Brazil’s prison gangs wield immense power on the streets, and driving the violence is a dynamic of competitive expansion. So are these prison gangs, street gangs, drug cartels or terrorist organizations? Mass incarceration solves this elegantly, arresting street criminals and physically confining them where prison gangs can easily reward obedience and punish defection. Conversely, some local copycat prison gangs were founded by inmates who spent time in PCC-controlled prisons in São Paulo. Once sophisticated gangs emerge within a state’s prison system, they generally begin to organize drug turf in that state’s urban areas.

Source: Washington Post January 17, 2017 13:06 UTC