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I know there is already a prison Ask/Tell thread but a number of people there requested that I start my own. That thread is great too but it depicts a state prison while my federal experience was fairly different. Hi everybody, I'm tgd and I was just released from a privately owned for-profit federal prison in November. I know there is a lot of interest in this subject on this board so I thought I would give you all a chance to ask what goes on in a Federal lockup. I was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin; of that sentence I served 29 months in jail/prison and 1.5 months in a halfway house. I am currently on a GPS monitor; I will be a (relatively) free man this March. I was in four different facilities during my incarceration, all in California. With the exception of county all were owned and operated by various for-profit corrections companies that contracted with the Feds. First I spent 11 months in Sacramento County Jail's maximum security pod. We were under 23-hour a day lockdown and were not allowed outside ever. I went almost a year without breathing fresh air or feeling the sun on my skin. After that I spent one month in California City, a medium-security detention center in the Mojave Desert. That place was a real no-poo poo prison with fences, barbed wire, armed guards patrolling the perimeter, no-warning-shots-fired sort of stuff. Also I was one of four white guys in my unit of 200 people which added an extra element of hosed-upness. After that I was transferred to Taft camp, which was a minimum security prison outside Bakersfield. There were no fences or any real prison stuff; it really was like being at the world's worst summer camp. I believe a camp might be what is depicted in Orange is the New Black but I'm not positive since the show came out while I was locked up and catching up on it hasn't been a top priority of mine right now. After serving 18 months there I was released to a halfway house in Oakland. That in some respects was the worst part of my incarceration due to the fact that you are so close yet so far from being in society. On this past Friday I was released home on a GPS monitor. It has been a long journey and I am just thankful that it is finally wrapping up. I'm not really sure where to begin so go ahead and ask away. I'll do my best to explain what got me there, what my time was like and where I go from here.
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Jan 11, 2015 21:44
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How common was drug usage? What type of stuff?
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Jan 11, 2015 22:34
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the great deceiver posted:Also I was one of four white guys in my unit of 200 people which added an extra element of hosed-upness. How'd that work out for you? Is there any reason in sticking together at that point or do you just say gently caress it
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Jan 11, 2015 22:55
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What were the circumstances surrounding your arrest? Why only conspiracy? How did you end up in a position where you decided to deal heroin?
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Jan 11, 2015 22:56
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How often did you witness inmate violence and how serious was it? Ie fights, murders, rape - daily weekly or what?
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Jan 11, 2015 23:38
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First time I hear about halfway houses, did you share it with other inmates? Did you have television and stuff like that? If not, what did you do all day locked up in a house-arrest situation?
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Jan 11, 2015 23:46
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Noctis Horrendae posted:How common was drug usage? What type of stuff? Drug usage was not all that common. I know there was weed on the compound and occasionally coke, heroin and meth. Plenty of vodka and other booze was smuggled in. Tobacco was always present if you wanted to pay $50 for a pack of marlboros. I think one of the reasons there wasn't as much drug use is that federal prison didn't get many drug-addict street criminals in it. It was mostly mid to higher level dealers who usually didn't use themselves or else white-collar fraudster types who didn't have anything to do with drugs. zVxTeflon posted:How'd that work out for you? Is there any reason in sticking together at that point or do you just say gently caress it Hell yeah there was a reason to stick together. We had our own table and our own little corner of the yard so nobody really hosed with us. There breakdown of that unite was 196 hispanic and 4 white. I felt really bad when a black guy showed up in our unit one day and immediately made his way to the only table that had a couple other black dudes sitting at it. He tried to introduce himself only to find out that they were Colombians who didn't speak a lick of English. We felt bad for him and let him hang with us instead of having him go it solo. Jeza posted:What were the circumstances surrounding your arrest? Why only conspiracy? How did you end up in a position where you decided to deal heroin? I had been a heroin addict for 4 or 5 years before my arrest. I had a large habit so not only did I have to work full time but I had to hustle on the side to keep the money coming in. I never sold heroin because I knew I would just do it all. What