Changes in Prison Culture: Prison Gangs and the Case of the "Pepsi Generation"

Abstract

This article examines recent changes in prison life. Information collected from a series of in-depth interviews with a sample of California ex-prisoners suggests an important corrective both to the criminal justice literature and to those sociological accounts which have attempted to explain the culture of prison life. The interview data reveals that a serious deterioration in the quality of life has taken place inside California prisons, and that this change results from influences emanating from within the prison as well as from external factors.