TAKING YOU INSIDE STATE PRISON

[00:00:06]What's happening everybody? Welcome to the channel. I appreciate you. If you've been here before, welcome back. If you've never been here, hit the subscribe button. Check out the membership program. For those of you that have never visited the channel, I survived 17 years straight in the New York prison system, serious prisons like Singh, Attica, and seven others besides those two. Unfortunately, I was in the prison system for taking a human life. I was sentenced to 12 and a half to 25 years. I was denied at the parole board for release three different times. Many of you know my story that's been here.

[00:00:42]Today, what we're going to talk about, and I don't say that in a bragging way.

[00:00:46]I always point this out. I don't say that in a way to boast you would be a effing fool to boast about the credentials that I just told you. But the reason I bring it up is to fulfill the curiosity of those who want to know about incarceration instead of coming on the channel and talking like I was running the yard like some shot caller or a big shot in the prison system. And I did the entire bid in the general population. I never signed into protective custody. I never ran from I lived my time in the yard in prison every single night. I went out in the general population every single night. I lived in the general population of maximum security prisons for 17 years straight. Okay? And so I can tell you the way that the [ __ ] functions. I can tell you the way that it goes down in there. Um, so what I said is I fulfill the curiosity of people in the most intellectual way that I can to help you really comprehend what it's like to be in prison spiritually, what it feels like personally to be in there, you know, and to just help you realize that it's a place that you never want to end up because as I always say, it is a cold, dark, hard place. Forgive the tank top right now. I don't have any air conditioning in my apartment, which sucks. We'll just say that straight out.

[00:02:12]And it's pouring rain outside in New York right now. So, it's humid. I got the fans going. And what could I tell you? That's that's my story. That's my reality right now. So, what I'm going to discuss in this video a little bit is uh the way prison really is, contrary to some of the beliefs that you have. Uh, I've talked about some of these things before, but I really want you to conceive what incarceration is like, you know. Uh, uh, to give an example, I I I've told the story, and you know, let me just go through it. When I first move, the first prison I hit was Sing Singh Prison, 354 Hunter Street, Austining, New York. That was from Riker's Island. Okay? I spent three years on Riker's Island fighting my case. Okay? Usually Riker's Island is a jail. and and so I was in jail fighting my case for almost three years and uh I was well that's a whole another story but once I was sentenced to 12 and a half to 25 years I went to sing that well first let me I might as well explain it to you a little bit I sat in the in the jail for three years fighting the case and then once they sentenced me to 12 and a half 25 I was put on a bus and transferred to a prison called Downstate Correctional Facility uh uh in downstate New York by which is by Fishkill, New York, not too far. That's what they call a reception jail or a processing jail. And I spent a little time there. That's where they classify you. They give you a classification number to determine what prison you're going to be sent to. They they you know they check to see if you have any medical needs, if you have any uh medica your medication needs. They check your security level, your crime. They look over your educational. They do all this in the reception jail. So, I went from Riker's Island to the reception jail.

[00:04:00]And from the reception jail, they determined they were going to send me to Sing Sing. And when I get to Sing Sing, Sing Sings completely out of control.

[00:04:08]It's the most disgusting prison out of all the prisons in New York. Basically, it's a filthy, nasty, nasty, dirty place with rats and mice and roaches and cats running around inside the prison. In the prison, there's rusty water. I mean, it the place is off the hook. singing should be condemned, that prison should not function until today. It is a disgusting, deplorable mess. And that's where I end up in singing. And uh once I get there, I never been in prison before. I never been there. It's my first my first time stepping foot into a prison. The only thing I have in my favor, and the reason I'm bringing this up is because you could imagine yourself going in. I don't know what type of person you are who's watching me right now, but I was a little I don't think you could ever be prepared for it, but I was a little prepared for it because my life was spent in and out of the system, unfortunately.

[00:05:09]From the age of 15, I was in juvenile detention centers, four of them. I was in psychiatric hospitals, I was in rehabs, I was in jail five or six times.

[00:05:22]Uh, and then I spent three years on Riker's Island. So, you never know what to expect when you go to prison, but I was kind of had, you know, I spent a lot of time on the street with wise guys. I knew the criminal element.