happened here was I was approached by a friend who dealt asking for a few ounces of heroin. I initially didn't want to but he kept bugging me so I said fine, whatever, gently caress it. I basically middlemanned a deal from my dealer to my friend who turned around and sold it to an undercover DEA agent. Of course he gets busted, rats everyone he knows out including me and my dealer. My dealer rats on me and his dealer and gets off with 2 years despite having been a gang member with 3 felonies and being charged with a 20 year mandatory minimum. My friend ended up getting 366 days instead of a 10 year mandatory minimum. I was the smallest fish in this whole case and I got the most time because I was never approached to cooperate so they stuck me with two 37 month sentences served concurrently- one for possession and one for conspiracy. I never knew how insanely broad and far-reaching federal conspiracy laws were until now. Even if you did not participate in the conspiracy you are liable for all the actions of the other members of it if you even knew anything about it and didn't report it to the police. That's how they get people to flip- hit the lowest guy who wasn't even doing very much, threaten him with a million years in jail for a conspiracy he barely participated in and get your bigger convictions. If they don't cooperate, oh well, gently caress em. I saw it over and over and over again.
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Jan 11, 2015 23:46
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In the other thread, the OP said that the federal prisoners were treated much better than state prisoners because the feds always had the ACLU and the like watching them and looking for violations of human rights. For instance, he gave the example of his friend who had a leg injury that the prison wouldn't treat and allowed to become a chronic problem, saying that if he'd been a federal prisoner he would have gotten medical care. Would you agree with his assessment?
Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 00:10
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Did you get books to read? If so what did you read? Also, was there Oz style rape?
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Jan 12, 2015 00:17
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Did you hear from other inmates what Federal Prisons were like in other states? Were transfers happy to be moved out to California?
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Jan 12, 2015 02:30
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You mentioned that the correction officers in the for profit prisons were barely trained. How did this show through? Did prisoners get the chance to take advantage of this? Did the COs ever just make up rules to get someone in trouble?
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Jan 12, 2015 02:35
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MoosetheMooche posted:How often did you witness inmate violence and how serious was it? Ie fights, murders, rape - daily weekly or what? I saw violence on a number of occasions but it wasn't as common as you would think. Maybe every other month? Always over stupid poo poo, too, like TVs or tobacco debts. The worst I saw was two Samoan guys get in a fight over the television. There was a big one and a little one; the big one threw the little one on the ground and kicked him in the forehead as hard as he could with steel-toed boots. His forehead just exploded with blood everywhere, I mean everywhere. There were like 50 guys in the TV room at the time and everyone started screaming "Oh gently caress he murdered Domingo!" The guy who got kicked was rushed to the ICU in Bakersfield and had his head stapled and two reconstructive surgeries on his face. He came back five weeks later and I swear to god his head was swollen up to the size of a pumpkin. Last I heard of the kicker was that he calmly turned himself into the guards, the FBI came and got him a few weeks later and he was charged with attempted murder. He was on year 14 of a 20 piece, too. No rapes- ever. I think if it had been found out that anyone was a rapist they would have very literally been beaten within an inch of their lives if not killed. Seriously that would not have been kosher at all. Kurtofan posted:First time I hear about halfway houses, did you share it with other inmates? Did you have television and stuff like that? If not, what did you do all day locked up in a house-arrest situation? God, the halfway house was degrading as hell. It was a big, old Victorian house in Oakland with like 70 people crammed in it. They tried to force you to get a job so that they could take 25% of your paycheck. I refused to get a job because I lived 100 miles away from Oakland and had culinary school and work lined up for when I got out. They didn't like that so they kept me locked in the house all day with nothing at all to do; we weren't even allowed to exercise. The times when I did get out were weird because I felt like everyone on the street was looking at me and knew I was technically still an inmate. It felt like I was out in the world but not part of the world if that makes any sense. If I could talk to my buddies inside I would absolutely tell them to turn their halfway house down. Sagebrush posted:In the other thread, the OP said that the federal prisoners were treated much better than state prisoners because the feds always had the ACLU and the like watching them and looking for violations of human rights. For instance, he gave the example of his friend who had a leg injury that the prison