Louis Theroux s01e07 Episode Script
Behind Bars
OK, let's say this.
Maybe some of the things that thrill you won't thrill me.
The things that thrill your cameraman won't thrill you OR thrill me.
See what I'm saying? Just like the things that thrill me, obviously, don't and won't thrill you guys.
But maybe the things that thrill me aren't going to get me 500 years in prison.
That's the thing right there.
Do I go through? Absolutely.
Thank you.
Just outside San Francisco stands one of America's oldest and most notorious prisons, San Quentin.
It's famous for its Death Row, but its main purpose is to house a transient population of nearly 3,000 murderers, sexual predators and small-time criminals.
Here they inhabit a strange world within a world, with its own rules and its own brutal code of honour.
And for two weeks, I've been allowed inside.
You want me to show you how to put the vest on? - Yes, please.
- And the reason why we have the vest? Yes, please, how do you put it on? The correct way is, you want to do it like this, unfasten the Velcro.
You slip it over your head and make sure it goes up high enough to cover the heart area and your major organs right there, the kidney and liver and stuff like that.
That's right.
And what is the necessity of wearing one of these? cos these guys have a tendency to either spear you or dart you, and this will protect your major organs right here.
I was with Officer Jamie Olejos in Could Section, also known as The Hole.
The inmates here are segregated from the rest of the prison and are locked down for 23 hours a day, many of them because they attacked other inmates or guards.
- What's he doing with that? - He's fishing, passing notes back and forth.
Look how far it goes.
Oh, that's nothing.
I've seen guys go eight, nine cells.
- Is that allowed? - No.
How come he's doing it in front of you, then? cos you guys are here.
You see, they also They've got little eyes they stick out, - a little piece of a mirror.
- Is that like a periscope? Yeah, I can sit down and cheer when the cops come.
What are you in for? Assault with a deadly weapon.
- Really? - Yeah.
- How long? - 15 years.
- And why are you segregated? - Why? I'm a dangerous threat to the safety and security of the institution.
That's all show.
Yeah! They're gonna make all kinds of noise.
That's a milk carton right there.
Do you actually quite like dealing with them? - Yes, I do.
- Why? Because most of the stuff that they say is amusing.
It makes you laugh.
What are the, um the labels hanging down? That's the fish lines, they got stuck up there.
And they just stay up there? Yeah.
Olejos had mentioned an inmate known as Playboy Nolan who was in Could for spraying unpleasant substances at the guards, a practice they call gassing.
- He gassed someone the other day.
- The other day? - Yeah, Nolan did.
- I gassed somebody? - Last week.
- Oh, yeah.
Remember when the guy came down and spit at you? Come on, this way.
So what was your original commitment? Well, now, we were car-jacking.
- car-jacking? - Yeah, car-jacking.
And, umyou, er you got how long for that? - I got three years for that.
- You used a weapon? Did I use a weapon? Yeah, they said I had a weapon during the commitment of the crime.
And they call you, umthey call you Playboy Nolan, is that right? Yeah, they know me as Playboy.
That's what he told you, huh? - Yeah, that's what they know me by.
- How come? It's just a name that's been going around for years.
So you assaulted COs, that's correctional Officers? - Yeah.
- With what? Any kind of liquid substance you could put together.
- Like urine.
- Yeah, any kind of liquid substance.
Urine? Any kind of liquid, it's just the easiest, cos sometimes - Faeces? - He said faeces? - Poo-poo.
- Oh, faeces.
Nah, nah, I ain't going that far.
No, but sometimes Urine? - Yeah, but sometimes - Your own? Yeah, it's not nobody else's! Yeah, but sometimes I've been in predicaments where I had nothing in my cell, and the only way to get my point across was come up with some kind of combination, you know.
Did you actually gas an officer? - Yeah, I gassed them.
- Which one? Which one? A lot of them! About five or six, huh? About five or six officers I gassed.
- Would you ever gas me? - No, I never gassed you.
- Would you ever, though? - Nah.
