The Pisces prison gang
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The Pisces prison gang was the compulsory Hispanic prison organisation at FCI Loretto. John Kiriakou describes the Hispanic prisoners as a complicated group, and states the rule flatly: every Hispanic prisoner had to belong to Pisces.

Compulsory membership

A prisoner who did not join would get what Kiriakou calls a good hearty beating and would then be forced to check himself into protective custody. From there he would be shipped off to another prison, where in Kiriakou's account the exact same experience would almost certainly repeat itself.

The daily workout

An unwritten rule required all Pisces members to work out every single day. That meant calisthenics, weightlifting and cardiovascular work, and in good weather soccer and baseball as well.

Kiriakou gives the reason as the members gave it: if a race riot ever broke out, the Hispanic prisoners knew they would be able to defend themselves and hold their own.

Subordinating street identities

Kiriakou stresses that Hispanic prisoners were not monolithic. They identified by country of origin as well as by street gang. Dominicans tended to associate only with other Dominicans, Mexicans with Mexicans, Puerto Ricans with Puerto Ricans. He describes Puerto Ricans and Mexicans as generally looking down on one another, everyone looking down on the Dominicans, and Costa Ricans, Venezuelans and Colombians regarding themselves as better than everyone else, while nobody much respected the Salvadorans or the Hondurans. Each subgroup had its own shot caller.

Outside the walls, Kiriakou notes, gangs like MS-13, the Norteños, the Barrios and the Zetas were deadly rivals. On the inside, everyone's gang identity was subjugated to the Pisces identity, and infighting was strictly forbidden.

Place in the prison

Pisces sat alongside the other factions Kiriakou lists at Loretto: the Aryans, the rat and pedophile group, the Black prisoners, Native Americans, Muslims and the Italians. At the time he joined the community, Loretto held 1,369 prisoners, of whom he says about 30 per cent were Hispanic.

See also

- FCI Loretto
- Shot callers
- Prison racial segregation
- The Italians at Loretto