wouldn't treat and allowed to become a chronic problem, saying that if he'd been a federal prisoner he would have gotten medical care. Would you agree with his assessment? Yes, yes and yes. I think there are two reasons we were treated better in the Feds. The first is simple- the feds have way more money to throw around are much more willing to pay for certain things. The second, possibly more important reason, is because there are a ton of lawyers locked up in federal prison! Lots of guys have legal experience and know how to go through the channels to make sure we got the treatment we were legally required to get. One guy at my prison did not receive adequate screening and treatment from the medical staff and ended up contracting Valley Fever as a result. Well, fast forward a few years and he got a multimillion dollar settlement from the courts against the Bureau of Prisons. That kind of stuff keeps them in line. When I was in county we were treated like animals. You basically had to be dying to get medical treatment and don't even think about a luxury like mental health treatment. I saw a guy who was bipolar not get his meds for almost two weeks and have a serious manic episode as a result. Instead of dealing with him the appropriate way the cops pepper sprayed him, threw him to the ground, stripped him naked and put him in an anti-suicide jacket for four or five hours. Observing that incident alone gave me an absolute burning hatred of law enforcement officers. I know it is ultimately an institutional failing but still that's not an excuse. Beer_Suitcase posted:Did you get books to read? If so what did you read? My family sent me some books, there was a surprisingly decent library and you could purchase books from mail-order catalogs that some people received. I was an avid reader even before I went to prison so being able to catch up on my reading was one thing that I liked. I read anything and everything. Two books that really affected me while I was in were Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle and Hans Fallada's The Drinker. No rape.
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Jan 12, 2015 03:07
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Did you do any gaming?
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Jan 12, 2015 03:07
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the great deceiver posted:There was a big one and a little one; the big one threw the little one on the ground and kicked him in the forehead as hard as he could with steel-toed boots. Why was he allowed to wear steel-toed boots? Were there work details that required them? That seems like something potentially very dangerous -- beyond your example, the toe seems like it'd be a great source of high strength steel to sharpen into a knife.
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Jan 12, 2015 03:27
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how many years of supervised release did you get? are you worried about violating/the marshals?
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Jan 12, 2015 03:46
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I just found out that an old friend of mine has been locked up for the last eight years. Attempted murder. We didn't part on good terms. I feel kind of bad for the guy and I was planning on writing him and maybe sending him a book or something. Do inmates appreciate unsolicited mail like that from som eone they havent heard from in over a decade? I dont want to rub it in or anything.
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Jan 12, 2015 04:09
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the great deceiver posted:After serving 18 months there I was released to a halfway house in Oakland. That in some respects was the worst part of my incarceration due to the fact that you are so close yet so far from being in society. On this past Friday I was released home on a GPS monitor. It has been a long journey and I am just thankful that it is finally wrapping up.
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Jan 12, 2015 04:44
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How does the prison treat addicts? Like when you first begin treatment, are you kept away from other inmates?
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Jan 12, 2015 06:04
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Do you think you'll ever get to live a normal life again with a felony conviction on your record? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
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Jan 12, 2015 06:20
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Sagebrush posted:Why was he allowed to wear steel-toed boots? Were there work details that required them? That seems like something potentially very dangerous -- beyond your example, the toe seems like it'd be a great source of high strength steel to sharpen into a knife. I was just going to make this same post. In county jail we were given boots and jackets and cold-weather gear for when we worked outdoors but how in the hell did anyone get/keep steel-toed boots to stomp someone's head in? e: we had to lose the longjohns, carharts and boots for the really great uniforms and sandals and spread our butt-cheeks when we got back from pretty much stealing jobs from the municipality syscall girl fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 06:42
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Steel-toed boots are very rarely steel anymore. Generally a kevlar composite that is lighter and doesn't literally freeze your toes off in bad weather.
