Making a Character & Brief Prison Lore

Role playing in prison is as easy as just approaching the group and introducing yourself. But before you do so, you need to properly set up your character and his background. You need to decide where he comes from, his age, his story, his crime, who he'll clique up with.

Age: Your character must be at least 18 years old to be in a state prison. A young character (18-21) leaves room for better development from the ground up. Most career criminals start their prison career from a young age as first-time offenders. Some offenders start their criminal career even younger—as juveniles. Being a first timer is the suggested route for those who are new to prison role play. Alternatively, you can make an older character with a preexisting background, who has been to prison before, and knows a state yard. This is a route only for those with experience in prison role play, who posses knowledge about the politics.

Area: Since the server is based in Los Santos, it's advised to role play a character from that location. The main hubs for Caucasians in Los Santos are Las Colinas Valley, East Beach/Harbor Area, and Santa Maria Bay. It's also advised to pick an appropriate Los Santos location if you plan on ever releasing your character, or partaking in outside role play, since it's the most active part of the server map. Alternatively, you can pick a different location in the state (such as Red County or Bone County) if you have different plans, want to portray a certain gang, or plan to only partake in prison role play. Regardless, each area comes with its own history and culture, which differentiates your character from others. Do not role play being from California and other states.

Crime: Any serious felony crime is a good choice to land you in prison. The majority of white prisoners & white gang members, are drug addicts, or did crimes in order to get money to support their drug habit. There's also prisoners doing life sentences for murders and crimes falling under the three strikes law. You should role play a sentence of at least a few years, because anything short wouldn't land you on the prison yard. You shouldn't pick charges related to sex crimes or hurting children, since inmates responsible for crimes like that are targeted in our prison systems. You can find the server's penal code here.

Drugs: As mentioned in the paragraph above, drugs are a big part of the peckerwood criminal world, and the number one reason why people are mass-incarcerated. Either drug-related crimes or crimes criminals can earn money for drugs. White gang members are pretty much glorified junkies with a paintjob. The Aryan Brotherhood was nicknamed the Heroin Brotherhood, while the Nazi Lowriders coined the term Needle Nazi, and PENI Death Squad members are either drug addicts or recovering drug addicts. The top drug in the peckerwood scene is methamphetamine and a lot of tweakers eventually move up into using heroin. If you're a career criminal, your character would have most likely used heavy drugs at some point. The use of illegal drugs has been a long-standing problem in American society and we portray that.

County Jail & Reception: When you're arrested on LSRP, you're taken straight to SACF, and imprisoned. While that happens, for story purposes, we prefer to role play the skipped parts of the judicial system. After you're arrested, you end up in county jail, where you stay until your case is handled in court. County jails have their own programs just like state prisons do. Your character will most likely be schooled there on the basics of sticking with your race and the rules of the convict world. So you don't have to role play being clueless when your character arrives to prison. When your character is found guilty for his crime in court, he's taken to prison. When you land in prison, you first sit at what's called Reception, where the staff keep until they handle your file, and figure out what yard to put you on (this can last weeks or months). After that you're put on the general population yard. We role play that when you land on the prison yard, you're given your paperwork showing your charges and other information (inmate admission file).

Peckerwood & Skinhead: Peckerwoods (woods for short) are what the white guys in prison are known as. If you go to prison and you're white—you're a wood. Collectively the group is known as the woodpile. Peckerwoods represent with their county/area, and other woods from their county/area look out for them. Whites run united as the white car in prison, but under that you have smaller cars based on counties and numbers. The more serious white criminals, who get deep in prison politics, clique up with gangs. Skinheads are whites who identify with the skinhead culture and run with skinhead gangs. They run under the white car but secondary tend to run as a skinhead car instead of in county cars. Most often skinheads tend to be the ones being the deepest into racial belief and prison politics, as not every peckerwood dedicates his life to the prison gang culture politics, a lot of them just want to get out of prison.

Being a Member of a Gang:
A collection of white gangs exist in our state and we portray their members. While some gangs require you to be recruited in-game (*), you're free to role play as a member of others. Being a member of a white gang enriches your character background and adds more story. Most gangs are exclusive based on whether your character is a peckerwood or skinhead. If you pick a gang, make sure your character is from the area which the gang is active in. Some of the smaller white gangs are recruited by gangs like the AB, NLR, and PENI. Alternatively, you can have an unaffiliated peckerwood character (as many whites are not gang members) and go with the flow until someone recruits you. A motorcycle club character will be limited from most gangs.

