PRISON; THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ATTICA AND SING SING

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:03][snorts] >> What's doing everybody? Welcome to the channel. Thank you for tuning in. I appreciate you. Appreciate you as always. If you've been here before, welcome back. And if you've never been here, hit the subscribe button, hit the notification bell, and check out my membership program. So, you are entitled to see our special perks, special videos, special shout-outs, special emojis, all different types of things.

[00:00:28]Anyway, we're going to talk today about Oh, for those of you that have never been here, I was incarcerated in the New York prison system for 17 years straight from 1996 to 2013.

[00:00:40]Um, unfortunately, I served that time for the charge of manslaughter in the first degree. I was charged with murder in the second degree when I was 24 years old. That's a long story that I've told on my channel. If you subscribe to the channel, which I hope you do, you could check out many of those videos and see a lot of my story on there. But today, we're going to talk about the difference of two different prisons. One which we consider the loosest prison in the New York state prison system, and then we're going to talk about what I mean by loose, meaning that basically, the prisoners are running the show inside of the prison. And then we're going to go to one of the strictest prisons, okay?

[00:01:24]Is where the officers are strictly running the show. And we'll explain the difference. See, in New York state right now at this time, there's 42 prisons in New York state. When I did my time, there was over 50, but the governor has closed some. So, let's get right to it.

[00:01:41]Let's get right to it. As I said, there's 42 prisons inside of New York state. That's maximum security prisons and medium security prisons. New York state does not have minimum security prisons anymore.

[00:01:54]Some states do. The federal government does. They call them camps in federal prisons.

[00:02:00]But let's stick with New York state. 42 prisons, maximum security prisons, medium security prisons, and maybe a couple of work release prisons if they still have.

[00:02:11]The loosest prison, the most lax prison would be Sing Sing Correctional Facility that I've experienced. So, I'll tell you first a little bit about how Sing Sing runs, and then we're going to compare it to the strictest. Sing Sing is a madhouse. Sing Sing is one of the oldest prisons in the state of New York.

[00:02:32]It's not the oldest. Auburn was built Auburn prison was built before Sing Sing and maybe one other one. So, Sing Sing is the second or third oldest prison.

[00:02:44]There is the original cell block in Sing Sing still exists. It still stands in its decrepit condition and it's debilitated condition where it's falling apart, and then they built new buildings around the original Sing Sing.

[00:03:02]Um, when you go into Sing Sing, when they move you into a cell, the first thing that you do is you take a small piece of toilet paper and you light it on fire, and you throw it inside of your locker, and a thousand roaches come running out. Sing Sing is infested with roaches. They have done their best and they've made some progress through the years at trying to eliminate them through extermination, of course, but the building is so old and there's so much water dripping behind the cells inside of what they call the catwalks, that roaches are just attracted to this environment, and you have some filthy, disgusting people living inside of the prison, and they attract roaches because they don't have clean hygiene habits, okay? And so, the prison is also filled with mice. You could lay You're laying in your bed and you see mice running around.

[00:03:58]It was at a point where it was so bad that if you had a net bag full of your food or full of your commissary, you actually had to take a shoelace and tie it from the bars to the light by the ceiling and hang your food, suspend your food in midair, so the mice and the rats didn't get to it. So, imagine I had to live in those conditions. I had to live in a cell infested with mice, infested with cockroaches, and there were cats running around the prison as well. Sing Sing Sing Sing had cats running around the prison.

[00:04:32]Now, that's not what made That's what made Sing Sing dirty. That's the fact that it was one of the oldest prisons in the state, one of the original prisons in the state, the fact that it had roaches, mice, and cats running around, the fact that the water the water system and the pipes were rusty and leaking and dripping, the fact that the cells was completely disgusting. They had 50 layers of paint.

[00:04:59]This paint basically had lead in it cuz the paint was from, you know, when the times and when they had lead inside of paint. So, it's a extremely unhealthy environment.

[00:05:10]But what made Sing Sing more dangerous, more loose than any other the prisons was the correctional officers that ran the prison. So, Sing Sing is only 45 minutes from New York City. It's only 45 minutes from the five boroughs. It's in Ossining, New York. The exact address is 354 Hunter Street in Ossining, New York. It's next to a town called Tarrytown.

[00:05:42]And what this means because it's from New York City is that you get a lot of people right out of the It employs a lot of people right out of the projects, right out of the hood.

[00:05:55]And so, these people and I'm just telling it like it is is that when an officer is walking down the hallway of Sing Sing, if you don't see them visually and you just hear the officer speaking, you don't know if it's an officer speaking or a prisoner speaking.