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Jan 12, 2015 09:48
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Liam Emsa posted:Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Aw man, even people with clean records hate that question. Will you keep in contact with anyone from prison?
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Jan 12, 2015 10:02
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the great deceiver posted:I had been a heroin addict for 4 or 5 years before my arrest. I had a large habit so not only did I have to work full time but I had to hustle on the side to keep the money coming in. I never sold heroin because I knew I would just do it all. What happened here was I was approached by a friend who dealt asking for a few ounces of heroin. I initially didn't want to but he kept bugging me so I said fine, whatever, gently caress it. I basically middlemanned a deal from my dealer to my friend who turned around and sold it to an undercover DEA agent. Of course he gets busted, rats everyone he knows out including me and my dealer. My dealer rats on me and his dealer and gets off with 2 years despite having been a gang member with 3 felonies and being charged with a 20 year mandatory minimum. My friend ended up getting 366 days instead of a 10 year mandatory minimum. I was the smallest fish in this whole case and I got the most time because I was never approached to cooperate so they stuck me with two 37 month sentences served concurrently- one for possession and one for conspiracy. Have you kicked your habit since? I imagine getting heroin wasn't really an option. Did you go through withdrawals?
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Jan 12, 2015 10:37
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the great deceiver posted:No rape. I was a little surprised to read that. Granted, my knowledge of the american prison system is limited to such ultrarealistic documentaries as Oz and Sons of Anarchy in which federal prisons are pretty much 24/7 rapelands of rape and if someone ain't doing rapings they're shanking / getting shanked. Why does television commonly paint that picture of american prisons if it's so far from the truth?
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Jan 12, 2015 12:52
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Fewd posted:I was a little surprised to read that. Granted, my knowledge of the american prison system is limited to such ultrarealistic documentaries as Oz and Sons of Anarchy in which federal prisons are pretty much 24/7 rapelands of rape and if someone ain't doing rapings they're shanking / getting shanked. Why does television commonly paint that picture of american prisons if it's so far from the truth? Probably because it sells time and time again. How many people did you share a cell with? How cool was your cellmate(s)?
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Jan 12, 2015 14:03
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Did anything positive come of your time in prison?
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Jan 12, 2015 15:34
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Like there aren't enough questions already: What stuff were or weren't you allowed that you didn't expect? Was there anything you really missed? And thanks for writing this, it's fascinating!
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Jan 12, 2015 16:12
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Fewd posted:Why does television commonly paint that picture of american prisons if it's so far from the truth?
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Jan 12, 2015 17:07
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Thanks for posting. It's great to get this kind of insight into the whole system. I really hope things work out for you after all this. What one thing really got to you the most about prison? I once spoke to a guy before who said the worst thing was that they gave you lukewarm/cold tea in steel mugs straight from the dishwasher that were so hot you could barely hold them. That is some sisyphean type poo poo. Here in Ireland a cuppa tea is pretty much an inalienable human right. It was not like getting raped or beaten. But he said that it really wore him down and was the one thing that really sapped his spirit more than anything. He said no tea would be better than drinking that.
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Jan 12, 2015 17:35
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Glad to hear no rape. That's always what prison themed media focuses on, so I'm pleasantly surprised to hear it's no longer accurate. That being said, did you observe any consensual relationships in prison? Related: having been in a few military situations where many dudes live together, how did you manage the jacking off situation? I imagine 550 cord and poncho jack shacks are out of the question, do you just have to knock that poo poo out under a blanket or something?
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Jan 12, 2015 18:38
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photomikey posted:Because hour long docu-dramas are much less exciting if it's 200 guys laying in bunks reading paperback novels, and nobody would watch that. Still oddish to me that the alternative to that is "welp lets put rape everywhere".
