American prison stories
Discussion
Whilst waiting for cloak this is a very good read
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/general/136858-2-y...
Ilovejapcrap said:
Whilst waiting for cloak this is a very good read
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/general/136858-2-y...
Just had a read.http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/general/136858-2-y...
What a pile of rubbish, he talks about screws. No-one uses that term in the US. He also says there were 33 murders in the 18 months he was inside, that didn't happen.
Then he talks about non-gay consensual sex with his cellmates, not saying this doesn't happen although I only heard of it once, but the descriptions sound like he's just pandering to his readers.
In a state prison he would not be celled up with a black guy and then he talks about the AB beating him up. That wouldn't happen, he'd not get a beating.
TL;DR It's fiction.
Yes, Bruce did mention that was why some were sitting on the can for hours.CloaK said:
Just a quick note to try and clear it up a bit.
It doesn't matter if it's 15 to life or 50 to life or anything in between. Virtually no-one makes parole on an x to life sentence in California, it just gives you false hope. Perhaps if they changed the system down the line it would be different but if you get hit with 15 to life right now you're not getting out.
As an example I shared a holding cell in an SF federal court with a guy who said his brother received a 7 to life sentence for killing his girlfriend accidentally. She was on the back of his motorbike without a helmet, he accelerated hard away from some lights, she fell off and hit her head on the road.
He said he's still in prison and this was the mid-80s when it happened.
Wow, that's crazy. So taking a step back, what is your opinion on the 'system' in the USA? Purely geared towards being one big money making machine or...?It doesn't matter if it's 15 to life or 50 to life or anything in between. Virtually no-one makes parole on an x to life sentence in California, it just gives you false hope. Perhaps if they changed the system down the line it would be different but if you get hit with 15 to life right now you're not getting out.
As an example I shared a holding cell in an SF federal court with a guy who said his brother received a 7 to life sentence for killing his girlfriend accidentally. She was on the back of his motorbike without a helmet, he accelerated hard away from some lights, she fell off and hit her head on the road.
He said he's still in prison and this was the mid-80s when it happened.
Great thread btw OP. Keep em coming!
carreauchompeur said:
Really interesting. As a current cop I'd have to say prison is one of my absolute worst nightmares.
You sound like you had a long time of it... Out of interest, do you feel that being inside for that time was harsh for the crimes, or that it was fair? Not trying to be argumentative but genuinely interested on how you feel about it now.
Keep up the updates, fascinating.
Well yes as a cop I can well understand why prison would be a nightmare for you, especially in America.You sound like you had a long time of it... Out of interest, do you feel that being inside for that time was harsh for the crimes, or that it was fair? Not trying to be argumentative but genuinely interested on how you feel about it now.
Keep up the updates, fascinating.
As for your second paragraph, IMO my sentence was harsh as were most of the institutions I served time in. My main co-defendant received a year less for the same charges and being a US citizen was given a date to self-surrender to a low security federal prison where he spent a few years before being transferred to a camp (like an open prison but way better). However he did have to do 3 years supervised release which I didn't.
I was never in anything less than a medium security federal prison which was good in a way because they are all 2 man cells. Low sec joints have mostly really large cubicled dorms with say 90-120 in one large room.
One thing that bothered me was the fact the US threw across a 400 count indictment of which my QC had circa 95% dismissed as non-extraditable ie. no dual criminality.
The British prosecution agreed and provided guarantees from the US that if I was extradited they wouldn't bring them up. Well when it came to my sentencing, guess what all 400 counts were used because even though they were mostly non-extraditable offences they were called for sentencing purposes 'relevant conduct'.
carreauchompeur said:
Really interesting. As a current cop I'd have to say prison is one of my absolute worst nightmares.
That, I think, sums up the biggest problem with prison as it stands today.For you, me and all the other normal, law abiding citizens with normal upbringings, it's a huge deterrent, but it doesn't seem to be much of one for those you'd really want to deter.
When I was at uni, our neighbour had grown up in care.
He was the only one of the group he'd grown up with who hadn't been to prison, and to his mates, with their background, anything but an extremely long sentence was of no deterrent value whatsoever. They seemed to view it as just another spell in an institution where they had someone cooking crap food for them, and they got to catch up with their mates they might not have seen for a while.
carreauchompeur said:
Yeah, that other prison diary is definitely b
ks. It contains this gem:
"Grew my thumb nail long and wrecked it on the concrete so it was sharp enough to cut open my thigh, and would stick the crushed up tablet inside"
Got 18 months? Got refused parole 3 times? What a crock of sks. It contains this gem:"Grew my thumb nail long and wrecked it on the concrete so it was sharp enough to cut open my thigh, and would stick the crushed up tablet inside"
te.7. Jim Jones
OK just a quick one.
Still in 850.
