First time inside

I was 23 the first time I went to jail for Marijuana cultivation, and it sucked. My landlord dobbed me in and I was busted, I already had enough of a criminal history as to warrant instant incarceration. I was off to jail .

I spent the first night in a small windowless cell in the local police station, it was all concrete and cream, it had a steel toilet/wash basin combo, and a concrete slab which is the bed, from the sounds of things I was alone down there. I got a plastic covered mattress and pillow and a thin blanket, I got some mince shit in a polystyrene container and a polystyrene cup to get water to drink from the basin tap with. The light stayed on for forever, but I did get to sleep, I needed it, tommorrow was a big day.

The next day I was transferred by prison wagon to the city court house to have my first hearing, which was at this stage uncontestable, so after about five minutes in front of a courthouse full of people I was told, I would be transferred to a jail, to be remanded in cutody until the end of the court case, which according to my lawyer, would be awhile. For obvious reasons I will not be going into anything too specific about the case as it is against forum rules, but I was scared, I will tell you that.

I was just a skateboarding, trippy, techno loving, stoner all skin and bones . I got taken to the holding cells beneath the court house, there was one guy already in there, he was a big guy, but clean cut and in a suit, I had no idea what he was there for, but my father had told me not to judge anyone in there until I was set. So I did. He would turn out to be the first person I shared a cell with inside. I'll call him Tim. Another guy soon joined us, he was a thin, white guy but looked pretty cut, he had long hair, and plenty of tats, and seemed like a hardcore biker, he just stared ahead, staunch. I didn't bother talking to him . Another guy joined us and he had a cheeky way about him, a mischievious grin on his face. He was a fat black guy, he was short and very cocky, spoke loud and proud. The conversation was mainly between Tim and the Fat guy, i'll call Rich. I just added bits here and there. We got a sandwich, which I gave to Rich of my own free will, honest, lol. And then the white dude got taken away and it was just the three of us. We got taken to another cell before being chained up and transferred to a prison van one by one . An old fat white guy was already in the back of the van, he looked really scared, that made me feel better, thats how things work inside, always searching for prey. I never saw him again he went straight to segregation, must have been a pedo or something.

When we were all in the van we were taken to a local prison which I will not name. We were individually taken to a holding cell at the prison, there were quite a few people already in there, all looked like deranged killers to my paranoid, terrified mind, it would turn out they weren't all that bad after all, but that is too come. I sat and soaked up the environment, there were some black guys, talking loudly in the corner, full of bravado, they didn't seem to tough, just moronic and sketchy, I avoided them, there was a black guy, standing in the corner, and he looked baddass, from over hearing conversations I found out he was a rougue member of a large notorious gang, he was already 8 years into his sentence, and had been to court for his yearly appeal, which he lost, not a happy man. But surprisingly talkative when talked too carefully and with much respect.

Tim was with me, Rich distanced himself from Tim and myself, as he was a long term crim and had a reputation to uphold, the black guys got louder and louder, one got in the face of the gangster, I thought he was going to die, and he didn't even know it, he thought they were pals, man. It was finally my turn to be processed I was stripped naked and paraded infront of a bunch of redneck screws, the whole squat, cough lift balls routine. Then it was time to walk the corridor to the gladiator den. I walked alone, if you don't count the screw next to me, after a quick talk to the prison psychiatrist I was off to my new home .

I walked down the central corridor, it was exactly like on tv with cells either side, one floor only, a corridor with cells either side, with a central eating area at the end. As I was taken to my cell no one yelled anything from their doorways like on the movies, no one threatened to beat or rape me, no one lifted an eyelid. The cell was fucking rancid, it was cold, concrete, dark, grimy, it was small, and had a single steel bunk a table and chair, some small cubby holes, a power point, and the obligitory steel toilet/basin combo. I had a fucking sick looking matress and bedding, a small bag which had like sugar, toothpaste, razor (very handy), toothbrush (very handy), and other shit.
I sat on the edge of my new bed, the door was left slighty ajar, that didn't appeal much too me, all alone in that room, fuck what was going on, it had all happened so fast, WTF. I sat reading an ancient readers digest, I found a roach, then was given some dinner, which I ate alone. The doors were all locked and I was alone in my cell, my first night in prison.

