The researchers knew that a high proportion of Chicano convicts reach prison through one of two interconnected routes: gang-related activities and drug dealing and use. The gangs in Los Angeles are neighborhood (or barrio) based. The research thus focused on three barrios that were also target areas for agencies that served ex-inmates and drug addicts. The research design called for a combination of structured instruments to draw the barrio typology and to interview neighborhood residents and ex-inmates. It also involved less-structured, quasi-ethnographic data. The initial staff was about half inmate and half noninmate. The inmate staff was selected by the inmate-serving agencies and included men from the three barrios, with a mixture of addicts and never-addicted men who had served time in California and in Federal prisons. Few had formal college- level education and none had formal research training or background. This article describes how the staff of researchers and inmates collaborated to implement the research. The most important conclusion from the research methodology was that every minority subcommunity has a more or less organized history and the potential for using both research findings and research-trained personnel. The study also found that in conducting research in minority communities and in staff collaboration between minority residents and academic researchers, subculturally differentiated status systems influence interactions. 2 references