Setting the Record Straight

My editor sent me some comments from another website in reference to my blog. One commenter stated that since I don’t talk about s.o.’s getting beat up in prison, then it all must be a myth. Of course the feds would keep people like ME away from those that would do me harm, right?

WRONG.

Although I’m relatively safe now in a prison crammed full of sex offenders, I couldn’t say the same thing while I was in Texas. There, s.o.’s were constantly harassed and persecuted. If you were to walk the compound at any given time, you were almost sure to overhear inmates saying chomo this and chomo that, as if they had nothing else to talk about. Which they probably didn’t.

So was there violence? Yes, it happened. In Texas, inmates took to assaulting s.o.’s in the shower.

The shower stalls in Texas were rooms about the size of a small walk-in closet, complete with view-obscuring shower curtains. (There are no shower curtains here; all we have are doors just long enough to hide your nether regions.) In other words, the showers in Texas were the perfect place to get ambushed.

The attackers would wait until you disrobed and got comfortable. Then they would charge in and beat you until you were bloody and unconscious. The cops found one guy beaten half to death in the showers after they conducted the 4:00 pm daily count and came up with one man missing. The inmate was rushed to the hospital, and he was placed in protective custody when he was hale enough to return. (I met him during my stay in the hole.)

Remember Shaggy, the guy that tried to explain his situation to the gremlins and got no mercy? He was assaulted after his cover story was blown. Shaggy was doing some legal work in the library one day, and he made copies of some paperwork which stated his specific offense. When he returned to the cell with the photocopies, he made the mistake of placing them on top of his locker. Shaggy had to leave his cell for some reason, and when he returned, his papers were GONE.

Oh, don’t worry, he eventually got them back. Two days later, Shaggy found the papers attached to a public bulletin board, displayed for all the world to see. And they had. Shaggy was ruined.

Once while doing laundry, a gremlin snatched one of Shaggy’s shirts out of the dryer while Shaggy wasn’t looking. The gremlin scrawled “I am a chomo” on it in permanent black marker. When he later discovered the ruined shirt, Shaggy got ballsy and found a permanent black marker of his own. He corrupted the derogatory phrase into “I am a champ.” And he actually wore the shirt! As you can imagine, the gremlins weren’t pleased.

One of the gremlins sucker-punched Shaggy in the hallway a few days later, to which Shaggy just replied, “So, how are you today?” The gremlin followed with a roundhouse kick to the ribs. (Shaggy may be a fool, but he’s a brave one.) Shaggy stood his ground, but did not return the gremlin’s attacks. Eventually, the gremlin got confused as to why Shaggy wasn’t fighting, so the gremlin left. Due to the code of silence in prison, no one snitched about the assault, so nothing was ever done about it.

Sometime later, Shaggy was checked into protective custody. I can’t remember exactly, but I think the cops overheard the gremlins talking about Shaggy being next in line for the “shower patrol.” I’m not 100% sure about that, but I do remember him telling me that the cops checked him into the hole, instead of him checking himself in.

The only reason that I didn’t get a beating in Texas is due to a few good people who tipped me off and told me that I was in danger. I checked (and re-checked) myself into the hole and avoided an unsavory fate.

I’ll give you one last story. I’ve recently met an s.o. who was originally designated to Leavenworth. He knew it was a rough place before he got there, and he knew that he wouldn’t be allowed to walk the compound. Once he arrived, however, the cops ignored his pleas for protection and told him that he’d be perfectly safe.

It was a setup. The guy had been on the compound for less than a day when he was assaulted by five inmates in his cell. He awoke to find himself in the hospital. Thankfully, he’s here with me now, so he’s safe. Mostly.

Yes, s.o.’s DO get the crap beaten out of them in prison. So gremlins, rejoice.

I see some hypocrisy in this, as some of the gangsters are s.o.’s themselves, but they won’t acknowledge it. Some of these moral crusading dope dealers are proud of telling stories of exchanging drugs for sexual favors from a minor, but they will admit no wrongdoing. They were “just playin’ da game,” or so they say. I’m not saying they’re all like that, but there’s enough of them to make it worthy of discussion. What’s worse is that this is widely accepted in prison culture, yet people like ME can’t catch a break. That has all changed now since I’m in a prison whose population is at least half s.o.’s, but I still get the shivers whenever I think back to my incarceration in Texas.

Wanna see some more hypocrisy? Tune in next time. We’re just getting started.

[EDITOR’S NOTE:  You can read the first post about Shaggy HERE:  http://joetheso.blogspot.com/2010/06/shaggy.html  ]