Been in a few months now and have managed to somehow avoid drinking the Pruno that a lot of dudes are making. Pruno is alcohol brewed by the more experienced hands, the better ones can get up to about 15% alcohol. A guy in the tank, let's call him Gus, who was to become my future cellmate for 6 months in the federal holding prison was more or less an expert on it, he'd already done a 6 stretch. Great guy, used to be in the US Navy as a combat medic attached to the USMC, served in Iraq. Left the Navy and became a paramedic.
Straight guy (legally) previous to his jail time, married with a wife and daughter, doing very well. However his daughter was killed by a hit and run driver and then his wife died from cancer within a year.As a paramedic he had access to all sorts of meds, he said after his wife died he started taking some oxycontin and morphine to just to get him through.
One thing led to another and the drugs he had free access to somehow weren't enough and he progressed to heroin. That was game over, he obviously lost his job as a paramedic.
Anyway to fund his heroin addiction he turned to armed robbery, banks. In America the banks are open plan and he told me he would just walk in with a note that said, Just relax, I'm armed but nothing will happen as long as you stay calm and don't alert anyone. Just place all your cash in this bag and he'd walk out with several thousand, blow the lot on H, rinse and repeat. I think it's a sad story, not all will agree of course because he's not the first to lose his wife and child but turn to robbing banks however I can see how it transpired.
Still that's a diversion from this quick story.
So we get breakfast, a bagged lunch and 'dinner'.
One day I'm lying in my bunk reading at 4 waiting for my rice and beans when I hear a worker shouting 'Jim Jones on da line, Jim Jones juice, Jim Jones'
They roll up with this container and say everyone grab your cup, we all line up and as this is something new I can see a touch of excitement amongst the really old hands.
So I get to the gate, hand my cup over and they fill it with this dark red stuff, I take a sip and it tastes like a bankrupt man's Robinsons. Koolaid they call it in the US.
However I can see its use as the tap water is awful and a little touch of this Koolaid will make it drinkable and save on my lemonade powder I was buying from the store.
There were will be a few on here who have never heard of Jim Jones. He was a cult leader out of SF in the 70s who went to Guyana and poisoned about 900 of his followers by having them drink this cyanide laced juice.
Hence the shout every day of 'Jim Jones on da line'.
OK just a quick one.
Still in 850.
Been in a few months now and have managed to somehow avoid drinking the Pruno that a lot of dudes are making. Pruno is alcohol brewed by the more experienced hands, the better ones can get up to about 15% alcohol. A guy in the tank, let's call him Gus, who was to become my future cellmate for 6 months in the federal holding prison was more or less an expert on it, he'd already done a 6 stretch. Great guy, used to be in the US Navy as a combat medic attached to the USMC, served in Iraq. Left the Navy and became a paramedic.
Straight guy (legally) previous to his jail time, married with a wife and daughter, doing very well. However his daughter was killed by a hit and run driver and then his wife died from cancer within a year.As a paramedic he had access to all sorts of meds, he said after his wife died he started taking some oxycontin and morphine to just to get him through.
One thing led to another and the drugs he had free access to somehow weren't enough and he progressed to heroin. That was game over, he obviously lost his job as a paramedic.
Anyway to fund his heroin addiction he turned to armed robbery, banks. In America the banks are open plan and he told me he would just walk in with a note that said, Just relax, I'm armed but nothing will happen as long as you stay calm and don't alert anyone. Just place all your cash in this bag and he'd walk out with several thousand, blow the lot on H, rinse and repeat. I think it's a sad story, not all will agree of course because he's not the first to lose his wife and child but turn to robbing banks however I can see how it transpired.
Still that's a diversion from this quick story.
So we get breakfast, a bagged lunch and 'dinner'.
One day I'm lying in my bunk reading at 4 waiting for my rice and beans when I hear a worker shouting 'Jim Jones on da line, Jim Jones juice, Jim Jones'
They roll up with this container and say everyone grab your cup, we all line up and as this is something new I can see a touch of excitement amongst the really old hands.
So I get to the gate, hand my cup over and they fill it with this dark red stuff, I take a sip and it tastes like a bankrupt man's Robinsons. Koolaid they call it in the US.
However I can see its use as the tap water is awful and a little touch of this Koolaid will make it drinkable and save on my lemonade powder I was buying from the store.
There were will be a few on here who have never heard of Jim Jones. He was a cult leader out of SF in the 70s who went to Guyana and poisoned about 900 of his followers by having them drink this cyanide laced juice.
Hence the shout every day of 'Jim Jones on da line'.
So is there still an appetite for this or not? This is only the first institution. Granted the last posts have been mundane/routine st. But that's reality.
I think maybe one more covering 850 and time to cross the Bay Bridge seeing Alcatraz island and a check-in to Santa Rita?
What do you think?
t. But that's reality.I think maybe one more covering 850 and time to cross the Bay Bridge seeing Alcatraz island and a check-in to Santa Rita?
What do you think?
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