American prison stories

[CloaK]

10PS' prison diary seemed pretty popular on here so I thought I'd share some experiences. Let me know if you'd like to hear more.

I did 4 and a half years in 9 different jails/prisons in the US of A after David Blunkett signed off my US extradition warrant. Thanks mate.

OK, first up...


1. Gregory Gray

I spent 9 months in San Francisco County Jail awaiting sentencing, I was in one of the Gladiator tanks, number 2 (non-Mexicano gang affiliated, ie. not Sureño, Norteño, La Eme et al) with 28 bunks and about 12 or 13 guys on the floor with mattresses.

The deal is you get 1 piece of each item of clothing, let's hope you like orange.

So 1 sweatshirt, 1 pair of pants, 1 T-shirt, I pair of boxers etc. Tuesdays and Fridays are exchange days. Anyone caught with more than 1 of anything is subject to a write-up meaning they can take your visits, commissary or whatever they feel like doing that day.

I slipped one of the workers a Milky Way (what we call a Mars Bar ) for an extra decent T-shirt so I could wash one and still have one to wear.

Everyday there would be a tank inspection called a walkthrough by the cops in the morning (In the US all the jail/prison screws are called cops), so I asked Greg where the best place was to hide my extra T-shirt. He showed me a good spot right under the 3 toilets/sinks. So every morning before the inspection I would roll my T-shirt up and place it there.

All working well.

Now Greg gets the job as one of the tank cleaners and does a great job, he takes pride in doing it well. One day the cops come in and do a more thorough walkthrough than normal, not a full on shakedown though, I'll explain that later maybe. Anyway they find my T-shirt and DiBiasio, the Sergeant, says the useless cleaner didn't even clean under the sinks. The cops leave and then Greg starts going ballistic and says I want to know who TF left that T-shirt there and I want him out.

I know why he's in here.

He got fired from his job and went back a year later going a bit postal. He had a handgun and a shotgun, he shot and killed one guy then got the shotgun out but before he could loose off some shells he was wrestled to the ground.

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/joegarofoli/article...

Anyway I thought if I 'fessed up and it got a bit tasty, even if I won how on earth am I going to sleep in the same tank with a bona fide homicidal maniac who's now got the hump so I just kept my counsel.

Also apart from him being a psycho-killer I wanted to keep on his good side as he got the San Francisco Chronicle everyday (a half-decent paper) and used to lend it to me.
He was also the only one in the tank who could regularly beat me at chess, in fact I think I only ever won one game against him and he wasn't chuffed.

When I got rolled up to move on, as I was waiting in the corridor I thought about telling him about the T-Shirt incident through the bars but I had visions of sitting in the holding cell and the poe-leece saying 'Your transfer has been cancelled, you have to go back to the tank'. st.

I see from the California state inmate locator he's now residing in Solano after being lifed off.


GRAY, GREGORY G60899 65 06/03/2009 Solano


CloaK

I've left this as I wrote it but as rightly pointed out it wasn't David Blunkett who signed my warrant but he did sign off the revamped extradition treaty.

Edited by CloaK on Monday 24th July 18:08

[CloaK]

These are not in any order so I may jump from the start right to the end or anywhere in between.

OK next up is...

2. Bruce Brooks

After I landed in San Francisco I was escorted, fully shackled, by 6 US Marshals with their blue and yellow marked jackets through a busy airport to a car waiting to take me to the jail. Talk about being the centre of attention.

One of the Marshals was originally from Glasgow who'd been living in the uS for about 30 years, he still had half his Glasgow accent. As we drove into the Bryant Street complex he said into the mic. 'It's the US Marshals with wan'.

The female cop said 'What was that?' so he repeated it, she was still none the wiser so he switched to all american and she got it. I managed a laugh.

So I got booked in and after sitting in one of the holding tanks on my own for a few hours one of the cops pulled me out to get changed, he handed me a sweatshirt and T-shirt both written on in marker pen 4X. I asked what that meant and he said it was the size XXXXL. He then explained that the sizes start at large because no wants to be seen wearing medium never mind small. Even if you're 5'2 and 100lbs you're a large.

