'Tangos' vs. Prison Gangs: Power in numbers

Overcrowding and understaffing at Texas prisons has forced inmates to devise their own safety solutions in response to prison gang violence, reports Patrick Brendel at The Back Gate. A fascinating development to counter gang power in the last 20 years has been the creation of "tangos," or non-gang affiliated, regional-based self-protection groups. A "tango" is

is a “hometown clique,” [TDCJ gang specialist Sigifredo] Sanchez said — “homeboys, people that fall into our system who come from the same geographic area.”

Prisoners are pressured to join established gangs, involving a lifelong commitment or to seek protection elsewhere from those gangs, he said.

David Stacks, criminal justice department deputy director for management operations, said prisoners naturally gravitate toward others with common interests or backgrounds — much like how high school students form social groups.

Starting about 15 or 20 years ago, prisoners, originally from Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, banded together for protection from security threat groups, calling themselves the “Four Horsemen,” [TDCJ Special Investigation Unit Sgt. Javier] Leyva said.

The Four Horsemen became known as “Tangos — an old Hispanic expression meaning hometown,” Sanchez said.

Tangos are more attractive to most prisoners than security threat groups, because members are not bound to the group once released from prison. Also unlike security threat groups, tangos do not have hierarchies, officers or a constitution, he said.

Leyva said that, at most, a tango would appoint a spokesman to be the voice of the group at a particular facility.

Tangos formed in West Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. These two tangos, plus the original four, sometimes support one another and are collectively known as “Puro Tango Blast,” he said.

Other tangos include prisoners from San Antonio and El Paso. With only about 8 to 10 percent of prisoners in security threat groups, Stacks said, tango members quickly outnumbered traditional gang members.

“There’s a lot of strength in numbers — a lot of power,” Leyva said.

So much power, that security threat groups across the state have declared truces amongst one another in order to present a unified front against the tangos, he said.

According to Sanchez, one important factor to the formation of tangos was overcrowding in the state prison system.

Instead of the normal two months or less, offenders on their way to prison would stay six months to a year or more in county jails, where security threat groups didn’t have a strong presence. Prisoners would carry with them relationships formed in county jails to the prison system, he said.

Read the rest at The Back Gate. UPDATE: A commenter points to this recent Houston Press story about tangos.