Why wouldn't you gas Olejos? I've known him for a long time, so You seem almost a little proud that he wouldn't do that to you.
No, I've known Playboy sinceseven years now.
Since he was about 17 years old.
I've seen him at his freaking worst, I mean unbelievable.
Worst, worst, I He just wanted me to open his frigging head, just shut him up, I mean, just for no reason.
And now I sense you have a pretty good rapport.
- Oh, we always had.
- Really? Yeah.
Oh, yeah, this is calm for me right here, just Oh, this is night and day, this guy was straight up like an idiot.
He was one of the worst ones.
Why don't you just, um? So do you feel bad about all the things you did? Do I feel? Well, in a sense I could have went about it a better way, right? But at the timethat was my only way to get my point across.
- can we see inside your cell? - Yeah.
So you haven't got much stuff in here.
I mean, I keep it simple, man.
It looks like nothing's in there, because it's simple.
You know, keep the basics there.
- can I touch your stuff? - Yeah, go ahead.
- You've got some coffee here.
- Yeah, that's coffee right there.
And you've got a lot of ramen noodles over here.
Yeah.
And then Why so many noodles? You've got, like, about 20 packs of noodles back there.
20 packs, because the food here is not Over the years it's really changed a lot.
They used to have a lot more flavourings.
The food's not so good? Thank you very much.
Oh, I can't shake your hand.
Hey, it's a joke! Out in the general population of the prison, inmates get yard time for just a couple of hours, twice a week.
Other than showers and mealtimes, these are their only moments outside their cells, a chance to socialise and make allies.
Escorted for my own safety by Lieutenant Eric Messick, I was in West Block yard, where most of the inmates are doing time for parole violations.
Tell me what you're doing over here, you're just relaxing? - We're the white guys.
- The white gang? Yeah.
Would you be part of a, er? Are you part of a skinhead gang? - What is it? - The Woods.
What does it say? - BBH.
Barbarian Brotherhood.
- Barbarian Brotherhood? Do all the different races have different areas? Yeah, that's the black area over there, the Norteno area over there.
White area over here, Indians over there.
- We keep it segregated.
- How come? Because we don't wanna programme with thempretty much.
- Keep a clear line.
- Yeah, white power, you know? I ain't programming with them.
707228.
I mean, in the outside world people tend to rub along, you know, different races get along more or less, and so how come inside it doesn't work like that? It's for no confusion, so we don't get confused between races and stuff.
We stay away from them and they stay away from us.
It don't mean we're racist, we just don't want to live with them.
Is there someone here who's in charge? - No-one's gonna say that.
- No-one would say that? Why wouldn't anyone say that? Then they'll high-profile us and then put us in The Hole.
If they think someone's in charge they're gonna slam you down and give you internment.
So someone here might be in charge, but you wouldn't say? No, can't say stuff like that.
Are most of you here on violations? Almost at least 50% of us are cos of meth, - at least the white guys.
- Robbing a pharmacy.
- Robbing a pharmacy? - Robbery.
Really? - Yeah.
- How many? - 31 counts.
- Really? - Yeah.
- How long did they give you? I'm on a 90-day observation, I'm still not sentenced yet.
So how long do they? With 31 counts, how long could they give you? Er, 38 years.
You look quite young.
How old are you? 19.
Yeah.
We're all pretty young.
How did you hook up with these guys? cos he's white, we take care of our own.
He looks kind of new, you know, did you spot him and think, "We'll look out for him"? Yeah, we work in the kitchen together.
We try to take care of everybody.
Yeah, we work in the kitchen together, too.
For new arrivals at the prison, their first port of call is Receiving and Release.
San Quentin is a clearing house for prisoners from all over Northern California, who either serve short stretches here or are assessed and sent on to other prisons.
Most have been in and out of institutions their whole lives, bouncing back on parole violations or serving longer stretches on serious crimes.
Would it be OK to ask why you're in here? - Drugs.
- What kind of drugs? Methamphetamine.
What was your original conviction for? Assault on an undercover officer.
