While I was in Prison...The NEO GEO Forums Port!

I remember from the old thread you mentioned that you could be seen in an episode of Lockup that was filmed at your location. Do you happen to have the clip or know where we can find it?

Sazae said:

I remember from the old thread you mentioned that you could be seen in an episode of Lockup that was filmed at your location. Do you happen to have the clip or know where we can find it?

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Yeah. I'm in the clip, but I'm in full gear so you can't see my face. I have the clip and it'll be posted with the story that goes with it. It was my last callout when I was on the Emergency Response Team.

Wow...... Hats off to you bud, even though you lost part of your physical strength, your mental strength is an inspiration to all of us.

Oh, and thanks for posting your story here. Didn't want the hassle of joining anywhere else.

Good thread!

I'm happy you were able to get some resolution to your health issues. That has to be an absolutely horrible ordeal to go through. Live every day with no regrets.

Before I went to Baltimore, my wife and I just wanted to know what was wrong with me and how long I had left. I deteriorated so fast in just two years that we were sure that I was going to die. We just didn't want to have that happen while not knowing what had happened to me. We were very happy when we found out there was a chance to bring me back to a relatively stable existence.

Honor Amongst Inmates...

As soon as one is convicted and put into the Reception & Diagonostic Center they take tests for about a week. After these tests have been done the inmate is evaluated and shipped out to whatever facility will house them in the state. This depends on a lot of things such as medical needs, location where the crime was committed, preferences expressed and agreed to during the trial, etc.. There is a special facility to house all inmates that are H.I.V. positive or have A.I.D.S..

When the inmate gets to the facility he is immediately under the scrutiny of the other inmates. What crime did you commit??? What gang to you represent??? There is a heirarchy of crimes and what you did on the streets determines where you stand in prison. At the top of the list are those in for the cause (reppin and doing work for the gang they belong to) and cop killers. Then there's the middle ground which includes all forms of burglary, robbery, assaults, and drug dealing. The lower end includes those convicted of habitual drug possession/use and wife beaters, and some rapists (depending on the circumstances of the case). The lowest is reserved for sex offenders (all other rapists and perverts who expose themselves), and crimes against children. If you belong to the lowest of the low, you don't want your crime known to other inmates so a lot of them will lie about the crime they committed.


This leads to the first story...Honor amongst inmates...
An inmate was convicted of the horrendous crime of child neglection/abuse that resulted in the death of the child. These kind of stories tend to be on the breaking news and inmates watch a lot of TV...especially the news (it is their window to the world...TV, Radio, Newspapers, and Magazines). This inmate was moved from my facility's receiving unit to where he was going to reside. As he walked into the dayroom of the pod he was assigned to another inmate recognized him from the news. He yelled out, "You're the fucker that locked your boy in the closet and starved him to death!" The inmate that recognized him was joined by two other inmates as they proceeded to attempt to beat him to death. By the time he was taken to the hospital, his head had swelled quite a bit and had a compound fracture in one of his legs. He spent a week in the hospital recovering from the concussion and the surgeries to fix his leg. He was then transferred back to the first facility while they found him another facility to live at and recover further. I heard down the grapevine that after he had recovered and was moved to a new facility, the same thing occurred. Eventually, he was placed into Ad Seg for everyone's best interest.

Totality of Circumstances...

The totality of circumstances is the standard that says each individual event to is to be judged based on all of the facts and the context of the incident and not to be decided on any one single factor. In prison, for Officers, this is generally referenced when force is used on an inmate. The level of force is dictated by the whole picture, not just the inmate that force was used upon.

For example...

When I was really sick, right before I stopped working, I could not walk a straight line. I had to keep one hand on the wall while I walked so I didn't look like I was drunk. However, inmates did notice something was wrong with me (they notice everything...they spend all day studying officers so they know who they can exploit). I was on the third tier of a pod (30 ft drop from the side rail down into the dayroom) at the top of the stairs. I had an inmate walk up to me with his chest puffed out and said "What would you do if I jumped you right now?" with 6 of his friends behind him and next to me (I never let inmates get behind me when one comes up at me the way this one did). I told him "I'll kill you. I will grab you and throw you off this third tier and your friends will watch you hit the ground below. Otherwise, I will push you down the stairs." His face went from friendly messing with me to totally serious and it made it all the more real for him when an inmate behind him said "Don't mess with him. You know he will do it. There's something wrong with him." That's as far as it went but the Totality of Circumstances would have justified my actions had I done anything. I was alone on the third tier and 7 inmates were surrounding me and it would be at least 30 seconds before I got back-up officers in the pod.

Funny joke posted by a member on the KLOV thread...