The next morning began early, we had a short amount of time to grab a shower then breakfast. The breakfast line was usually so long that it was impossible to shower plus eat breakfast in time, and as it was a communal shower and all the big black men, naked except for their towels quickly put me off the idea of a morning shower. So the morning began with breakfast, which could, in that facility, be eaten in your cell or the communal eating area, which I was scared of at that point. So I sat in my room alone, I hadn't made much eye contact in the line for breakfast so hadn't noticed Tim or Rich at all. Just then Tim popped his head in the door, to say hi, to see how I was. He had settled in quite well and had told me to join in in his room where he was hanging with some of his homies, so I joined him, what else could I do.
Some dudes were chillin in his room, interestingly of mixed ethnicity, I was admitted to join the party but not much notice was taken of me.

Soon after it was time for the yard, a court yard surrounded by barbed wire fences and the like, concrete, and dry grassless field, with weights at one end. Most people hung around the weights, I had stuck pretty close to Tim and his crew at that point but, the urge to join in got the better of me and I left my new posse to joined in on the weight area. The guys dominating the area were pretty big gangsters, but I had noticed little nobodies were also using the weights as long as they were using weights the gangsters didnt wanna use. So I did chin ups, and I managed to do quite alot, and was invited to have a go on the bench press, a big white gangster had been lifting a huge amount, a small prospect member of the same gang was told to get on a lift it also, he did a couple, then he was fucked. Then I was told, or as I like to put it, invited, to have a go, and I did 8 or 9 and think I impressed some dudes as they began urging me on, I gained alittle confidence from that.

A bunch of the guys who were from one particular gang that owned this particular prison, and had previously been doing weights and amping me on, had gathered in a corner and were looking through a album of photos, I tentatively edged as close to this group as I could, once again only because other non gang members had seemed to be able to chill too, without any problems. They were looking at an album of a kick boxing event, and the kick boxer in the photos was my uncle, seriously. Not only that they knew his name, and they seemed to think highly of him, this I beleived was my chance, and as you have seen I move fast, so I piped in, that he was my uncle . Now noone gave too much of a fuck about that, but I noticed they paused for long enough to remember my face, this was enough for now.

Back to the cells, lunch, chillin, then lock down, all in all I was feeling pretty comfortable, not that bad. The next morning I waited in line for breakfast and went straight to the communal eating area and joined a table with Tim and his friends, talk cam easier. Back in my cell Tim told me he was being transferred to another prison , which was a breeze, unlike this one that had quite a few recent gang related deaths, which shocked me, he said he could get me to get a tranfer no problem if I was in, shit I was on the spot, I put faith in the guy I had met in a suit, and not the gangsters who I felt I was being tolerated by.

I was put through the whole holding cell bullshit again before being put shackled into a transfer van, where Tim sat, and two other serious high profile gangsters, unbelievably banter came easy between myself and one of the gangsters, who was a president of his chapter. He had given me a packet of meth to hide in my shoe in the holding cell before we were put in the van, he told me to give it to another baddass gangster when we got to the new prison, he said I would be fine and so I did it, and unbelievably I did get it through, just as easy as that, this was a test, but I didn't see it like that at the time, I was totally naive .

So I get through to this new prison pretty easy, much faster and far less thourough than the other place, corruption was rife. I was given a cell that was equally as disease riddled as the last cell, the exeption being the second bunk, I would have a celly, and as it turned out it was Tim. The two gangsters shared the cell right next door. As for the package of meth I was suppossed to deliver, it turned out that the guy I was supposed to deliver the meth to was no longer in this facility, so I was told to keep it, and I did, much to the displeasure of my celly, who had to put up with me pacing backwards and forwards all night, trying to do exercise routines, trying to get buff, hahaha, I got over that when the meth wore off . The next morning, lol.