What is something that you do on the side? Well, I mean, that was just something that I did on the side, stealing cars, you know.
Yeah, it's kind of like a hobby, you know.
Not really something that I should be doing, but kind of like a hobby.
What is it that makes you, kind of, keep coming back? It's too easy to do the time.
There's nothing there to give you any kind of incentive to do the right thing.
You mean it's too easy to do the time like it'sin what way? I don't know.
To me, it's worth taking the risks to live the way I want to live.
I was on my way to meet a new arrival in Badger Section.
This is where inmates are sent if they're considered especially dangerous on account of the seriousness of their crimes.
The senior officer in Badger was John Gladson.
- How do you do? - Hey, how are you doing? - Nice to meet you.
- Good.
And who's down here on this floor? This is the Level 4, so these are the real bad guys.
When you say Level 4s, you're talking about These are the guys who are the most dangerous.
They're Level 4s because they have done something very serious or attacked another inmate or a guard? Yeah, that's how they get their Level 4.
Murder, rape, rob you know, robbery, extorting stuff from other inmates.
That's how they get up to be Level 4.
Are these guys Level 4 up and down here now? Yeah, everybody out that you see is a Level 4 and considered extremely dangerous.
How are you doing? Are you Anthony? - Yeah.
- How do you do? - Who are you? - We're from the BBc.
We were just going to chat to you because we've heard that you'd just got here on Friday maybe, and this is your first time ever in prison, is that right? Yeah.
And we wanted to see how you were getting on, basically.
Oh, it's cool, it's like a playground here, man, it ain't nothing, man.
Ain't nothing scary about this.
And how did you wind up here? Eryou know, with the trial, you got life.
What did you get it for? - What for? Oh, murder.
- How did it come about? They said I killed my best friend, man, sothat's how it came about.
Really Maybe it's a silly question, but did you do it? - Oh, no, man.
- What happened, then? You know, somebody set him up and just put my name in it.
Really? And your sentence is for how long? - Oh, 50 years to life.
- 15 to life? - 50 to life.
- 50, 5-0? - Yeah.
- Wow That's a long time.
Yeah, you know Gotta do it.
And then Officer, if you? I mean What's that? This gentleman's just told me that.
.
he has 50 to life, 5-0 to life.
I mean, would you have any advice for him? Yes, don't be tipping up gangbanging, but Try and do your own time, don't do somebody else's time.
And you know what, 50 to life can be dropped, you know? - That's a little steep.
- What does that mean when you say, "Do your own time, not somebody else's"? OK, well, what happens is the gangbangers try to get the fellas to, uh the young guys to do their bidding for them, stab people or or, you know, extort money from people, things like that.
So that way it keeps a guy like him, a youngster, in trouble all the time, so if he ever does go before a Parole Board, they would look at it and say, "Hey, you know what? You was in trouble all the time.
" Given this is your first time in prison, you're facing a long stretch, you don't seem too intimidated by the whole experience.
Nah, it ain't intimidating.
No.
You said it was like a playground.
Yeah, it's like a playground, man, it ain't intimidating, know what I'm saying? You can't let nobody punk you, man, you know what I'm saying? I ain't the one, I weren't the one on the streets, - and I ain't gonna be the one here.
- Meaning? Meaning that you can't make me do what I don't want to do.
And I ain't scared of nobodyperiod.
So that's it.
You know, if I was in your shoes, if I was in your shoes, 21 years old in here, here in San Quentin, in what's probably the most intimidating part of it, in the Badger Section, I would find that intimidating.
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, we're two different people, you know? The type of life I grew up around is way worse than this, you know what I'm saying? I've got to wake up hearing gunshots and people getting killed on the streets, - this is nothing, you know? - Is this pretty normal? This ain't nothing here, man.
Is that pretty normal, Officer, for a new inmate, even if he's new to the whole experience, that he wouldn't even be fazed by any of it? No, most new guys are fazed by it, and they're overwhelmed, a lot of them, with what's going on, but Anthony here better not show any signs of being overwhelmed, because he's with theyou know, he's with the real criminals, and so he has to keep up a good front, and that - He can't show weakness.