Two guys were picked up by the cops for smoking dope and appeared in court before the judge.

The judge said, "You seem like nice young men, and I'd like to give you a second chance rather than jail time. I want you to go out this weekend and try to show others the evils of drug use and persuade them to give up drugs forever. I'll see you back in court Monday."
Monday, the two guys were in court, and the judge said to the first one,

"How did you do over the weekend?"

"Well, your honor, I persuaded 17 people to give up drugs forever."

"17 people? That's wonderful. What did you tell them?"

"I used a diagram, your honor. I drew two circles like this: O o and told them this (the big circle) is your brain before drugs and this (small circle) is your brain after drugs."

"That's admirable," said the judge. "And you, how did you do?" (to the 2nd guy)

"Well, your honor, I persuaded 156 people to give up drugs forever."

"156 people! That's amazing! How did you manage to do that!"

"Well, I used the same two circles. I pointed to the small circle and told them, 'This is your asshole before prison...."

Sorry if you guys don't agree, but you harm a child then you get what you deserve.

Sick bastards like that deserve to die!

mr_b said:

I'm happy you were able to get some resolution to your health issues. That has to be an absolutely horrible ordeal to go through. Live every day with no regrets.

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Yeah, definitely.

I'm interested in your prison stories...but what you've been through with your health has really resonated with me. I've faced some of my own health problems, nothing to the extent of what you've been through, but I can certainly sympathize...especially as a husband and a father. Must have been hell.

Glad to hear things have somewhat stabilized for you. Health is such an important gift. Here's to your continued recovery and progress.

As others have said, thanks for sharing your experiences with us here.

Ha ha ha, funny joke. I like it. (Suppose it has a degree of truth)

I hope the humour keeps coming, it's a nice distraction to some of the not so nice stuff we're gonna read

Halfabag said:

Sorry if you guys don't agree, but you harm a child then you get what you deserve.

Sick bastards like that deserve to die!

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There was one inmate in my unit getting the shakedown for rent from other inmates. I watched them go into his cell and I turned on the speaker to listen in. There were some demands made for money and then I couldn't hear what was going on. The threatening inmate had placed his hand over the speaker. I called for another officer to go check it out (I was up in the control center). Before the Officer could get there, another inmate went into the cell and soon after the threatening inmate left. I spoke with the two inmates that were in the cell still and asked what was going on. They replied that nothing was up and it was handled. I talked to the rescuing inmate later to find out that he had beat up the threatening inmate to stop the shakedown. I asked why he defended his friend and he said that his kind had to stick together. The rescuing inmate was a white supremacist, but I looked up both of their jackets (profiles) anyways. Turns out they were both in for crimes against children. The rescuing inmate was in for beating a man nearly to death with his kids watching. The other guy had been a lawyer. A woman came into his office for legal help, but was unable to afford her legal fees. In exchange for the legal help, she arranged for the lawyer to have sex with her children (little boy and little girl) on multiple occasions. They would set up times through email as if making dinner plans.

Makes you sick to know what some people are capable of...

NERDtendo, I know in your initial post that you say the job "changes" you, but how did you cope?

I know you have been through a lot, but without trying to get too intrusive, did the job ever have an impact on your personal life?

I don't know if I could cope looking after rapists or paedophiles.

Halfabag said:

NERDtendo, I know in your initial post that you say the job "changes" you, but how did you cope?

I know you have been through a lot, but without trying to get too intrusive, did the job ever have an impact on your personal life?

I don't know if I could cope looking after rapists or paedophiles.

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Law Enforcement, Fire Fighting, Emergency Medical Technicians...all of these kind of jobs take a particular type of person to really do well in that position. A lot of the time people say there has to be something wrong with those kind of people because they run towards the problem rather than running away like everybody else. I have always been able to read people pretty well and I have always been able to relate to all kinds of people. Those traits made working in a prison quite a bit easier. That and I had been working as Director of Mall Security during my college days where I was put into dangerous situations without any weapons and a lot of times without anyone to help me. I did that job for 3 years before I got my law enforcement job. I was in the running for the Department of Corrections and the Denver Police Department. I was going to take whichever job was offered first. The DOC offered me a job and I took it. The last day of my Basic Academy with the DOC I got my job offer with the Denver Police Department. Things could have ended up a lot different for me if I had moved to Denver for that job.

