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Sequestering Gang Members, Burning Witches, and Subverting Due Process

State University of New York-Albany, HToch{at}albany.edu

There are striking parallels between the procedures relied on by medieval inquisitors in persecuting witches and those used by American prison administrators in "classification" proceedings through which gang members are indefinitely sequestered based on evidence of gang affiliation. In both cases, due process is nominal and minimal, there is considerable reliance on information obtained from confidential informants, personal stigmata are summated and submitted as incriminating evidence, and defendants are encouraged to confess and debrief. In both cases, the advertised goal of the process involves concern for safety and survival of the system. In the case of prisons, this goal gains credence from the fact that most efforts to monitor and control gang behavior have had limited success. The experience of failure has been understandably frustrating for prison officials, and recourse to the punitive segregation of gang members (under the guise of preempting gang violence) represents a measure of this frustration.

Key Words: segregation • supermax • gangs • violence • inquisition

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