
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 4, 1990                   TAG: 9006040321
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

GANG CONTROLS NORFOLK JAIL BY VIOLENCE, INMATES SAY

Young drug dealers in the Norfolk City Jail have addressed overcrowding in their cellblock by beating, stabbing and gang-raping the weakest jail newcomers, current and former prisoners say.

"They're just like wild dogs," inmate Floyd Rainey, 42, said. "Most of the time, they single out the weakest ones. They think: `There'll be more room for us if we run his --- out of here.' "

Rainey, jailed since early March on burglary, forgery and embezzlement charges, said the assailants are members of a gang known as the Tennis Shoe Mob. Jail officials refused to comment on the gang's activities. Police were not aware of the group, since jail incidents are not investigated unless there is a homicide or a request is made by the Sheriff's Department.

But former and current inmates described a threat that has grown as more drug dealers are thrown into the already crowded jail. Two former inmates came to the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and Ledger-Star newspaper office and two inmates called a reporter from the jail.

All four had been jailed previously and knew that jail was a violent place, they said. But they said the violence was worse than usual at the Norfolk City Jail.

Interviewed along with Rainey were: Robert Dean Beveridge, a member of the "Deathstalkers" gang who was sentenced to 26 years for robbery and is awaiting trial for murder; Larry Baker, who served time for cocaine possession; and Edwin E. Connolly, who served time for assaulting a police officer.

Helen Eigenberg, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University, said the formation of prison gangs is not new. It is a new twist, however, for drug dealers to join forces to control the limited space.

"What you're talking about is informal social control," Eigenberg said. "Inmates banded together for years to avoid the pains of imprisonment, for protection and to control limited resources like contraband."

The Norfolk City Jail is rated to hold 417 inmates. Records indicate that on May 28, there were 1,007 inmates. Jail officials said Friday that about 700 of the inmates are serving time for drug-related offenses.

The Tennis Shoe Mob is composed of crack dealers in their late teens and early 20s who knew each other on the street, inmates said.

by CNB