[00:05:37]And so, when I went to prison, I was a little prepared to deal with the men around me, you know. So, if you were never in that lifestyle, if you were never in the criminal lifestyle and the criminal element, it'll be a real shock to you. I kind of knew what they expect, but I didn't expect what I discovered. At the same time, to give you an example, I had the one of the first cells they put me in after my first three days. When you get to a prison for three days, they they lock you up. They don't let you roam around the prison. They don't put you in the general population for the first one to three days you get to a prison. when you get because you have to uh uh be cleared by a sergeant to make sure that you don't have any enemies in the prison to make sure everyone goes through this to make sure that uh uh you want to be in a population that you don't want protective custody. So a sergeant interviews you uh within the first 24 to 72 hours after stepping into a maximum security prison. The sergeant will call you to his office and he will interview you. And if you get cleared, you get cleared. Then when you go back to your cell, you're cleared to be in the general population. So, uh, I was I I did that. I got cleared by the sergeant to be in the general population. And as soon as I got out, I got into a fight because while I was locked up for those three days, there was this young kid beefing with me through the door because I didn't want to send him any weed to smoke. I had a little weed and he was watching everything. He he smelt the weed. He saw me pass some to my boy.

[00:07:15]That's a whole story. So I got out and beat him up. Then after that, that was as soon as I stepped into the prison. It was real pain in the ass. Then after that, I'm just going through real quick to the point till I get to the point that I want to explain to you. And I get moved. I think it was called I think it was N Gallery uh uh in Singh.

[00:07:36]Um and I get in the cell next to a guy named Blue, a black guy named Blue. He had 20, 25 years in prison already. And I was on day one, day four, whatever it was. I just got in there and I end up in the cell next to Blue in Sing.

[00:07:56]And Blue says to me, we talk for a half hour. We get to know one another. He's like, yo, where'd you come in from? I said, I just came from Riker's Island.

[00:08:05]And I got a good feel about Blue. And I was right. This is what I meant by I had the experience of being around criminals and wise guys. I could read people, you know what I mean? I could read people.

[00:08:17]And me and Blue start talking. He got 25 years in. He's an old-timer. He tells me, "Yo, you want to smoke a joint?" So I says, "Yeah, sure. Let's go." So he tells me, "Listen, you got to be real quiet, man." He said, "You can't let anybody know." So I said, "Yeah, what?"

[00:08:34]He says, "Cuz they'll rat you out."

[00:08:36]I said, "Who's going to rat me out?" He said, "The prisoners, dude. They're going to rat us out if they catch us." I said, "The prisoners are going to rat on us for smoking a joint." Long story short, this is where I learned that these so-called, obviously, I'm not talking about everyone, but an scary percentage, a very large percentage of the prisoners are straight up [ __ ] rats, straight up snitches.

[00:09:04]Okay? And that's what Blue was trying to tell me is that if the other prisoners see us smoking a joint, if the other prisoners, you know, find out that we got weed, they're going to write a snitch slip to the administration and tell on us with nothing to gain. They don't they don't gain nothing. How crazy is that? They do it with no worthwhile to do so. They do it straight up because they're haters. They do it because they have animosity in them.

[00:09:36]They do it because they like to bring other people down.

[00:09:40]How wild is that? See, I had this image of maximum security prison that it was the bad, the tough, the the old street moral. See, where I grew up, right, you didn't tell on one another. Where I grew up, if you ratted on someone or snitched on someone, bad things happened, right? And so bad things h used to happen in prison when guys snitched on each other and guys ratted on each other and guys told on each other. Bad [ __ ] used to happen in prison. The prison the prisoner would kill the prisoner that ratted on him. He would stab the prisoner that ratted on him. He would rip his face open. Rip Right. So that still happens a little, don't get me wrong, but it used to happen all the time in prison. And the reason that it happened all the time in prison is before my time in the 1960s and the 1970s, if you killed someone in prison, you may get away with it all together because guys didn't rat. So if you killed someone, all the prisoners would say, "I didn't see nothing. I didn't see nothing."

[00:10:49]These days, the prisoners tell without even being asked.

[00:10:55]Right? In the old days, if a guy killed someone in prison, he would simply say he had no choice but to do it. Usually, he would end up with two years in solitary confinement for killing a man.

[00:11:07]But then what happened as the 1980s rolled in and we crack the drug crack hit the streets. There was never anything like the the the drug crack.