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Jan 12, 2015 19:10
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Fewd posted:Still oddish to me that the alternative to that is "welp lets put rape everywhere". Maybe just because no one tried anything else before. I haven't seen Orange is the New Black but it seems very popular and I don't think it depicts any rape.
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Jan 12, 2015 19:23
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How was the food? I did a little time in county in a past life and talking to some of the people that knew they were going to be going away to prison, they couldn't wait to get there. All of them said the conditions in general were better in prison, from food to work choices, entertainment, etc. Guys were staring at 20 to 25 years and were in a hurry to get to prison. That's how lovely county jail can be.
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Jan 12, 2015 19:28
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I was sentenced to two years in Federal Prison, ended up doing 16 months in a prison camp, 2 months at a halfway house, and 3 months on home detention. I never was behind a fence and my camp was like a small college campus that was a support camp that provided services to the much higher federal prison next door, almost identical to this description. the great deceiver posted:That place was a real no-poo poo prison with fences, barbed wire, armed guards patrolling the perimeter, no-warning-shots-fired sort of stuff. I hope you don't mind me jumping in on your thread.
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Jan 12, 2015 20:18
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skipdogg posted:How was the food? The food was actually good. Unlike a state or county were they have only $.80 a day to feed an inmate, the federal prison system has around $2.00 a day to feed an inmate.. That extra dollar makes a huge difference in the quality of the good. My camp even had a salad bar which had a basic salad, hot beans, and hot rice. Though at times the food quality could go down due to the inmates working in the kitchen stealing all the meat and eggs. This became such an issue once that a few old school inmates went to the kitchen and reminded the kitchen staff that they know they will take some food, but they are not going to take it ALL and make everyone at the camp miserable. The food quality went up after that. clubfedgoon fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 20:25
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Sorry it takes me a little while to respond, even though I am stuck at home on a GPS monitor I still have all sorts of things I have to do to get things going again. I had to make a 200 mile round trip this morning to do a 30 second in person check-in at my halfway house. I have nothing to do this afternoon so I'll work on some of the questions.WYA posted:Did you do any gaming? Do you mean gambling? Yes, that was my only vice in prison. No drugs, no smokes, no booze. I played poker in county but after one game almost ended up in a big fight. There was a language barrier between me and the other guy at the table- he lost all his money and wanted to run it back on one more hand. If he won he would have broke even and if he lost he would have owed me double. Well, he won and for some reason he expected me to pay him double. I asked him through a translator if he understood the rules and told him that I wasn't going to pay him anything. He got mad and this almost escalated into a Mexican on White riot. That was the last time I played poker in jail. I gambled on sports regularly in prison. In fact, since I was the head baker in the kitchen I got the main bookie on the yard a job as my #2 so he repaid me by letting me run all his tickets for him. I brought in a few hundred a week from that plus I didn't have to pay a vig. One of the things about sports betting in prison- a push is a loss, no matter who you play with. I've seen many guys flip out and refuse to pay and almost come to blows after losing on a tie. Everyone knows the rules, nobody complains until they lose though. fivethree posted:how many years of supervised release did you get? are you worried about violating/the marshals? I got three years of paperwork. My PO said he will let me off in one if I behave. Am I worried about violating? Yes. Do I think I will violate? No. Am I worried about the marshals? The US Marshals can suck my dick. "The Dregs posted:I just found out that an old friend of mine has been locked up for the last eight years. Attempted murder. We didn't part on good terms. I feel kind of bad for the guy and I was planning on writing him and maybe sending him a book or something. Do inmates appreciate unsolicited mail like that from som eone they havent heard from in over a decade? I dont want to rub it in or anything. Absolutely! The most meaningful letters I received in prison were from people I hadn't heard from in years. I guarantee that if you send him one it will make his month. photomikey posted:What happens to people with no "home" to go to? Or when home is the same crime ridden drug infested shithole that got you sent up the river in the first place? I saw this happen once. Your probation officer has to inspect and sign off on your release address. If they don't approve a lot of times you will become what they call "public law" and they will tell you that you have to stay in the halfway house until they can find you suitable transitional living. I don't really know what happens if you say gently caress that and bounce, I imagine it might be considered a violation.