- Why? Weakness is, uhthey got people that prey on weakness.
And how would they prey on it? You know what? This is prison, they got all different types of things.
They'll take their canteen, you know, the stuff that they buy from the store, things like that.
If you show any weakness, that stuff's gone.
Even sometimes your manhood, you know, so You know, he's doing the right thing, he's staying strong and not showing any weakness.
That's what he has to do in order to survive.
And just to be clear, your contention is that you didn't do anything wrong, - you were wrongfully convicted? - Of course.
Yeah, of course, man.
I didn't do nothing, anything.
I'll take you back.
Breakfast time at San Quentin is a carefully regimented operation where more than 2,000 inmates are fed in a series of 20-minute sittings, and given brown-bag lunches to eat later in their cells.
I was going to be eating with two of the members of the Barbarian Brotherhood who I'd met in yard.
I was hoping to learn more about the way the gangs work inside prison and looking forward to my first taste of prison food.
What IS this? It looks like potato shit.
- Potatoes, and what's this? - It's supposed to be like gravy.
Gravy.
Do you see the politics of the place right now? Well, it's all blacks at one table, all whites at one table.
Everybody keeps an eye out and watches.
They all watch in case they see anybody taking trays or food off other people's trays.
You've got to watch for that shit.
If you were black and you offered me some of that food, I couldn't take it.
Really? Why? It's just part of the rules, man.
Prison rules? If you did, you'd get beat up.
Who would beat you up? Me.
This guy.
- You would really do that? - Yeah.
- We've got to get you.
- You do? We'd tell you not to do it first, and then we get you.
How? Probably just mob you, like, two or three dudes will just attack you.
Three dudes would come up and attack me? And do what, pummel me? - Yeah.
- How bad? Till the cops stop 'em.
You really mean You really mean it? Yeah.
Why would you do that? Tell him, Nick.
It's just how it is.
Hungry, man! It was hard to believe they could be so brutal about something so trivial, but I wondered if these strange codes of conduct were a way of creating gang loyalty and camaraderie in surroundings designed to keep inmates apart.
So what's the plan now, you go back to your cell? - Yeah, for the rest of the day.
- For the rest of the day? And that's it? See you later, guys.
A little later Eric was taking me back to West Block.
The prisoners were now locked down in their cells for the rest of the day.
You're up there on the, erit's called the gun rail, is that right? - Gun rail.
- What have you got in your gun? - Regular bullets? - Yeah, .
223 rounds.
.
223 rounds? Yeah, they have a ballistic tip on them so that if I do fire, they don't ricochet off the cement.
They're a non-ricocheting bullet.
If someone managed to jump from here down to there, would you be authorised to shoot at them at that point? Yes.
And that would be shoot to disable or shoot to kill? No, shoot to disable, shoot to stop the threat.
I was in West Block to meet an inmate who was due to be released.
His name was Bradley Walridge.
How are we doing? But he preferred to be called Debra.
- My name's Louis, I'm from the BBc.
- Hi.
- You're getting out on Friday? - Yes.
How do you feel about that? Um I'm excited about it.
So do you consider yourself a-a wo? - A transgender woman.
- Transgender woman.
And so tell me a little bit about how you ended up here.
OK, well, I guess, um I've been doing this for almost 20 years.
What? - coming to prison.
- In and out? - Yes.
- What were your convictions for? For robbery and a stolen car, being with guys that were criminals and going along with them.
- And how long were you in this time? - Three months.
- Three months? How's it been? - It's been OK.
Aside from always having to worry about getting moved.
- Is there someone in there now? - Uh-huh.
- Who? - My partner.
- How did you find each other? - They just moved him in the cell, and one thing led to another.
- Hello.
How are you doing? - I'm great.
And what's your name, if I may ask? - My name is Robert.
- May I open it? Yeah, let me put my shoes on.
- How are you doing? - Good.
What's your story? Why are you in here? Well, right now I'm going I have to go back to the county to get my sentence, and I think I'm going to end up getting three years.