Tim chose the top bunk and as of theat point in time I wasn't confident enough in my self to question him or anything, so took the bottom bunk with my head a foot from the toilet, fuck it. But hey I felt alittle better in my new surroundings, and just to be sure of our situation I told Tim I had his back, I didn't know if this was only something said in movies or whatever, but he seemed relieved to hear that and said he had mine too, he also said he had some good friends here. The only problem was there was a large group of young guys like me who were from a rather brutal gang that I didn't want fuck all to do with, and though they bowed down to the older members of the other gang, they weren't going to bow down to me, infact they were going to test me to my fucking limit. Enter Crash.

Crash is banned in most courtyards, but not this one, guys split into two teams, one team at one end of the court, and they other at the other, facing eachother, a jersey is scrunched up a used like a football, the aim of the game is to crash that ball up the field and try and touch the other side with it, the other team do what ever it takes to stop that happening, its as brutal as it sounds, it is banned most everywhere, and if it is allowed its is only in a touch tag form, but usually it is banned outright, as you can imagine the brawls and carnage it can and usually does create.

It starts gang wars. And I was playing on my first morning at the new prison, everyone was, which was good, because the more people there were the easier it was to avoid the action . Quite quickly a scuffle cracked off, and the screws cracked down, game over. Lock down for the day.

The next day began and the courtyard was hesitant, the two scrappers, were gone, locked down for awhile. I hovered with Tim and my new crew of misfits in our spot, which was not a good spot. I played some chess and got whipped and then I was invited, once again my interpretation, to play a game of crash, this time there would be only four of us I was informed, two psycho prospects from that gang I didn't like, versus me and this 6ft5 monster biker. I had no fucking choice, game on, I was also informed we would be using my top. The two thugs crashed unmercifully into me, than ran softly at the biker, they tackled him with as little effort as possible, they smashed me into the concrete like ragdoll. But I kept going, kept getting up, concussed as a mother, but never showing it, and then bang I hit him, one of the gangsters, and I hit him good, I drove him hard into the back wall and he was hurt, payback I thought, but only for a split second, because all of a sudden they crack it of on me, I do what I have to do to get out of the situation, and luckily I come out unhurt. Tim and his crew dropped nuts and chickened out of joining the frey, so much for having my back. The screws saved me as I wasn't affiliated with anyone at that stage, I thought I was gonna die.

The courtyard was locked down and we were taken back to our cells, and the doors didnt even get locked, wtf, the dudes that wanted to kill me paced backwards and forwards outside my door, giving me evil piercing looks, they were just waiting to get the tck of approval from a higher power then come in a kill me, why were the cells left open? Then in came the big man in this CellBlock, he was part of another gang entirely, but everyone bowed down to him, prison politics go figure? He came and sat down beside me on my bunk, Tim was nowhere to be seen, The Big Mans cellmate, who was just as high ranking and equally as big and baddass, entered the room as well, he stood at the door blocking the entrance.

I really thought I was going to die, and you know what I was pretty peaceful about it, you know I become resigned to the fact pretty fast and was almost tripping out. The big man to my surprise told me he had heard about what happened in the yard and if there was anything he could do, for instance stand in the entrance of the cell of the guys who tried to bash me, he said with him there I could beat them to death and nothing would happen to me. This freaked me out. But man did it make me feel alot better, I declined the offer saying I didn't want to strt or get involved in any trouble, and amazingly they seemed to appreciate that and left my room, soon after the gangster who gave my the meth, who was from another gang to the last two, said he heard about my celly having no nuts, and as his cellmate had been sentenced he no longer had a cellmate and asked me to join him, he had t.v. ,drugs, food, not too mention power. But he was on a level way to high for the likes of me and I turned down his offer, which puzzled him and said he couldn't understand why I would live with such a bitch like Tim, which he was.