I'm cutting out a week here, I may revisit processing and holding.

So before they move us from the hold floor up to the sixth floor of 850 Bryant Street we're each handed a bed roll consisting of a blanket, sheet and a towel, then we're walking down the corridor until we get to Tank 1. The cop stops us and reads out a bunch of names, another cop opens up and they go in. We move on and stop at Tank 2, I'm the only name called. He says grab a mattress, there's a pile of old worn green mattresses so I grab the top one. Time to enter my home for the next 9 months, I thought it would be just for a few weeks. How wrong that turned out be.

I'm immediately approached by an old guy with a goatee beard who says in a soft-spoken voice the bunk below him is free. The tank itself consists of 14 two-man bunks and I'm lucky I've came at a time when a bunch of guys were rolled up and there are a few free bunks otherwise I would've been on the floor with my mattress.

I take him up on his offer and he says I'll help you make your bed. The technique is you lay your sheet down first then place the mattresss on top and tie the four sheet corners together as tight as possible around the ends of the mattress. Doesn't sound like much but takes a little bit of nous to get it done properly.

I'm Bruce he says, we get chatting and he finds out I've basically just got here so he fills me in with how it all works in the tank.

I was to find out a little later he was Bruce Brooks, a musician out of Chicago. He killed his girlfriend with a hammer and threw her body into the San Francisco bay.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Blues-musici...

The SF Chronicle did one of their whole Sunday magazine pieces on him. There's some YT stuff and a facebook page on the Chicago Brother & Sister Blues Band, they were pretty good.

They had a very tempestuous relationship, that scar on his cheek is where she stabbed him with a broken bottle, she also ran him over with a car. He was a violent drunk towards her at times culminating in her drunken murder. Still, I wasn't there to judge and we became good friends.

He'd been in that same tank for 5 years awaiting trial and I said to him I didn't know how he'd done 5 in this madhouse, he replied that when he first came in there was someone else who'd also done 5 years and he said the exact same thing to him.

He then said 'Now I know'.

He was still there when I left but ended up with 15 to life.

He's now in Chino.

BROOKS, BRUCE G53227 66 03/18/2009 Chino

I'll try and get to some of your questions however the quote button doesn't work properly for me.

CloaK

[CloaK]

Puggit said:

So Greg showed the hiding place, but then went ballistic when the very same hiding place was used?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

I don't think he thought like you and me though, remember this is someone who went back to his workplace with a load of guns and was going to kill everyone he had a grudge with until he ran out of ammo.

So not entirely rational.

[CloaK]

NeMiSiS said:

I have read this before but the names have changed....SIAL.

Not sure what you mean here, you've read my OP but with different names, Is that your take?

SIAL?

I think the quote works now, just not in preview.

[CloaK]

Exige77 said:

Interested to hear more from CloacK and of course the big one, what was his crime and did he really do it .

I was involved in some e-commerce which went a little pear-shaped, the Americans sent over a 400 count indictment of which my QC had some circa 90% dismissed almost on the spot as non-extraditable.

I was eventually extradited amongst one or two other things on conspiracy to commit money laundering, that is what I got most of my time for. All my charges were conspiracy.

Actually my legal team told me they really wanted my American co-defendant in the hope that I would testify against him for a reduced sentence. That was never going to happen.

Being a federal case there was absolutely no way I was going to trial, my US lawyer said that if we lost I was looking down the wrong end of a 25-30 stretch. He said he would speak to the US attorney to see what was on the table, he came back with 5 years and on my lawyer's advice I took the deal.They had 6 of my computers with about 6000 e-mails to use as possible evidence.

Anyone who goes to trial in a US federal case has either nothing to lose or is maybe acting on poor legal advice. There is usually no way you can win against the US govt. That is why most federal cases end in a deal.

Victor Bout is one exception, he ended up with 25 years after being found guilty at trial, not quite sure what deal they offered him but by the sounds of things he had no realistic option but to go trial.