[00:11:21]Okay, before that it was heroin us is the the drug crack. You heard of a crackhead? All of a sudden the prisons were filled with crackheads, right? Crackheads are not real criminals. Crackheads don't have the mentality of a bank robber, of a killer, of a serious criminal, a kidnapper, a a burglar. You know, these guys that rob safes. They were crackheads.

[00:11:51]They were picking up cigarette butts off the street. So, they didn't have any criminal code. They didn't have any, right? And the prisons got filled with them. and they're telling on each other, ratting on each other, doing anything for a dollar, right? Doing it. And that's how the the the prison system changed. You had all these punk ass dudes in there, right? And then the state itself started prosecuting men. So if you stuck a knife in someone in prison, instead of 30 days in solitary confinement, they may give you 5 to 10 more years in prison. They may give you 10 to 20 more years in prison.

[00:12:36]You kill someone in prison these days, you get life, a life sentence added on to whatever time you're already doing.

[00:12:45]So now the snitches and the rats in prison are well aware of this and they tell on people with impunity. They get away with destroying the lives of other individuals and they have no worthwhile to do it. They just do it because they hate the fact that you can smoke a joint and just try to relax in prison, but they don't have any money for anything because they're a [ __ ] crackhead.

[00:13:15]Okay? And there's other reasons why people tell on you in there, too, right?

[00:13:21]They just don't do their time like a man. They don't do their time. They don't mind their own business, right? So the reason I went through all of that is I believe that a lot of people are under the a lot of people who've never been to prison and a lot of people have this impression of prison from the movies from Hollywood from hearing people talk about prison that guys don't tell on each other in there. These guys are prison [ __ ] Prison [ __ ] Right.

[00:13:54]So, that's one part about prison that I thought you would want to know.

[00:13:58]Another part, if you watch Hollywood movies and you check out all this stuff, rape inside a prison.

[00:14:10]All I could give you is the facts. I know. I did 17 years straight.

[00:14:16]Okay? I never saw someone get raped inside of prison. I never had someone attempt to rape me. I had no never even had someone suggest the idea. I never seen it. I was in one or two prisons where you heard that this one prisoner forced himself on another prisoner.

[00:14:38]That [ __ ] happens more in society than it does in prison. Okay?

[00:14:43]Maybe it happened. Again, I'll refer back to the old days. Maybe it happened in the old days because there were no repercussions for it.

[00:14:53]These days, you rape someone in prison, 10 more years in prison, 15 more years in prison, maybe life in prison, two, three, four years solitary confinement.

[00:15:06]You're not raping someone in prison these days and nothing's going to happen to you.

[00:15:12]A couple of things would also happen inside of the prison among the prisoners. If one prisoner raped another prisoner, the other prisoners wouldn't even deal with that person no more because he's an animal, right? Well, at least no, I won't even go there, right? I mean, there's some things that I won't go there. But there's open homosexuals in prison, guys that are open about being gay. Okay? And if someone, one of the men, one of the well, I'm not even going to call them man because they're, you know, whatever, a [ __ ] If one of the guys wants to fool around with one of the [ __ ] you know, then they have willing participants is what I'm trying to say. They don't have to commit the act of rape. There's handfuls of guys that are into that and if one of the guy and then they do it willingly. They don't need to go rape someone. They find someone who's a homosexual and they'll have sex with them. It's not It may be prevalent but it's still done like behind the scenes.

[00:16:19]So when it comes to the white guys, right, because you know prison segregated, I'm just talking to you today. No one area. I'm just taking you all over the way prison system works.

[00:16:31]When it comes to the white guys, if if a white guy in a maximum security prison or a medium security prison fools around with another guy, he's not welcome near us anymore. He can't come near us anymore.

[00:16:48]You know, he he can't come talk to us.

[00:16:50]He can't hang out with us. He can't eat with us. He can't nothing. He's muttered out. He's treated like a mongrel. he's treated like a mut. Uh, you know, some other circles accept that behavior. They don't care, you know, but the white guys don't accept that inside of the prison system. Um, that's so that's another that's another thing about prison food.