Then the head of the little gang of assholes who tried to bash me came into my cell and apologised, honestly, right to my face, this solid block of muscle, he even offered to do my hair, which was very long at the time, he said I looked like a cool hippy, hahaha, all of a sudden he is my friend, but I wasn't his, but I laughed along with him until he fucked off. After that little hiccup, things slowed down greatly and the days ticked by without to much incident, well for me anyhow, many new guys got beat up, mainly little guys, wtf. Then they would be thrown into segregation, all black and blue, lights on twenty four hours, poor bastards.

I moved out of my cell with Tim and moved into a cell on my own, fuck him, he would demand to go to sleep early as, he was a depressed fuck and I'm sure he cried alot at night, oneday someone produced a news paper article with tims offense in it and it had turned out he had beaten his girlfriend, put a knife to her throat and ripped her hair out in chunks because of some affair that was in his head, it said he had a history of it, people turned sour on him, so yeah I moved out of my cell and moved into my own . My family had brought me a small c.d. player/radio, and some c.d.s I wanted and a few skateboarding mags.
Tim was oblivious to the crime he committed and was angry I wanted to move out of the cell we shared. I didn't go to deeply into it with him, but we stopped talking.

I was making some strange aquiantances, I was getting kind of friendly with most people in my cellblock and felt I was reasonably well liked, and therefore protected. I had a good source of Marijuana, I got it from the guy in the cell next to me, Big Ed, we became super good friends. Big Ed, sold all the weed in this cellblock, no one else dared. He was a member of one particular gang, but funnily enough, due to prison politics, was affilated with most other gangs in this block, go figure. But yeah, he sold all the dope, among alot of other things like soft drinks, phone cards, toiletries etc,etc. I would often spend my time out of my cell in his room watching his t.v., and smoking alot of weed. He was untouchable in here, and a lovely guy to boot, as huge as Jabba the hutt, but a gentle giant, unless he had to be otherwise, then look out your going to get squashed. So yeah I chilled out in Big Eds room when ever I could, I can't even remember how I was introduced to him, but knowing me I got desperate for weed and just hit someone up, and hey presto, meet big Ed your new dealer. Now I remember he was playing some awesome music one night and the next day when I was buying some weed off him with a phone card I asked him what the music was and he told me and asked if I wanted to borrow the c.d. which I did, and we became friends.

Through hanging in big Eds room I made more friends, random guys not in any gang, just friends of big Eds, and he could be friends with anyone, so I met Steve, a nigerian native, and strict muslim, caught in a car with a boot load of guns and heroin, he insisted was his South African friends, who was also in here with us, but Steve no longer talked to him and they were not friends anymore.

I used to hang alot with Steve, he was a professional soccer player, and hardcore muslim, he would pace the courtyard with me, spouting off passages of the koran, and give me his twist on it, I used to love those talks, noone else was invited, I was always hooking steve up with weed as he had literally had no money and no way of getting it. He was a strict vegetarian and slept on his floor, he kept his room immaculately clean, unlike myself who was always being getting in trouble for a messy cell.

Another guy I met through big Ed, was Maney, maney was an older guy, and I never did find out what he was in for, I liked him way too much to ever ask, he had a gentle manner, belying a past filled with violence and mayhem, he taught me tons of shit I still cherish to this day, about the world and its tricks and games, he was like some shaman dude, or whatever, well thats how I remember him, I still have a book he gave me, I always will . I learned how to play a reasonable game of chess, and just kept on smoking pot, the stuff, I was in here for.

I would smoke it in the yard, with everyone else, and it is tolerated by the guards, they don't care, they smoke it, it keeps the yard cool, and they sell it too. Though it is not as blatant as I make it sound, it is very low key, and don't get talked about much inside, well not by me anyway. But I was just another harmless number, a mere stoned guppy among steely sharks, and I was cool with that, a reasonable general knowledge, a friendly disposition, and being quick with a joke and to light up a smoke, were what I had and I rolled with that, I was the little techno/skatey dude, with long hair and a raging pot habit.

