This is something I never really understood. Why is it so universal that inside of prisons races are so strictly segregated like this? Is it because of the gangs that stick to their race getting thrown in the most, then the rest of people just conform to this since they are the most powerful groups?Prison society is usually strictly segregated, so it was no small thing when Carlos, a Mexican, and Roby, an Asian guy, struck up a friendship.
People's crimes are often based in life experiences that are very race-specific, and involve group identities that are ethnically delineated. Chinese gangs are distinct groups from black gangs are distinct from Hispanic gangs. In prison, often your only immediate "in" with a social circle is based on some group affiliation like this, and the rest of the prison probably falls into segregated circles once those boundaries are clearly formed. A more depressing interpretation, however, is that this is just how most people are in American society. If you look at a cafeteria in a diverse high school, most tables are a single ethnicity. People just segregate like this.