Exige77 said:

What was the food like ?

I'll stick with County Jail food for now. It's worse than garbage.

I remember my first breakfast, grits, milk and some sausage or bacon.

Lunch consisted of a bag with 2 slices of bread and 2 pieces of bologna or what we called mystery meat for obvious reasons. Instead of meat sometimes you'd get a bag of peanut butter and some jelly. I couldn't eat the meat and I hate peanut butter so I was st out of luck. Also in the bag was an orange and 2 cookies.

Dinner was usually mystery meat, some rice or potatoes, custard and another 2 cookies.

I quickly switched to the vegan diet which meant rice and beans and peanut butter every day. Sometimes I couldn't face it and would swap my whole dinner tray with Bruce for a candy bar.

Once I got some commissary (the store) I started making my own meals, mainly a soup or two with some flour tortillas. A soup is what we could call super noodles. Top Ramen was the brand.

Before I went I continued to hit the weights so I was in pretty decent shape, about 230. I'd heard all the stories about US prison rape so I wanted to be big enough to thwart any potential attempts.

However I must've lost about 20 lbs in my first few weeks there though before I got the store.

I'll try and get to your other questions later.

Monkeylegend said:

Probably just me, but there is something that doesn't quite ring true about these.

Just curious, what doesn't ring true for you?

[CloaK]

3. The Greek and The Terminator Killer

OK, still in 850. Couple of guys with interesting cases to mention.

First, The Greek, his name was actually Christos but everyone just called him Greek as he was from, no surprises here, Greece.

Anyway I managed to score a bunk next to the wall keeping Bruce as my neighbour and The Greek took my old bunk. Now in jail/prison it's considered bad form to ask someone outright why they're there but after a while he told me his story.

He was in his apartment and after a 4 day crack binge he was cleaning his Glock and somehow, probably not unrelated to being on crack, managed to fire the gun, the bullet going through the wall into his neighbour's apartment. Luckily no one was hit but they obviously dialed 911. So the cops arrive and knock on his door, he's suffering from paranoia at this stage and answers the door with his Glock in his hand but held behind him. Upon seeing the cops he says he panicked and accidentally fired his gun down the corridor in his apartment. He then turns and runs.

Obviously on hearing this the cops drew their guns and started firing, he says they fired 26 rounds in total while he was running back through into his bedroom and they missed him every single time. I found this hard to believe but he handed me his indictment.

Sure enough it was there, a whole load of testimony by the cops. Long story short, one of them fired two rounds while providing cover for his colleague who emptied two clips trying to shoot The Greek.

So after fruitlessly trying to kill him they just arrested him instead. He ended up being indicted on two charges of attempted murder on two SFPD cops. Bail was set at a million dollars so he was stuck in 850 as there was no way he could raise a 100K bond.

He kept on saying he was innocent. He also said, well I'm guilty of something but not attempted murder. I said, well you're definitely guilty of being a stupid motherfker and he just laughed.

He was still there when I left, I've tried searching for details of his case but found nothing so I assume his lawyer got him off the serious charges and probably got him a deal on something lesser.

The Terminator Killer got rolled up just before I got there as most of the guys thought he was just too much of a nutcase.

Bruce was telling me he shot and killed two guys who he claimed were cyborgs sent back from the future to kill him.

Not sure if that was going to wash in an SF courtroom.

[CloaK]

Morningside said:

How did you get on being English in an American jail. Was it a help or hindrance?

Definitely not a hindrance, in fact I think I was something of a novelty, they knew that having been extradited from the UK that the US weren't fking around with me.

Morningside said:

I also thought (watching too may TV programmes) that it was all gang segregated? How did you get on with that.

Yes, in prison everyone sticks to their own race/gang. You can't eat with the blacks although strangely you do get some whites that ride with black gangs.

For instance when I got booked into Kern County Jail the cop was about to put me in a cell when the guy in the cell next door banged on the door and said you can't go in there. I said why not, he's a white guy. He said yes but he runs with the crips (Black gang), I said to the cop sorry I'm not going in there. He said well it's either there or the hole. I said OK put me in the hole then. He backed down and found me another cell.