* Aryan Brotherhood (AB) — a white prison gang active across the state and in the prison system. They sit on top of the white gang hierarchy in the state.
* Nazi Low Riders (NLR) — a peckerwood/skinhead gang active across the state and in the prison system.
* Public Enemy Number One (PENI) — a skinhead gang most active in Los Santos County. Also known as PENI Death Squad.
Santa Maria Skinheads (SMSH) — a skinhead gang from Santa Maria Bay (Los Santos County). Recruits on the street and in jail/prison.
Fuck Shit Up (FSU) — a skinhead gang from Santa Maria Bay (Los Santos County). Not related to other gangs known as FSU.
Verona White Boys (VWB) — a peckerwood gang from Verona Beach in Santa Maria Bay (Los Santos County).
Las Colinas Valley Peckerwoods (LCV) — a peckerwood gang from Las Colinas Valley (Los Santos County). Not regarded as a gang by some but what whites from the area identify in prison as.
Las Colinas Valley Skinheads (LCVS) — a skinhead gang from Las Colinas Valley (Los Santos County). Recruits on the street and in jail/prison.
Metal Minds (MM) — a skinhead gang from Las Colinas Valley (Los Santos County). Members identify with the red color.
East Beach Family Skinheads (EBFS) — a skinhead gang from the Harbor Area (Los Santos County). Recruits on the street and in jail/prison. Also known as East Beach Hardcore.
Los Flores Punks (LFP) — a predominantly white punk gang from Los Flores in Los Santos County. Members identify as skinheads in prison. A tattoo of the Misfits logo is used by many of their members. They have close ties with PENI.
Westside Los Santos Death Squad (LSDS) — a mostly inactive punk gang from the Vinewood/Temple area. Members identify as skinheads in prison and translate the acronym to Lethal Skinhead Death Squad. They have close ties with PENI.
Dirty White Boys (DWB) — a peckerwood gang from Red County with limited membership in other parts of the state. Not related to the same name federal prison gang.
Bay Area Peckerwoods (BAP) — a peckerwood gang from the Bay Area (San Fierro County & Tierra Robada County). Not regarded as a gang by some but what whites from the area identify in prison as.
Family Affiliated Irish Mafia (FAIM) — a peckerwood gang from the Bay Area (San Fierro County & Tierra Robada County). Uses the shamrock symbol with the Aryan Brotherhood's approval.
Barbarian Brotherhood (BBH) — a peckerwood gang from Tierra Robada County. Some members ride bikes and treat it as a motorcycle club.
High Desert Peckerwoods (HDP) — a peckerwood gang from the High Desert (Bone County & Las Venturas County). Not regarded as a gang by some but what whites from the area identify in prison as.
Flintnecks (FN) — a peckerwood gang from Flint County. Not regarded as a gang by some but what whites from the area identify in prison as.
Highly Insane Criminals (HIC) — a peckerwood gang from Whetstone County.
Crazy White Boys (CWB) — a peckerwood/skinhead gang active across the state with no specific stronghold.
White Aryan Resistance (WAR) — a skinhead gang active across the state with no specific stronghold.
COORS Family Skinheads (CFS) — a skinhead gang active across the state with no specific stronghold. Acronym stands for Comrades Of Our Racial Struggle.

Brief Rundown of the White Prison Gang Lore:
San Andreas replaces California. There is no California in our game world. The state is not an island, instead it takes place on the southwest where California is. The Aryan Brotherhood, Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia, and Black Guerilla Family are the top 4 major prison gangs in the state. Each of them are responsible for their own race/group of people. The AB was founded during the 1960s in Whetstone State Prison. Whetstone State Prison is our version of San Quentin State Prison. The AB sit on top of the white gang hierarchy, the Nazi Low Riders and Public Enemy Number 1 sit second, third is where the rest of the gangs fall. The state's prison scene is the same as the one in California; it has one of the highest inmate populations in the country, prisons are overcrowded, drug addiction is a serious problem, there's gang violence. In 1990, the AB was classified as a prison gang and their members were put in solitary confinement. In 1999, the NLR was classified as a prison gang and their members were put in solitary confinement. In 2015, per an agreement reached with the department of corrections, after hunger strikes and a lawsuit against the state, all prison gang members were released back on the general population yards.

Prisons & Jails in San Andreas: San Andreas Correctional Center (SACC), San Andreas Correctional Institution (SACI), Whetstone State Prison (WSP), Oscar Lake Correctional Facility (OLCF), Ironlake State Prison (ISP), Cremenas Correctional Facility (CCF), High Desert State Prison (HDSP), San Andreas Correctional Facility (SACF), Octane Springs State Prison (OSSP), Swan Bay State Prison (SBSP), Los Santos County Jail (LSCJ), Red County Jail (RCJ), Flint County Jail (FCJ), San Fierro County Jail (SFCJ), High Desert Detention Facility (HDDF), Whetstone County Jail (WCJ), Tierra Robada County Jail (TRCJ)

There's four ways to get involved with the prison side of the faction.

1. AB Associate—you should aim to create a character that's part of one of the listed white gangs in the state. You'll most likely be a henchman/torpedo for the AB, and your gang status will prove you're already down. Aside from AB activities, you'll put in work for your area/county and politic around it with other inmate from there. Aim for less used gangs such as the LCV Peckerwoods, Dirty White Boys, High Desert Peckerwoods, or Family Affiliated Irish Mafia.
2. PENI Skinhead—you should aim to create a character that's part of one of the listed skinhead gangs, or one that becomes a skinhead in prison and gets acquainted with any other PENI characters. PENI is a gang, as well as an umbrella for the smaller skinhead groups in the state. Make sure to research the PENI gang.
3. Nazi Low Rider—this is a mixed bag. You can be a peckerwood, a skinhead, a gang member, a first timer, young, older. You'll work your way into the NLR by getting close to its members and putting in work for them. Make sure to research the NLR gang.
4. Female Associate—you're the wife or girlfriend of an incarcerated gang member. Your role play related to the faction involves keeping in touch with that gang member, running errands on the street, doing jobs, delivering money or messages. You shouldn't only revolve your role play around the faction, you should aim to find different avenues for role play as well, such as legal jobs, side factions, and such. Best way to role play the wife/girlfriend of a prison gang member, is to PM them about it, and work out details.