I had 14 people graduate from my academy and by the time I had become too ill to work, only 6 of us remained. One of the guys freaked out when the doors would shut behind him. A few couldn't handle being in a pod alone with 96 inmates. A lot of the others had bad nightmares or their spouse's nightmares caused them to quit. I have a good relationship with my wife and she was well aware of the cop's wife's life so we had an agreement that I didn't talk about my work to her. I carpooled so I talked with co-workers about the shit that went down that day. Just talking about what happened and saying, "That sucked." is good enough most times. The guys I drove with were all in different units so it was easier to tell everything to others when they want to know what happened. Also, being on the Emergency Response Team I would call my wife at her work some days and say "I have to go to work, I can't talk about it but they said to pack clothes and food." She understood and when I didn't come home some nights she understood. She told others that she knew I was good at my job and I had more training than most of my co-workers so she wasn't worried. If anything were to happen to me, someone would call her. That's the protocol. She was happier to not hear from me than for me to call at 2 in the morning when I was supposed to be home by 11. I would just show up. Things were better for her that way.

You have to be willing to treat everyone as if they are a human being no matter what they are incarcerated for. Firm, Fair, and Consistent is what they try to instill in new Officers. Try not to show bias toward and one inmate or group.

Were there ever instances of officers being involved in gang activity or working with the gangs inside to get perks on the outside? I figure that something like money being promised to an officer can lead someone to get involved in things they probably shouldn't.

Sazae said:

Were there ever instances of officers being involved in gang activity or working with the gangs inside to get perks on the outside? I figure that something like money being promised to an officer can lead someone to get involved in things they probably shouldn't.

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Yes. Stuff like that did happen. I have one of the stories that'll be ported over that talks about it.

Get your stories on iTunes as chargeable podcasts. You'll be a squillionaire before you know it!

How does a lawyer getting paid with kid-sex not make national headlines?
And how the hell could a shitbag like that even last a week in the clink with that kinda stuff on his record?


Anyway, Nerdtendo...I feel kinda silly for asking this, but have you ever watched a film called "fat, sick, and nearly dead" by an Australian film maker named Joe Cross?

I mention it only because (IIRC) a side effect of his extreme diet was the remission of an auto immune disease he had...this one involved an excessive flow of histamines and irritation to any part of his body from even the lightest contact. Granted, it doesn't sound nearly as debilitating or as complex as your symptoms, but what the hell....I guess anything's worth a shot and considering what you've already endured.....a diet like the one proposed in the movie would be a cakewalk.

Spoon said:

How does a lawyer getting paid with kid-sex not make national headlines?
And how the hell could a shitbag like that even last a week in the clink with that kinda stuff on his record?


Anyway, Nerdtendo...I feel kinda silly for asking this, but have you ever watched a film called "fat, sick, and nearly dead" by an Australian film maker named Joe Cross?

I mention it only because (IIRC) a side effect of his extreme diet was the remission of an auto immune disease he had...this one involved an excessive flow of histamines and irritation to any part of his body from even the lightest contact. Granted, it doesn't sound nearly as debilitating or as complex as your symptoms, but what the hell....I guess anything's worth a shot and considering what you've already endured.....a diet like the one proposed in the movie would be a cakewalk.

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I actually did see that documentary. I was actually just on a diet kind of like that to lose weight. I lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks, but it didn't have any of the nice effect as seen in the documentary. I plan to revisit my diet next month. I need to lose another 40+ pounds still. At this point, the doctor said I am as good as I am going to get with the meds. Now the less I weigh, the easier I will be able to get around. I was a big guy before I stopped working (6'2" @ 235 lbs), but they put me on prednisone for almost a year and the crappy side effects of that is weight gain. Coupled with my inability to go to the gym...means I need to diet to get that weight down. I was 278 at my last visit. I just came back from the hospital 2 weeks ago and I am at 256 now.

I wonder if Fat$stacks goes around other forums and reposts his stories,

like a master tasuke of sorts.

Does this kind of thing really happen inside?

theMot said:

Does this kind of thing really happen inside?

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Yes. They refer to it as getting "punked", but yes people get raped and victimized. Sometimes an inmate would say that he's having "trouble" with someone, but he doesn't want to say what happened or who did it. We can't do anything if they won't speak up. They can't speak up because it labels them a bitch and a rat. They show up occasionally with black eyes or bruises and they just say they fell and hit their footlocker box in their room or they got elbowed playing basketball. We have cameras in the gym and so we know he didn't get elbowed, but we can't do anything if he doesn't give us any info to go on. Even something like a time and place to look would help, but that would still give him unwanted attention so they just keep quiet and it continues. If it happens too much, the inmate either does something very stupid to an Officer or to himself to get himself put into seg. That's called "checkin in" and the other inmate can see that too.

when/where do inmates have enough unsupervised time to rape each other?

do those "HIV Positive" tattoos people get on their backs work as rape repellent?

theMot said:

Does this kind of thing really happen inside?

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I challenge you to a push-up contest . . . you go first