[00:17:14]A lot of people don't realize this and uh I get a lot of uh I get a lot of comments about this when it comes to eating food in prisoners. I guess some people who've never been to prison still think that we are uh eating bread and water in there. You know, prison food pretty much sucks. You know, I wouldn't say it's the worst in the world tastewise. It's not the worst in the world. You know, there's a couple of meals that really suck like yakasobi. Uh you know, yeah, there yakasobi. It's like it's like wallpaper paste. It's terrible. But they have meals that are edible, man. You could survive off of them. They're edible. It's not good quality food, but it's not going to make you sick. It's not going to make you throw up. The prison definitely doesn't give you enough. You You get very small portions. For a guy like me who was 225, 230 pounds of muscle back then. I needed a lot of food, you know. Uh and they definitely don't give you enough. That's for sure. Uh but you are entitled. The the reason I bring up the food is you are entitled to get really good food inside a prison, but you have to have the money. Uh you have to have someone on the street who's willing to buy the food for you or you have to have enough money in your prisoner's account where you can order the food for yourself. But they have outside vendors and you can order food from these outside vendors.

[00:18:45]Uh there's several different vendors and you could order food packages. In New York State, you're allowed 35 pounds a month. 35 pounds is a good amount of food. And so take this into account. You have the messole where you can go to the messole and eat. You have commissary where you can get your commissary and you can order food packages. But this takes some money.

[00:19:13]If you have it, you could eat really good. I mean, I was ordering full chickens, pastramis, uh sausages, chorizo, jalapeno, uh uh roast beef, pepperoni, salami. Uh uh I was ordering all this from the street and it would come from a company called uh uh Waban in Bangor, Maine, and they would ship it to you in a cooler with dried ice, two-day delivery. And when you receive the food, it would all be nice and cold. Uh, and then you could order canned foods. And then the commissaries in in in prison are pretty incredible. There's uh almost anything you could find in a supermarket, you find in the prison commissary. And you're allowed to go to the commissary once every two weeks.

[00:20:06]Different states are different. So I'm talking about New York State. The prison system doesn't run the same throughout the country, but in New York State, you're allowed to go to the commissary every two weeks. When I was in there, you were allowed to spend $55 uh maximum on food. Uh that included your cosmetics. In New York State, you can still smoke in the prison. You can't smoke in the building. You're allowed to smoke outside in the recreational yard.

[00:20:33]So, they sell cigarettes in prison, you know. Um, in some prisons in New York State, you have televisions in your cell. You could have a television in your cell. And now someone now someone hearing this, and I could understand both sides, someone hearing this would say, "Wow, prisoners have all of that. Prisoners shouldn't have all of that." A lot of people feel that way. Prisoners shouldn't be able to go to commissary and buy all these good foods. And prisons should shouldn't be able to smoke. And prisoners uh uh shouldn't be able to order food packages and and have televisions inside of their cell because some of you just believe in really hard intense punishment.

[00:21:21]And the prison system was like that.

[00:21:25]1940, 1950, even it was very the men were neglected of everything. And it's a very hard way to do time that doesn't Yes, they're supposed to be punished.

[00:21:39]Prison is a punishment and they are being punished because they've been removed from society. They are locked in a cage. They don't they are not a threat to society anymore once they're in prison. And that's a punishment, man. That's a physical punishment. That's a spiritual punishment. That's, you know, a mental and emotional punishment. They can't spend time with their family. They can't drive a car. They can't ride a motorcycle. They can't walk through the forest. They can't go to the beach. They can't go boating. They can't spend time with their friends. They can't They're being punished.

[00:22:24]I don't believe in being tortured.

[00:22:27]Okay? And so the prison allows them to have certain amounts of food and commissary and a television because you also have to understand that 80% of the prisoners are going to be released back into society.

[00:22:45]And do you want them released as angry men filled with animosity that they were tortured and abused and neglected inside of the prison? Do you want men like that coming back to your area, to your neighborhood?

[00:23:03]That makes them unstable.

[00:23:05]That makes them very difficult and hard to put back into the workforce to be a productive member of society. And so it has an adverse effect to abuse someone.