[00:06:15]The officer speaking just like this, "Yo, what up, son? I told you know yo Yo, that's what's popping on, boy. I'm telling you something." That's the officer speaking.

[00:06:24]The officer is walking down the company with his pants hanging off his ass and his underwear showing.

[00:06:32]The officer is out of the projects of Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan, okay? A lot of the officers are gangbangers as well.

[00:06:42]And they get this job as a correctional officer because all they need is a high school diploma, and they get this job, and then they're given a badge and a gun, and they're put in Sing Sing. And so, they end up in Sing Sing with a lot of dudes that they grew up with inside of the projects.

[00:07:00]Sing Sing is notorious, notorious for the officers smuggling in drugs more than any of the other prisons in New York state. More than any other prison in New York state. Out of all 42 prisoners, these officers are bringing in drugs, they're bringing in weapons, they're selling scalpels, they're selling razor blades, they're selling actual buck knives that you open up, real knives.

[00:07:26]They're sneaking them into the facility and selling them to the prisoners.

[00:07:30]They're bringing in I knew officers that were bringing in pounds of marijuana.

[00:07:35]Not not not dime bags or $20 bags. They were bringing in pounds of marijuana to the prisoner, and then the prisoners are selling the drugs for the officers, okay? And so, this is what makes Sing Sing a very dangerous place, you know?

[00:07:51]Even I got away with things in Sing Sing that I would never get away in another prison with, okay? When the prison is Well, this makes it a very unstable environment because there's no structure. The officers aren't maintaining discipline inside of the facility. Basically, the prisoners are running around doing whatever they want.

[00:08:13]They're running around cutting people with razors, running around stabbing people. It's really out of control. Like I said, the prison is basically having it in control. They do what they want.

[00:08:25]The officers could care less. So, for a guy who has for a prisoner like me who had a lot of time to do and wanted to concentrate on doing his time just to fall back and relax and get out of the system one day, Sing Sing was not the place for that, okay?

[00:08:44]And that's how Sing Why Sing Sing is one of the worst prisons. I mean, I can go like I'll give you an example. When When an officer becomes a sergeant, sometimes he has to do a year or two in another facility before he goes back to his designated facility. And I would see these guys that were from upstate New York. They were They were They were prison guards in upstate New York. They would become a sergeant, so they would put them in Sing Sing to do a year in Sing Sing, and they said it they couldn't wait to get out. It was the most disgusting It's It's run by animals.

[00:09:21]Sing Sing is run by animals.

[00:09:24]And yeah, you you don't want to be there.

[00:09:27]Now, compared That's the one of the loosest prisons in the state, you know?

[00:09:32]Where you can talk I was talking about a guard would tell me, "Yo, go stand over there." And I would tell the guard, "Yo, shut the [ __ ] up. Don't tell me where to stand. You [ __ ] go stand over there."

[00:09:42]And and the guard wouldn't do anything about it.

[00:09:45]He won't.

[00:09:46]How are you going to run a facility like that?

[00:09:49]When you need to keep a bunch of men in check because if you don't keep them in check, they're going to get out of control.

[00:09:56]Now, let's take it to the strictest prison. The strictest prison in New York State is Attica Correctional Facility.

[00:10:03]We're talking about a whole different ball game. When I was leaving Sing Sing and I was going to Attica, my boy Jimmy told me, he said, "Listen, Fish."

[00:10:14]Cuz Sing Sing was my first prison.

[00:10:16]He said, "Listen, Fish.

[00:10:18]You got the impression that prison is the way that you experienced in Sing Sing, you're about to go into a whole 'nother ball game. You're going from the most lackadaisical prison to the strictest prison out of all 50 of them that existed at the time. You're bypassing all of them. You're going from the loosest prison to the strictest prison.

[00:10:41]So, when you get up there, don't think you're going to get away with what you did in Sing Sing." And when you land in Attica, he was 100% telling the truth.

[00:10:51]You cannot speak back to an Attica correctional officer. If you speak back to an Attica correctional officer, they will fracture your head with a nightstick.

[00:11:02]If you speak back to an Attica correctional officer, they will beat you until you get to solitary confinement.

[00:11:10]When you walk They will beat you to death. I have seen them beat prisoners to death in Attica.

[00:11:17]I never saw that in Sing Sing.

[00:11:19]In Sing Sing, I never saw officers beat someone to death. I've seen prisoners kill other prisoners in Sing Sing, but I never saw the officers beat to death a prisoner in Sing Sing. In Attica, multiple times.

[00:11:32]Okay? When you walk through the hallways in Attica, your shirts are tucked in.

[00:11:38]When you walk through the hallways in Attica, you're holding up your ID card next to your face as you're walking to the recreational yard, to the mess hall.