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Jan 12, 2015 21:14
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How did the government prove that you middled the dope from your dealer to your (ex) friend? China or tar? I'm curious because I have a friend up on charges right now. Nice thread, btw. Good luck keeping your veins clean.
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Jan 12, 2015 21:26
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EugeneJ posted:How does the prison treat addicts? Like when you first begin treatment, are you kept away from other inmates? There's not really such a thing as treatment in the federal prison system. If you had a drug or alcohol problem you could qualify for the nine month Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) which took up to a year off your sentence. I qualified but I turned it down because it would have only taken 4 months off my sentence plus I heard it was an absolute nightmare. Very little in the way of actual drug treatment. Mostly it was filled with guys who really didn't have any major substance abuse problems working the system to try and get out early. If you are in that program you are separated from general pop inmates but my prison did not have an RDAP program. Otherwise, nope everyone is all mixed together. My first time in county I had to kick heroin cold turkey on a plastic bed with no detox meds or anything. Liam Emsa posted:Do you think you'll ever get to live a normal life again with a felony conviction on your record? Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Man I haven't lived a normal life for the past decade. Because I have federal felonies those cannot be expunged unless you get a presidential pardon. Hopefully President Rand Paul is feeling generous in 9 years. Seriously I think I will be alright. I am attending culinary school and already have a BA and plenty of work experience. I have a job offer on the table after I finish this semester at school. I might have more trouble getting a loan, mortgage etc but I think I will be alright. More so than working I am concerned with how to explain my prison term to a girl when I start dating again. Redkist posted:Will you keep in contact with anyone from prison? Yes, there are a few people. You become very close to your friends in prison due to sharing the really hosed-up circumstances together. Obviously I'm not going to stay in touch with guys who want to know if I'd like to go pick up an old Honda Accord in Tijuana and drive it to LA for $1,000. Splode posted:Have you kicked your habit since? I imagine getting heroin wasn't really an option. Did you go through withdrawals? I haven't used heroin since early 2012. It is actually very prevalent in jail and prison. I had it offered to me a dozen times. In fact, of those times three of them ended up with me holding the dope in my hand, thinking about it and giving it back. Will I go back to using heroin or opiates? Not while I'm on probation. Afterwards it is possible but probably not. I was never a stone-cold addict like a lot of guys I know; I never had a problem putting the drugs down. I was more addicted to the easy hustle of selling drugs. That is something I cannot and will not go back to.
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Jan 12, 2015 22:47
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the great deceiver posted:Man I haven't lived a normal life for the past decade. Because I have federal felonies those cannot be expunged unless you get a presidential pardon. Hopefully President Rand Paul is feeling generous in 9 years. You won't have any trouble from a financial standpoint, no one runs your criminal for a loan. The pain points of being a convicted felon usually are 1: Can't pass a background check for a job, which limits your career opportunities 2: Can't rent an apartment anywhere that checks your background. #2 is a real bitch as most complexes run a credit/background check on their applicants. Your going to have to find a place where felons are allowed (tough, and usually in places you don't want to live), or find a non corporate type living situation.
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Jan 12, 2015 23:24
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skipdogg posted:he pain points of being a convicted felon usually are That's not exactly true for federal felonies.. A little secret most people don't know is people with federal felonies can pass 98% of backgrounds checks. How is this possible? most criminal backgrounds checks only run at the state criminal courts level, for a federal felony to show up you need to run a federal level search. 98% of places don't do the federal search because the cost to perform a search is 4x-5x times more expensive then regular search. For special security clearance positions, or positions working with children, most companies run an actual FBI background report, and that's the one place where my conviction will show up. I have passed every background check I have been handed, I passed my employment background check and my apartment background check. clubfedgoon fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 23:54
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