The case was basically a forgone conclusion, it was obvious I would have to do hard time, the whole thing I was doing was to delay the eventual sentence and rack up as much time in remand, so when I was too be sentenced the time I would have done on remand would be taken into consideration and with good behaviour I would have that sentence cut in half, so in theory I could be free the day I was sentenced, well that was the direction my lawyer thought would be best for us. It seemed to make sense to me too. Remand was tough, but I wasn't looking forward to taking the next step up, I didn't want to turn pro, because from what I ws told I would definately be fighting then and definately having to pick sides and join a gang. I didn't want to do that.

So I aimed to do six months plus in remand, then go for sentence, I was looking at two years, I aimed to get one, and with good behaviour that becomes six months and then that means I do no hard time, awesome, well that was the plan.

See remand is a prison in a prison, a holding cell, a prison where everyone is yet to be sentenced, so in theory would want to be on good behaviour, as to get a light sentence, but like most of what goes on in prison, logic and rational thought have no place whatso ever, thats for faggots, punks. So yeah fights are constant, and then that escalates, and you still have to be on your toes.

There were little things about being on remand that sucked worse than hardtime, because after your sentenced you get a decent cell, often with a shower, you get more free time, and are allowed more shit.

On remand you have communal showers, sux, you are almost always on lock down, and you can't have shit, but a bonus was no compulsory drug tests, unless you got caught, which I didn't, so I was getting by. Tim got sentenced to two years for his crime, and he left , possibly to two years worth of sodomy, I could care less, it amazed me I could do the same amount of time as this dude. He disfigures and terrorises his girlfriend in a fit of rage, and I grow a few sacremental plants, go figure. But anyway he was gone and I was relieved, we never made peace, and it was always awkward being around him in the yard.

I havent mentioned Rich who has just popped back into my memory banks, man what a character that guy was. Like I said he was a short fat black guy, who was loud and crazy, a totally mental guy, not affiliated with any gang as a such just a mad pimp. He had been transferred to this prison also, somewhere along the line, no one dared cell up with him because there is no doubt in my mind that he would of raped you or atleast try to. He was constantly offering his dick to those not large enough to do anything much about it, myself included, you just learn to tolerate it, everyone knew he would never try to rape anyone who was awake, because even though he was a big fat nutter and a bully, he was a fucking great big pussy undeneath it all, he would constantly shadow box in the yard, like some idiot, real stupid random shadow boxer, a real fucking clown. He tried stepping this little white dude out, one day in the court yard, and he got lit the fuck up, this little dude just cracked off and put the fat fuck on his ass. Didn't see the little dude after that, but Fat ass stuck around, all beat up for awhile, hahaha. You would of thought this would dent his ego and he would chill out, but nope, he was still the same, every morning at breakfast time he would offer me and who ever else was in the room with us his sausage if we supplied the buns. Just tell him to fuck off and that was that. Next part of the routine please.

Which gets me to the point of who many people in there are on heavy anti psychotic medication, its,fucking scary, half the people in jail should be in a mental hospital, man, justice is ruthless, no wonder it breeds ruthless people. Which without realising I too was becoming, after a few months inside, a routine quickly developed, and the random shit became insignificant, I was doing alot of exercises and hitting the weights and was beginning to notice I was starting to bulk up, the food was basic, and pretty bad, but there was lots of it, and I was eating well, without any junk, I was actually starting to feel pretty good, I had been meditating alot during my long periods of isolation, I still had my own cell, and nights were spent smoking weed, listening too music, listening to the endless screamming and chaos that rings through the corridors when its lock down, people go fucking crazy.

But not me, I was kind of doing it easy, I minded my own, I stayed close to my crew, and I followed the same routine, day after day. And the days were flying though the hours dragged. Got really good at press ups and sit ups, lol.
Thats all I can pump out for now I will continue this story later

	Author	Topic: First time inside (Read 685 times)
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