- For? - Um automobile theft, uhassault on an officer, drivingwhile intoxicated, uh hit-and-run with injuries, so on and so on and so on.
So how do you feel about Debra leaving on Friday? - I'm happy for her.
- Really? Yeah, absolutely.
She could do better on the streets than she could in here.
What is it that works about the relationship? I don't know, it just does.
She's real special, you know what I'm saying? Shut the fuck up! Do you think this relationship could survive outside here? - Oh, it will.
- Yours? It will, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That's interesting, cos I know in a lot of times something like this could be circumyou know, situational.
Yeah, circumstantial and situation, the circumstances wereyeah.
Forced together, making do? Yeah, just making whatever, but I don't know.
There's a lot of, uh There's a lot of people thatthey try to separate us, you know what I'm saying? Like today, they tried to separate us, you know? People are jealous of us, you know what I'm saying? People really hate on us.
- People in here can be close-minded? - Absolutely.
- Do they judge you? - Yeah, of course they do.
Of course people judge me, you know? But that's not always it, they usually try and Somebody wants to get one of the girls in their cell, or whatever.
Right.
What it is is, you know, these guys are like - They're starved for companionship.
- Yeah.
You said one of the guys would want to get one of the trans in his cell.
For what? For what?! Hello! For relationships.
Mainly, it's a lust, you know what I'm saying? They lust That's true, though, isn't it? They get to have a relationship, to have a little house and go to work every day and come home every day and You know? You said, Rob, that you'd like to continue the relationship on the outside.
- Do you feel the same way? - Yes.
- Do you? - Hmm.
Absolutely.
I'm almost 40 years old.
He's barely 30.
Right, that's what I mean.
So why not? No, he's a lot better than that, it's a lot more than just that.
I actually like this guy.
- Thanks, guys.
- All right.
can you tell us what's going on? can you say what's going on? WellI knew it didn't look good in here so But, no, I don't know yet.
What have we got? What's there? What's there? Sure? What do you think is going on? I'd just be guessing right now, so It must have been a false alarm, actually.
You know what? That's the first time I've seen you look a little bit worried.
Well, that's because I didn't like the way it looked in here, the moment we walked in here.
They're down to I think there's only about three or four officers in the whole unit right now.
If there was like a mini riot in here, they would lock this building and we'd be in here.
That's correct.
We would have been locked in there for a while.
And would I be deputised at that point? I would have to do everything to try to get us out of here safely.
I was a few days into my stay at San Quentin, and so far what had struck me was how, in spite of the harsh realities of prison life, the inmates could still form relationships as comrades and lovers.
And I even sensed a kind of warmth between them and the guards.
I was also surprised how open they were with me.
They seemed almost grateful that someone from the outside was taking an interest in their lives.
- How are you doing? - Good! I was back in Could Section, this time to meet an inmate who stood out even among these hardened criminals for the brutality of his crimes.
OK? His name was David Silver.
I understand you're serving quite a long stretch here? Oh, yeah, very, very long.
I would say, uhprobably enough for all of us.
What's your stretch? What are you serving? Um First I've got to do 521 years and then 11 life sentences.
How come, um How come so much? cos I was on a a brutal home-invasionseries type of thing, multiple home invasions.
Brutal in what way? Well, I got convicted for 12 home invasions, home invasion robbery, uh.
.
multiple victims, uhbrutally hurt, uh shot, uh damn almost drowned, uh Just a lot of torture tactics.
Why were you doing torture tactics? That's, uh Well, of course in a home-invasion robbery you're there to rob, and, umif you don't feel they're giving up the information you need, you've got to pretty much torture someone to get the information you want out of them.
Were you getting money for drugs? No, I don't do drugs, I don't do none of that.
It's just, uhto live aI don't know, a better life, in a sense.
To have more better things instead of Look at me - not too many people are gonna hire me to work for them, you know, so sometimes I have no other choice but to resort to crime, you know? Unless I want to slave in a field somewhere, but I'm not gonna do that.