The guy who told me not to go there was a Skinhead, ie. skinhead gang member and he said I made the right call and I thanked him for telling me.

I was a Wood (whites), the hardcore white gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood and the Nazi Low Riders are mainly in the State prisons and the max Federal institutions because they're doing long stretches. They are also BIBO, blood in and blood out. There's not much mileage in shanking someone if your're only doing a five stretch like I was.

I have lots more stories if there's more interest, I left this because it went a bit quiet.

Edited by CloaK on Wednesday 20th April 11:08

[CloaK]

downthepub said:

Interesting, keep them coming!

How did you find it settling back into life after you got out?

Thanks for this and the other posts. To those that doubt there isn't really a week goes by where I don't wish I was making all this up.

I'll try and throw a few more stories up, some may be mundane, some not but none will be embellished in the slightest. I have read quite a few US prison experience books and IMO most were just full of BS or exaggerated for effect.

As for settling back in that's a whole story in itself however I honestly thought it would be nothing but I can see how long term prisoners can become, although I hate this word I can't think of a better one, institutionalised.

I only did 4 and a half total but I recall going to Tesco shortly after release and feeling slightly mesmerised, maybe even a touch agoraphobic with the experience.

[CloaK]

Interesting stuff Tony, thanks for posting. Met two Germans in New York who were also awaiting repatriation, they couldn't wait to get back.

Maybe they fancied a smoke!

Smoking was banned in all the county jails I was in and it's also banned in virtually every federal joint. Taft is the only one I know that allowed smoking, a few guys got transferred in from there with as much tobacco stuffed up them as they could get. fk that.

[CloaK]

Ilovejapcrap said:

I look everyday for a new story but don't see one so go, suspect everyone else is the same hence lack of topic reply.

Story a day would be good and a answer to at least one user post.

I have set you a little challenge. Good luck

I hear what you're saying however a story a day isn't going to happen I'm afraid so sorry to disappoint, I'll try and get round to the questions though.

[CloaK]

Voldemort said:

How many prisons did you experience? Did you serve the bulk in one place? I presume that they did not release you until they'd flown you home? And can you/would you go back to America?

I was in 13 different places, 4 US county jails and 5 US Federal prisons.

I was also in 4 different British prisons in total before my extradition and after my repatriation.

The most time I spent in one place was 2 years which was the main prison I was sent to in Southern California.

The next longest was 9 months in 850 (the colloquial name for SF county jail). It's on 850 Bryant Street.

I applied for a treaty transfer which turned out to be a bad move as they took two years to process it. I had to serve some time in the UK after I flew back to complete my sentence. My American co-defendants also got 3 years supervised release which is somewhat like our parole but way worse and geared so as to get you back in prison for the slightest screw-up. I didn't have to do that fortunately as I wasn't there.

I had to sign some papers served on me by a very nice girl from ICE(formerly INS) saying I couldn't come back until 2020 but in reality she said I wouldn't be able to come back at all. Shame really as I've never been there before and would love to go.

Way too much to risk though for me, I worked with a Mexican who got 8 years for crossing the border and no he wasn't carrying anything 'special'. . He just wanted to see his family, granted it was his second or third offence but 8 years?

[CloaK]

Monkeylegend said:

CloaK said:

Monkeylegend said:

Probably just me, but there is something that doesn't quite ring true about these.

Just curious, what doesn't ring true for you?

Monkeylegend said:

Good stories, but is it you or somebody else you are talking about?

It's me.

Monkeylegend said:

Why do you feel the need to post these, just curious. If it was me I would not talk about this on an open website, somebody will know who you are, and who knows what will get back to the people you are talking about, and how they will react.

I thought it may be somewhat cathartic and it actually has been so far, I think most of the feedback has been good so I also take something from that.

As for the people I've mentioned so far, well I think Greg wouldn't even remember the T-shirt incident. We played a lot of chess and pinochle together(he was very good at both) which couldn't have happened in prison as he was black but in a small 28 man tank where they put all races in together segregation doesn't work. He was actually quite an intelligent guy but with an extremely short fuse hence my not coughing on the T-shirt.