[00:11:48]You hold it up next to your face. Your shirt's tucked in. No hands in your pocket.

[00:11:54]Arm at your side. ID card by your face.

[00:11:57]No talking in the hallways.

[00:11:59]No whispering in the hallways.

[00:12:01]Silence.

[00:12:03]The officer's standing there with his nightstick in military style with black leather gloves on.

[00:12:10]Black boots.

[00:12:12]Nightstick in his hand. There may be five officers in the hallway as you're walking to the yard.

[00:12:19]And they tell you, "Forward march."

[00:12:22]And you march to the next yellow line.

[00:12:26]You don't answer them back.

[00:12:28]You don't stare at them.

[00:12:30]If you stare at them, if you look at an officer, they were known to write misbehavior reports for what's called reckless eyeballing.

[00:12:39]You actually got a disciplinary ticket for looking at an officer. As you're walking to the yard, you're supposed to face forward. Don't pay attention to them. Look at straight. And if you look at them, they write you a ticket for reckless eyeballing.

[00:12:54]Or they pull you out of line and beat you up.

[00:12:57]That's the way Attica runs.

[00:12:59]There's a very serious, almost military-like, you know? And the prison was opposite of Sing Sing when it came to hygiene.

[00:13:09]Attica was very clean.

[00:13:11]Spotless, as a matter of fact.

[00:13:14]No roaches.

[00:13:15]No rats.

[00:13:17]No cats.

[00:13:18]No dirt.

[00:13:20]Floors swept. Cells clean.

[00:13:24]Clothes folded.

[00:13:27]Officers dressed properly.

[00:13:29]Military style. Shirts tucked in. Pants pulled up.

[00:13:34]Country boys all the way.

[00:13:38]Serious place.

[00:13:40]You know? And so, that's just a uh uh uh I wanted to explain to you the difference of certain prisons. Every prison, besides Sing Sing and Attica right now, so I mean, I gave you the you know, Attica is very structured, especially since the riot. It's very structured. Movement is very structured.

[00:14:03]You're only allowed 40 prisoners in the hallway at a time.

[00:14:08]So, let's say they're running recreational yard and they have uh They're going to have 500 guys go to the prison yard.

[00:14:19]They only move 40 at a time.

[00:14:22]And so, they they they communicate through their radios. "Okay, send company 38."

[00:14:28]"38, forward march." 38, 40 of them go to the yard. Once they're in the yard, the guy gets on the microphone. "All clear. Send company 39."

[00:14:39]And they only let 40 out.

[00:14:41]Boom. When they're done, "Send company 41." They move 40 prisoners at a time through the prison. This way, they keep a lot of control.

[00:14:51]In Sing Sing, when they call the yard, they go, "On the yard." And all the cells open in the whole cell block.

[00:14:59]500 cells, maybe, open at one time. And everyone just starts walking to the yard with no officers around. This is where guys are getting stabbed in the in the hallway. Guys are getting pushed down the steps. Guys are running into other guys' cells, fighting and beating each other up. Pandemonium versus discipline.

[00:15:20]Those are the two difference. But, let me explain this before I come to a close. That's just two prisons out of the 42 that exist.

[00:15:29]And what I want you to know that every prison has a different feel to it.

[00:15:35]Every prison has a different method in the way that it runs.

[00:15:40]Some run strict. Some run loose. Some fall in between. You know? Um You have Clinton, which is also called Dannemora in in in Dan you know, Clinton prison. Very serious prison. Not a prison you want to play around in.

[00:15:57]Coxsackie, serious prison. These are maximum security prisons in New York State. Green Haven, very serious prison.

[00:16:07]Fishkill, medium security prison, but it's pretty serious.

[00:16:12]You know? It depends. Then you have nasty medium security prisons like Marcy and Mid-State.

[00:16:19]Those Marcy Correctional Facility and Mid-State Correctional Facility where they recently beat to death Robert Brooks. So, every prison has a different feel.

[00:16:29]You know? Every prison also has its own rules. There are some rules that are the same in every single prison.

[00:16:36]Uh to give you an example, uh if you're ordering things from the outside world to receive through the package room, one prison may allow something that another prison doesn't allow. So, they all have their own rules. You may be able to have a certain type of shirt in one prison, and in another prison, you may not be allowed to have that type of shirt.

[00:16:57]You know? So, you learn the rules when you go to each place. But, this was just a short little video to explain the difference between Sing Sing and Attica, the loosest prison versus the most serious prison. Any questions, ask in the comment. Hit the subscribe button.

[00:17:15]Check out the membership program. And I'll be posting another video later. All my best, guys. Any questions, ask away.