Gang

America's Deadliest Prison Gangs

• Report rights infringement
• published: 27 Mar 2015
• views: 68069

Using secret codes they ran a criminal network from isolation cells in maximum security prisons across America, a regime so ruthless that they controlled the federal prison system and used it as their power base. This is the story of the ruling Council of The Aryan Brotherhood who are now being brought to justice for hundreds of violent and bloody acts of murder and assault, intimidation and racketeering. Next year, in a California courthouse surrounded by armed marshals and giant cement barriers, twenty three of America's most deadly killers face the death penalty; more than at any one time in history. The Aryan Brotherhood has been 'cracked' by young Assistant Attorney Greg Jessner, a cross between crusading lawyer and a one man lynch-mob. "It's the most murderous gang in America. They killed more people than the Mafia", he claims. But the Aryan Brotherhood believe their extreme actions were justified in their fight against institutional corruption and crime. And there are many disturbing and unanswered questions this programme will address. We've gained access to Jessner, to prosecutors, defenders, FBI investigators, sheriffs and code-breakers. But also, uniquely, to the AB leadership, its founder-members, associates and killers. They've broken their vows of silence for the first time, for the gang still has a 'blood in, blood out' philosophy which means death for any informer. Now, through dozens exclusive interviews, secret video footage, CCTV recordings of violence and even killings, and hundreds of photographs never before seen, we tell the story of how and why the Aryan Brotherhood evolved, and how it has been brought to justice. And behind that shocking story are deeper questions to be answered: how does society deal with men who are unafraid to kill or be killed, who live by a different (warrior) ethic from our own, and see killing as "a last badge of honour". Can we judge such a society - one created within America's violent and racist prisons - by our own moral standards? And why, after decades of violence and corruption, have the authorities chosen to act now? So this programme examines not just how the Aryan Brotherhood evolved, but why. Their members are often highly intelligent men, and very articulate. An investigating sheriff said: "If they weren't behind bars they'd be running America". Self-educated in prison, the leadership read Plato, Socrates, Nietzsche and the Chinese Classics as part of their training. Their codes are so complex they need FBI cryptanalysts to break them. "Loyalty to your Brother" is The AB's ultimate weapon in fighting 'the system'. And they see the government's actions and the forthcoming capital trials as part of a wider, politically based conspiracy in the post 9/11 era. It's a story with as many intriguing and unexpected twists, peopled by a variety of unusual and devious characters -- on both sides.