As I mentioned he also gave me his paper, I in return gave him my Time magazine and also some British books like 'The God Delusion' which he loved. So all in all there's nothing to worry about.

Bruce won't mind the mention. Besides they're both in state doing 15 to life meaning they're never coming out, so they have bigger things to worry about.

I will change names when I think it's necessary. There is an Irish guy I was friends with who's doing two 15 to life sentences but he has relatives in Ireland so I won't use his real name.

[CloaK]

^The formatting looks a bit screwed up, any ideas on what I need to change? Thanks.

The preview doesn't work.

[CloaK]

nw28840 said:

CloaK,

Interesting read. Thanks for taking the time to write this.

Couple of questions.......

You say you were able to lend the guy a book. Did you have access to many books or a library ?

Also, at what point do you know you will be released ? I guess you know what your release date would be without the sentence being cut short, But do they tell you a couple of months beforehand the actual date ?

Books are usually in plentiful supply, you can also get your people to order books for you but they have to come direct from a bookseller or the publisher. In 850 the library was a trolley pushed down the corridor stopping at every tank, sometimes had some good stuff but mostly rubbish.

I got quite a lot from amazon(US) so they came pretty quickly. Some lady used to send Bruce a box of books every two weeks, I always picked up a few gems from every box.

Once they give you your sentence you can work out your release date, for every year served you get 54 days knocked off your total but it's easy to lose 30 days here and there. Once you get to your main prison they give you your paperwork and that has your release date on it.

[CloaK]

Vaud said:

CloaK said:

Once they give you your sentence you can work out your release date, for every year served you get 54 days knocked off your total but it's easy to lose 30 days here and there.

Was that automatic, or subject to good behaviour, etc?

It's factored into your release date automatically but is subject to you not receiving any write-ups where you can lose days eg. fighting 15 or 30 days lost.

Failure or refusal to provide a urine sample - 30 days, positive sample - 30 days etc. There are a load of other rules that can lead to loss of days. I wish I'd kept the rule book, it's based on severity from 100 series shots to 400, 100 being the most severe.

I can still remember the first rule, 100 - No killing.

[CloaK]

OK next up,

4. Tanklife Part I

So here is where I spent 9 months of my life. I thought it was just going to be for a couple of weeks and I remember thinking, yeah I can handle this. If I'd been told 9 months, st, I would have been seriously depressed.

OK on the sixth floor there are 5 main tanks, 1 and 4 are Norteño and 3 and 5 are Sureño. Tank 2, mine, is for anyone not affiliated to those two gangs. They also seem to put a lot of OGs and murderers in it as well. Now OG stands for Original Gangster but it's really applied to anyone that looks old, say 50+. If you don't know some old dude's name just say 'all right OG' and that works out fine. If there are two Mikes, one young, one old then the old one will become OG Mike.

There is another tank, #6, that's where they put all the transgender inmates. No, you wouldn't before you ask. If you're straight that is. Well maybe you would but I didn't.

On the same floor are all the 'hole' tanks, I'll tell you more about them later on.

Now there are 14 2 bed bunks in the tank, 8 down the right side and 6 down the left. At the bottom left are 2 individual showers with curtains. Next to the showers are 3 combined sink/toilet units with a small divider between each one, just like the ones you see on TV. The silver ones with the hole for a toliet roll cut out on the side. No seats of course to have a crap but here's how it works or at least this was my method, not everyone was as fussy as me.

You splash the rim with hot water then wipe clean. Sprinkle some water all around the rim, just a touch then triple up four relevant lengths of bog roll and lay them down on the rim making sure it's entirely covered. Et voilà you now have a nice hygienic comfy seat.
Don't laugh but I still do this to this day if I go to a public toilet or even someone's house. I never use the seat.

The toilets work on an electronic flush, just one simple button on the wall. Here's the deal, you only get two flushes every five minutes and then it takes 30 minutes to reset.

