Cliques often exist in work environments and in prison. Prison life is a subculture. They have their own rules and their way of thinking is not the same as ours. Mark Colvin’s “Descent Into Madness: The New Mexico State Prison Riot” shows this through a study of the New Mexico prison riot. The riot lasted 36 hours, 33 inmates died, 200 were injured, 12 correctional officers were taken hostage and resulted in $20 million in physical damage. The riot was the result of numerous changes of power. “Change in the top position in state corrections occurred several times, with 5 different heads of the Department of Corrections between 1975 and 1980.” (Colvin 1997) The study explains how prisoners during rioters attacked other prisoners but not the guards. This is due to the social culture of the prison and the rules it creates. In the prison, there are certain rules regarding snitching, cell blocks, and protective custody. Whether an inmate was actually an informant or not, the snitch label could have deadly consequences, a fact that was used to intimidate inmates and create friction between prisoners. After inmate solidarity demonstrated during the June 1976 strike prompted the prison administration to destroy inmate organization and leadership, inmate society became more fragmented and violent. » (Colvin 1997). The prisoners were more worried