Eight gang leaders were serving time at Pelican Bay when they gave the orders to kill, prosecutors say. These inmates live alone in antiseptic cells that are painted white with a glass wall so that guards can always see inside. Meals are brought to the cells and they are allowed outside only one hour a day, alone, to exercise in a small concrete yard. Clothing, bedding and personal items are X-rayed before they're placed in a cell. Inmates sleep on a mattress on top of a concrete slab.
Toilets are stainless steel, with no removable parts.
Despite such intense security, gang leaders have managed for years to effectively communicate with members and foot soldiers in other prisons and on the outside, prosecutors said. We know when certain gang members parole, they go out with a mission or orders to organize drug trafficking, commit robberies for money for the gang and hurt or kill those gang members who didn't follow orders. Most of these gang members kill each other. They use that as their internal discipline. Inside prison, inmates wear badges that denote their gang affiliation.