article_snippet.sent: A former member of an Aryan Brotherhood gang walks through the prison yard in the Sensitive Needs Housing Facility at the California Department of Corrections, a section of the prison where gang behaviour is banned .
article_snippet.sent: Since 1999, the CDC has seen a dramatic increase in requests from inmates seeking special protection for dropping out of prison gangs, and as a result has set up several Sensitive Needs Housing Units.
article_snippet.sent: A Sensitive Needs Housing Unit can be found inside Level IV maximum-security facilities and is set to protect former members from the gangs, some of the more prominent being the Black Guerilla Family, Aryan Brotherhood and rival hispanic gangs Nuestra Familia from Northern California and the Mexican Mafia from the south.
article_snippet.sent: The exclusive units inside Sensitive Needs Housing provide a safer environment, free from gang activity, and the transition out of gang membership is dramatic.
article_snippet.sent: Building bridges: An ex-Mexican Mafia (southern California) gang member exercises with  former members of the Nuestra Familia (northern California) in the the Sensitive Needs Housing Unit.
article_snippet.sent: the Nuestra Familia (Northern California) prison gang now resides in the Sensitive Needs Housing Unit, where corrections officers, as well as inmates, report a considerable reduction in racial violence and segregation.
article_snippet.sent: Although inmates of the Sensitive Needs Housing Unit are no longer gang affiliated or validated, the fact remains that they are some of the most hardened and dangerous men behind bars.
article_snippet.sent: A gang dropout in the Sensitive Needs Housing Facility participates in a 'joint venture program,' a collaboration between the prison and a private sector company.
article_snippet.sent: Only the most feared and brutally confident inmates within a Level IV prison reach validation status.
highlights_snippet.sent: These men reside in a special prison unit set up inside maximum-security facilities to protect gang drop-outs .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: This Sensitive Needs Housing Unit in a California prison forces former members of rival gangs to mix .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Although there is still some self-imposed racial segregation among inmates, This Sensitive Needs Housing Unit in a California prison forces former members of rival gangs to mix .
   