American prison stories
Discussion
Fresno County Jail Part 2
I've got bunk 24 of 72. Mario has helped me make my bed and filled me in with some of the pod do's and dont's. The guy from the bottom bunk approaches me and says I can have a toothbrush for an envelope if I want. The jail supplied toothbrush is a plastic thimble with a few raised bumps and worse than useless as you could easily choke on that motherf
ker. I say deal, I got two stamped envelopes free as part of the intake kit and I only really needed the one.
I get up and lie on my bunk and take in my new environment, two very loud televisions and 72 dudes talking/shouting at each other.
Time to use the can though so I venture upstairs to find Traps 1 and 3 occupied so remembering the script from my induction I leave it. However when you have effectively only 2 toilets for 72 men the timing has to be right so I decided to leave it until 2 or 3 in the morning when it would be a bit quieter, this actually worked.
There were 4 counts a day including 2 standing, one of which was at 4am just in time before guys were called to court.
The whole thing was a shock, even after the relatively stty Kern experience.
So I'm lying there and after a while the white shot-caller comes up to me to introduce himself, I can't remember his exact name but it was something like Dipper or Dapper. He shakes my hand and looks me in the eye and immediately turns his head 90 degrees to the left.
I get a bad a feeling about this cat but I just leave it. I'm here to keep my head down if I can, sign some court papers and back to prison and eventually get home to my family.
I made friends quickly with a solid dude called Craig Nelson, he was a car nut also and showed me pictures of his Corvette C5 and I tended to spend as much time with him as I could as we had a lot in common and I liked him and I think vice versa. This was an issue here however as he was black.
This was unfortunately resolved however as the shot caller, Dipper, convened a meeting on the upper floor. He had seen some whites eating with the blacks and some other stuff so he restated the prison rules with respect to race and they were to apply to here. I remember thinking that this guy was a prick but I wasn't really in a position to do anything as a foreigner.
The cops have a central viewing position on all the pods so know when something is going down. I'm not sure they knew exactly what was happening but they saw the meet and decided to take some action.
Next thing that happens is that we're lying on our bunks watching TV and the cops roll up every 3rd or 4th white guy.
I'm one of the ones called and wonder where I'm going, all I'm thinking is that it can't possibly be worse. I say bye to Craig and roll my st up.
More later.
I've got bunk 24 of 72. Mario has helped me make my bed and filled me in with some of the pod do's and dont's. The guy from the bottom bunk approaches me and says I can have a toothbrush for an envelope if I want. The jail supplied toothbrush is a plastic thimble with a few raised bumps and worse than useless as you could easily choke on that motherf
ker. I say deal, I got two stamped envelopes free as part of the intake kit and I only really needed the one.I get up and lie on my bunk and take in my new environment, two very loud televisions and 72 dudes talking/shouting at each other.
Time to use the can though so I venture upstairs to find Traps 1 and 3 occupied so remembering the script from my induction I leave it. However when you have effectively only 2 toilets for 72 men the timing has to be right so I decided to leave it until 2 or 3 in the morning when it would be a bit quieter, this actually worked.
There were 4 counts a day including 2 standing, one of which was at 4am just in time before guys were called to court.
The whole thing was a shock, even after the relatively s
tty Kern experience.So I'm lying there and after a while the white shot-caller comes up to me to introduce himself, I can't remember his exact name but it was something like Dipper or Dapper. He shakes my hand and looks me in the eye and immediately turns his head 90 degrees to the left.
I get a bad a feeling about this cat but I just leave it. I'm here to keep my head down if I can, sign some court papers and back to prison and eventually get home to my family.
I made friends quickly with a solid dude called Craig Nelson, he was a car nut also and showed me pictures of his Corvette C5 and I tended to spend as much time with him as I could as we had a lot in common and I liked him and I think vice versa. This was an issue here however as he was black.
This was unfortunately resolved however as the shot caller, Dipper, convened a meeting on the upper floor. He had seen some whites eating with the blacks and some other stuff so he restated the prison rules with respect to race and they were to apply to here. I remember thinking that this guy was a prick but I wasn't really in a position to do anything as a foreigner.
The cops have a central viewing position on all the pods so know when something is going down. I'm not sure they knew exactly what was happening but they saw the meet and decided to take some action.
Next thing that happens is that we're lying on our bunks watching TV and the cops roll up every 3rd or 4th white guy.
I'm one of the ones called and wonder where I'm going, all I'm thinking is that it can't possibly be worse. I say bye to Craig and roll my s
t up.More later.
Edited by CloaK on Thursday 3rd January 12:23
GTiWILL said:
Cloak, really enjoying your accounts of prison.
One of the things that sticks out is how backwards America is regarding race. It’s disgusting really, a black guy and a white guy unable to eat together.
I didn’t think that stuff went on anymore.
You do realise he is talking about it happening in prison, it happens in prisons here too and pretty much everywhere else. Just another one of the weird quirks of the prison system, I'm pretty sure people of different race are allowed to eat together outside of prison in America.One of the things that sticks out is how backwards America is regarding race. It’s disgusting really, a black guy and a white guy unable to eat together.
I didn’t think that stuff went on anymore.
Guvernator said:
You do realise he is talking about it happening in prison, it happens in prisons here too and pretty much everywhere else. Just another one of the weird quirks of the prison system, I'm pretty sure people of different race are allowed to eat together outside of prison in America.
I’ve found the US to be one of the most racist countries I’ve ever been to tbh - just one the streets it’s more subliminal. 
Guvernator said:
GTiWILL said:
Cloak, really enjoying your accounts of prison.
One of the things that sticks out is how backwards America is regarding race. It’s disgusting really, a black guy and a white guy unable to eat together.
I didn’t think that stuff went on anymore.
You do realise he is talking about it happening in prison, it happens in prisons here too and pretty much everywhere else. Just another one of the weird quirks of the prison system, I'm pretty sure people of different race are allowed to eat together outside of prison in America.One of the things that sticks out is how backwards America is regarding race. It’s disgusting really, a black guy and a white guy unable to eat together.
I didn’t think that stuff went on anymore.
I get where GTiWILL is coming from. In comparison to Britain, America does have a big problem with racism. The prison environment in this context, I would be tempted to suggest is symptomatic.
Edited by TheJimi on Monday 13th January 22:46
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