the primary catalyst for criminal activity behind bars. During a November hearing, state investigators said Bloods members have been able to exploit corrupt prison guards and visitors to smuggle drugs and cell phones.Shawn Williams, president of the National Alliance of Gang Investigators Association, said the biggest problem law enforcement faces is the proliferation of cell phones, which allows inmates to circumvent monitored prison phones."It's a pretty regular thing for gangs who are in prison to use throwaway phones to run their criminal enterprise on the outside," he said.Williams said gangs operate seamlessly through prison walls, with members continuing to find illicit ways to make money behind bars."If he has any rank in his gang at all, he's not going to stop once he gets locked up," he said. "That's his way of life."