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Every racial group within the California prison system has their own internal structure. I can only speak, personally, about the ways that the Woods organize themselves, though other racial groups must have similar, overlapping structures for the system to work. As a general rule of thumb, there were six major groups to speak of within the prison system: the Woods, the Nortenos, the Surenos, the Paisas, the Blacks, and the Others. Within each of these groups, there were subcategories which we can ignore for now because they tend to complicate things a bit.
As mentioned above, the Woods, short for peckerwoods, are the White boys. All Whites who come to prison are, in a general way, part of the Woods. Skinheads and other White gang members may consider themselves separate and have their own political structure, but they still, for the most part, operate within the greater vehicle of the Woods. They have the same basic rules that they follow.
The Surenos are the gang-affiliated Hispanic population that tends to hail from Southern California. The Nortenos represent the opposite side of the coin and tend to come from Central and Northern California. The Surenos and Nortenos are mortal enemies, and it is rare that one finds them sharing the same prison yard. They often have an “on sight policy”, meaning that their members are expected to beat up or take out any member of the rival gang the moment they ever find themselves in the other’s presence.
The Paisas are the non-gang-affiliated Hispanic population and they tend to be first and second generation, Spanish-speaking Mexicans.
The Blacks are about as self-explanatory as are the Woods. Rival gangs, such as Bloods and Crips, tend to have a peace agreement while in prison, though internal problems occasionally arise.
The Others racial group includes almost everyone else. Asians, Pacific Islanders, Indians (from India), and other minority groups tend to band together, even while maintaining their individual group’s political structure (if they have the numbers for it).
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