<p>Gangs have been described as a central feature of prison life for at least the last 50&#xa0;years, yet it is only in the last decade that prison gangs have attracted more sustained scholarly attention. The most notable studies have been conducted in North America and, to a lesser extent, Latin America, but there has been little empirical research on prison gangs in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. In addition, whilst there have been studies of gangs in England, the presence of gangs in English prisons is contested. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with prisoners and prison staff in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and England, this paper analyses the differences between the three jurisdictions regarding the prominence of prison 'gangs', and, more fundamentally, how gangs were defined. In so doing, this article empirically assesses typical explanations for the prison gangs and, given the role of importation in the jurisdictions studied, questions the extent to which the Eurogang definition can achieve the international appeal originally envisaged. It is argued that whilst criminal collaborations and forms of prisoner governance were present in all three jurisdictions, the extent to which prison gangs assumed a central governance role varied, as did the complexion and character of those gangs. There were crucial cultural, historical, penal, economic, and importation factors that explained these variations but, critically, those factors that held explanatory power had been overlooked by earlier research on prisoner governance. Moreover, our comparative study of three jurisdictions illustrates that realising the global aspirations of the Eurogang programme of research requires a dexterity and criminological imagination that allows for local, historical, penal, and cultural understanding.</p>