[00:23:18]And it also teaches them to have a real resentment towards authority, towards society, and towards the country. Yes, they did something wrong. And I believe that when people do something wrong, they should be punished. I personally don't think that I received enough time for my crime. I'm giving you an honest answer. I listen, in my case, it was enough time You know, but what I'm saying is I would have understand I would have understood if they sentenced me to more time. I would have understood it. I couldn't complain. I was 100% guilty of my crime, you know. Uh and as far as reasons why I committed my crime and this I'm just saying that's a whole another story. But the crime I committed, I would have understood if they gave me more time, right? Um, I think that in prison, in the prison system, they give these men these things so there's not as much animosity and also so the prison the prison staff and the prison the guards the administration they don't have to deal with as much drama. To give you just a small example of that, I was in Attica prison when televisions were permitted to be inside of the cell. When you can buy a television, right, from commissary. Uh, but when I got to when I arrived in Attica prison, nobody had a TV in their cell. They weren't allowed. The only place you could watch TV is if you went outside into the recreational yard. They had two TVs in the recreational yard for 400 guys out there, right? And if you wanted to watch any television, you had to go out there. And then so the prison took a vote and they said, "Listen, who would like to have TV?" So, but if we the the administration said if you guys vote for the televisions and you get the televisions, then we're going to take away you being able to get packages uh from home.

[00:25:29]In other words, my wife, my ex-wife was able to go food shopping and then send me the package. They said, "We're going to stop that. The only way you'll be able to get a food package is if you order it from a company and then we'll give you televisions. So, you guys decide what you want. And the prison population voted for televisions. And we were able to go to commissary and buy a 10-in black and white television for $90. And then you would have a TV in your cell. This benefited the prison.

[00:25:59]And it benefited the prisoners. It benefited the prisoners because now they can relax inside of their cell and watch television. Being locked inside of a cell that's 9 ft by 5 1/2 ft wide could drive you mentally insane, especially for years. Cuz there's some people that could only read so much and they could only write so much and then what else do you do in your cell? So the television benefited prisoners because they can now sit in their cell and relax and watch some TV. It benefited the prison because now the prison didn't have to deal with as many prisoners out in the recreational yard at night stabbing each other, fighting. It diminished the population in the prison yard. It It caused a lot less problems. Televisions, the package room didn't have to work as hard because, you know, so there's different things about different prisons. Uh, last but not least, if you guys have any questions, you just ask me in the comment section. There's so many things I guess I can educate you about when it comes to the prison system. And just like I can learn from you guys, a lot of stuff. Officers going out of their way to make your life hell in the prison system. Man, there's absolutely absolutely lots of them. a very high percentage of them good officers, lots of them. I can't give you a percentage. 50% are good. Of the officers, the correctional officers, 50% are good, 50% are bad. I can't there's no way to figure that out. But I will say that uh I man, it's hard freak. I'm being honest. It's hard to say. There's a large amount of officers that are pretty nasty and they could be nasty to the prisoners for no reason with no justification. I've watched over 17 years prisoners take beatings from officers who are just in a gang mentality. Officers that have an ego, officers that want to show off, officers that want to bolster themselves to be big like they're big tough guys. And one-on-one I would break their jaw, you know. And I've had that out with officers myself. I've gotten to the point where I told officers, "You would never talk to me like that if you didn't have all your boys behind you because if you want to go behind the cells right now or if you want to go by anywhere right now and go at it one-on-one, let's go at it one-on-one. I want to see how tough you are." I've had that with officers before. And they [ __ ] out.

[00:28:33]They [ __ ] out, you know, because one thing about me, I don't say this to sound like a tough guy. I'm a fighter. I love to fight. I enjoy fighting. And there was a few officers that got me to the point where I told them, "Dude, I [ __ ] you up, you know, and uh I took a few beatings because of that because, you know, they put me in handcuffs and beat me up, you know, they weren't man."

[00:28:52]So, yeah, there's officers like that, you know, there's officers that show off in front of female officers just cuz there's a female officer there. The male officer wants to act like a tough guy and he takes it out on one of the prisoners and beats his ass unjustfully.

[00:29:08]And then there's there's some good officers, men. There's officers who would never take part and and they would never, you know, they would never do anything like that. And if those acts were transpiring, they would stay away from. There's officers like that, too.

[00:29:24]There's officers that will talk to you and try and preach to you and tell you, yo, listen, you got to change your life.

[00:29:30]Don't keep coming in and out of the system. You're a good guy. You don't belong in here. There's opportunities availers like that too that'll talk to you. There's officers that never hit another prisoner, you know, but it is there is a scary number. A lot a lot of it depends I'll end with this. A lot of it depends on the way you carry yourself in prison.