The reason they have this is so that they can control the flushing before they shakedown the tank for contraband, they just switch the power off and when they come storming in en masse no-one can flush their gear, shanks, razors, or whatever else they have away.

Now back to taking a crap. There is for obvious reasons a requirement to drop then immediately flush. You don't want to drop a big one and then find out you've got no flushes as you'll sit there and the tank will slowly smell up really bad to a chorus of 'FLUSH THAT st' coming from your now pissed off fellow flatmates (as my mother used to call them).

So to avoid this and I got this from Bruce you take one of the shower mats and place it over one of the bowls, everyone will look and just assume it's covering someone's crap that they couldn't flush.
Stake it out for at least 30 minutes so you know for sure you've got 2 flushes in the bag, then you're good to go. Just make sure as soon as it drops, hit that button! In fact I used to press halfway through. I hope you're not eating dinner and reading this.

I can't believe I just wrote 5 paragraphs on how to to go for a crap.

When someone fks up and can't flush, the smell gets really bad. To combat this 3 or 4 guys will pour a pile of Johnson's baby powder on their palm and blow it into the air, it works surprisingly well as a makeshift air freshener. There turned out to be lots of these types of 'innovations' say.

There's an old adage that if you put two inmates at the top of two telegraph poles 100 feet apart, one with some matches and one with some cigarettes, within 30 minutes they'd both be smoking.

Anyway Part II later.

Exige77 said:

Very interesting OP.

Keep them coming.

Thanks Ex77, I answered two of your questions a few pages back. I'll do the remaining four this weekend, I'll try and get to some others as well.

Now I've been away for a while planning a diamond heist so apologies for the lack of action on this thread. I haven't forgotten about it.

Thanks for the positive comments a lot have made.

Still puzzled by this one unless it was just a throwaway remark...

Turquoise said:

Some Gump said:

When is school back again?

Could you provide some justification for that comment.

Edited by CloaK on Friday 20th May 19:32

[CloaK]

coopedup said:

Good to hear more from you, many thanks, apart from the topic!

Thanks, like I said one of the more mundane posts but a surprisingly important part of day-to-day life.

[CloaK]

DoubleTime said:

Petrus1983 said:

DoubleTime said:

Sounds a little CNN to me. What would their 3 (repeated) offences be that ended with them being sent down for 50 years > life in prison?

Any credible links?

Read these, there's loads of examples though on Google.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/opinion/sunday/c...
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/cruel-an...

Thanks for that.

So in fact it is now a reformed law and was actually 25 years > life - so as I said, a slight CNN/Dailymail play on the facts. However it was still a crazy punishment for what sound like minor crimes.

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.

[CloaK]

Ilovejapcrap said:

Still reading with interest

^AKA Can we have another update please I know I've played this wrong, I should've written everything out first because now I'm either busy or sometimes just do not feel up to writing.

I wrote '1. Greg' on a whim thinking well this could go either way. Nobody wants to hear it, cool I'm on my way. I think the opposite happened and I'm still in 850 talking about using the can.

I haven't been in any fights yet, no murders yet, no Don 'Crockett' Johnson, no Barry Bonds and no Cameron Douglas. The former two were never inside but I spent 6 months with the 2 guys involved with cases directly connected to them.

OK I'll knock up a quick story this morning. Standby.

[CloaK]

FredClogs said:

You guys, everyone knows the first rule of prison club is you don't ask the guys what he's in for...

Before you get to 'walk the yard', ie go outside for a walk/run, use the chin/dip bars you have to show the shot-caller (leader essentially) for your race or gang your paperwork.

Any sex offence, anything involving children (IRL or the internet) or anything suspicious and he'll say no, you'll have to go PC (Protective Custody). In reality most of these types just ask the staff for PC straightaway if not already allocated there, although some 'slip' through. This is where they also put all the convicted ex-cops, ex-judges and gang drop-outs.

If your paperwork is 'good' you're cleared for the yard, mine was all good so I got the nod to run with the Woods. (Whites)