My Crime: Brad Simpson
The reason this moment is different than normal: I have a warrant (that’s normal), I’m driving without any ID on me (that’s normal), and I have 10,000 ecstasy pills in the trunk of my car (that’s new!).
A Juvenile Lifer’s Story
I am prepared to die: My name is Edward Mike Ji, now age seventeen, newly minted adult duly dubbed and declared so by Collin County Juvenile Court, inmate number 207989, and death cannot come swiftly enough. I lay in this foul [...]
What’s Prison Really Like?
I officially retired November 30th, 2007 at the ripe old age of 24, and it’s great! I am now part of a government-sponsored adult day care and assisted living center. We have the best health care plan in the United States. [...]
Who Guards the Guards? (with a surprise ending…)
Sergeant McKay* was passing out the food trays, sliding the trays through the slot in our metal doors. Every convict on the confinement tier knew you just don't ask Sergeant McKay to pass your food tray to someone else for you. Everyone knew that except Ray "Noodles."
Prison Guards Gas Inmates in Attempted Murder
These 3 ranking officers emptied 2 small cans of chemical agents and used 4 big cans emptying at least 2 of them – all within a 5 minute period. No medical personnel was on scene during this use of force nor was the portable camera (handheld video camera) focused into the cell recording the actions of the offenders that required such an excessive use of force.”
What Can Be Done With A Prisoner Like Maurice Smith?
From the first day I stepped foot in a jail cell, I immediately got a good taste of what it's liked to be housed around the mentally ill. These prisoners are nothing like your average prisoner, starting with how they [...]
Do You Want To Know Why There’s Violence in Prisons?
Yes, I know what you see in movies. Yes, I know what you see on television. Yes, some of it’s true. Racial tensions are always sparking, sometimes turning into a bloody conflagration that sweeps through the prison burning anyone in [...]
A Prisoner’s Top 10 Ways To Improve Prison
1. Start looking at results. When prisoners are released and are successful and do not come back, see what is the same amongst them. Do not just write it as a statistic and stare at it. Act on it. Utilize the [...]
What Happens When You Scream for Help in Prison?
If you woke in the middle of the night and heard your neighbor being robbed, you could hear that he was about to be stabbed, and anticipated that he would soon be screaming... would you put in earplugs and roll [...]
A Jailhouse Lawyer Explains How it Works
“You've got a thousand men in the water and maybe three life preservers. You better be okay with watching men drown. ”
- Melvin Tunstall, when I took a job in the prison law library.
Getting Out of Prison is Overrated
I’m a repeat offender. This is my 4th time in penitentiary. I’m the “poster child” for getting out of prison. First time I was 17 years old. I did four years. My 2nd time I was 22 and I did 3 years. Third time I was 25 and I did 9 years. Now I’m 37 and I’m serving a 30-year sentence.
Ask a Drug Dealer How to End the Drug Epidemic
Users use whatever is available, and all price does is move them from one drug to another. “White people are starting to figure that out,” added Edgar Lee. “When they can’t get their Oxycontin they move to heroin.
We Smoked K-2. I Barely Survived, He Didn’t.
I died that night. Twice. Later, I was told that when I arrived at the medical department I did not have a heartbeat and I had stopped breathing. I was clinically dead. But the medical staff at the Coffield Unit did not give up on me.