[00:29:53]If you carry yourself like a man, if you carry yourself like a gentleman, if you're respectful to everyone, if you don't draw attention to yourself, the problems will be very limited. You will start having an officer or two. You know, I carried myself like a gentleman all the time. All the time. And then you get an officer where he's doing a routine cell search and he just goes in your cell and unnecessarily disrespects all your property in your cell. He's throwing the mattress over. He's dumping your photographs on the floor. You're not supposed to conduct a cell search like that. But the office is just an [ __ ] and he like he doesn't like prison. He hates prisoners. And I'm going to go in your cell and rip everything apart. Da da da. And I've had officers do that to me and I carry myself like a gentleman. And so the real the real response would be for me to turn around and tell that officer, "Yo, what are you doing, dude? What's your problem?" Right? But I was, and I have done that, but for the most part, what I did when situations like that arose, I reminded myself real quick that the prison wasn't my house. The prison was their house. I was just visiting. And my goal and my plan and my objective was to go free and go home. And so I bit my lip in a lot of those circumstances. I says, "All right, let this jerk off, do what he's going to do, and when he's done, I'll put myself back together, clean it up, sweep and mop, keep my mouth shut, and uh because you're going to run into situations like that. That doesn't happen every day." And there were a few times where officers disrespected me like that and I went off on them, you know, but you got to realize there's consequences for everything. And you have to realize sometimes what's worth it and what's not worth it. And realize if they catch you on a bad day or a good day, right? There's a lot of emotions involved. So I I'm just talking my ass off right now, I should shut up. I just wanted to take you through the prison system a little bit.

[00:32:01]What I tell you is this, especially if you're a youngster, but this goes for anyone. I always remind everyone, I grew up thinking I was a tough guy. I was a pretty tough guy, but I I grew up thinking I had all the answers for a lot of different reasons, but that know my story. I was fatherless. I was abused as a kid. I got in with the wrong crowd.

[00:32:24]I'm not making excuses, but I grew up thinking I I'm going to do whatever I want. And you know uh I was impulsive man you know I played and then I paid you know play now pay later that's not the way to live life you know it's uh pay now and and then play later and what I mean by pay now play later that's the way you should live pay for it now do the hard stuff now get the job now work hard now live right don't do drugs don't drink alcohol. It's hard. It's hard to live right, you know, but you got to do it, you know, and then you'll be able to play later. You'll have a lot of time to play later, you know, and uh and have fun and enjoy life. Live the right way, man. I made mistakes and I'm I'm I'm paying for it. You know, you'll get a guy like the uh jerk off Wes Watson. For those of you that know the YouTube guy Wes Watson, right? He did like 10 years in prison. He didn't even do that much.

[00:33:27]a little under 10 years. Now he's going to do more time. But he he started making videos about prison and uh he made a lot of money by faking it by saying, "Yo, I got this and I got uh Lamborghinis and Ferraris and D." And all the kids were attracted to that. He glorified prison and the life after like he made it and da da, but it wasn't worth it.

[00:33:52]It was a fake because now he's going back to prison.

[00:33:58]Now he's got charges for beating up a woman, kidnapping, basically kidnapping a woman, holding a woman against her will, beating her up.

[00:34:09]He's got charges for beating up a guy in a gym. He's going away. You know, he got two years for one. He'll probably get more years for the other.

[00:34:18]And the reality is, I want you to know this reality is that I came home from prison and all my friends, most of my friends are married now.

[00:34:32]They have children.

[00:34:34]They own homes.

[00:34:36]They have careers because they were smarter than me.

[00:34:44]Now I'm in my 50s and prison destroyed me, man.

[00:34:49]you know, I have no wife because it was uh very hard for me, you know, that's a whole another story, but just hard for me to maintain the normal mind frame with PTSD.

[00:35:04]I have no career. I have no business. I own no home and uh I have no pension, no security, uh no 401k.

[00:35:17]And to you youngsters, that may not seem like anything, but you're going to need all that [ __ ] man.

[00:35:24]So concentrate now on doing the right thing. I beg you, man. Please live the right way. It's worth it. That's the message. All right, let me wrap this up before you guys think I'm talking too much. Let me know what you think in the comments.