It all depends where someone is placed. If a prison gang runs the prison, you pay protection or a tax on commissary, libary, phone usage ect for the privilege of using those service. All prisons are different. John Gotti paid for protection to the AB, until he had other members in prison with him where he felt he did not need their protection and relied on his guys. West coast members usually hooked up with La Eme and Nuestra Familia as that is more easier, especially when the prison is segregated into sections and no that is not the Warden or Prison's doing but the inmates doing. Whites with Whites, Blacks with Blacks, Hispanics with Hispanics, Natives with Natives. Italians get grouped with the Hispanics, just how those prisons are run, but every prison is different.