Were there any fatalities involved, did you actually kill anyone? No, nobody died, but some peopleprobably were at points where they wish they would have died.
It's pretty serious.
A lot of them, there's a shoot-out with the police at the end, uh you know, people were pretty shaken up.
Some things werewill never be forgotten, you know.
I guessthere was victims where they had their heads held under hot tubs for timesat a time Umsome were saying they were sexually assaulted with a pistol.
How old were you when you were convicted of this latest round of different crimes? - This, 29.
29? So you're about 33 now? - Yeah.
And so had it become kind of a career for you at that point? - Well, yeah, I went to YA at age 11.
- What's that? Oh, California Youth Authority.
Stayed there till I was 20, soyou know, that's, that's time.
Thenyou know, I went to prison at 22, you know.
I've been doing It's pretty much all I'm used to, unfortunately, er It's just now, I guess, I don't worry about getting out no more, I've just sort of made my bed andlive on through.
Boy, look how packed it is.
We've got a lot of guys out here today.
I was back with Officer Gladson.
It was yard again, this time for Alpine Section, a block that houses inmates who are segregated from the rest of the prison for their own protection.
can we get in there? You know what, I'm not sure if they'd let us in there or not.
Really? Yeah.
cos, er Usually it's so confined, there's too many people.
I'll ask, er Do you mind if I ask Eric? I'll ask Eric.
OK, all right.
Yeah, Louis, we're gonna go out there.
We'll keep it light, though.
Sound and camera and Louis and you.
This is the handball court here, Louis.
So who are the guys in here? Officer Gladson, these guys are What kind of characters are they? These guys are mostly gang dropouts.
Yeah.
Er, some sex crimes, you know, with children.
But And there's some guys told on other people in court.
But mostly it's gang dropouts.
We talked to this guy before.
can we go and meet this guy? Yeah.
- How you doing? - Yeah, pretty good.
Could you explain your tattoos to them? This one? Yeah.
It says skinhead.
In what language? It's They're Germanic runes.
- But you're dropped out of all that now? - Yeah.
How come you dropped out? Er, because something happened, I'm moving forward, something happened where they wanted me to stab my celly and I only had 59 days left, just because he borrowed a black guy's dominoes.
- That's why they wanted you to stab him? - Yeah.
Because he borrowed a black guy's dominoes? Yeah.
Why didn't you do it? - What? - Why didn't you do it? Because my mother was getting ready to pass away.
- And you wanted to get out? - I wanted to get out.
I only had 59 days left.
That seems so absurd, the idea that you would have to stab someone for borrowing a black guy's dominoes.
Doesn't it seem ridiculous to you? Yeah, it does, it does for something so minor.
But now, now it's like my eyes are open to it, so Do you see these guys as people just like you who, who have made different choices, or is it like a different class of people? Yeah, I could have made, there was a There were, like, 100 times I could have made the wrong choice and ended up at the wrong place, when I was growing up.
I could have ended up like my brothers.
- Why didn't you? - You know what, I was actually I wanted to I didn't want to hurt my mom's feelings.
Do you make any friendships with the guys? Oh, I get to know them real well.
I don't You don't We've got to keep a hands-off approach with these guys, as far as you can't really become friends, but you get to know a guy over years.
You get, you get friendly with him.
But this is probably a religious programme going on here.
Guys will have their own religious programmes.
That's what's going on.
- So, what were you doing just now? - We just had a Bible study on What was it on? It was on, er.
.
Being true to yourself.
- Being true.
- Being true to True to yourself, being true to Jesus, letting us know that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour.
What was your original conviction? Allowing a demon to take over my life.
In what way? To, ertorment me through dreams and visions and, and physical assaults, by opening the door to Satan, to demonic forces.
- What was your conviction? - I'm not going to say.
- You're not going to say? - No.
For what reason? Why won't you say? Because it's not important.
Whoever opens the door to a demon, whether it's by drugs Oh, we've got to get down.
OK, get down, get down.
OK, let's go over here.
You guys go ahead and walk in front.
Get the fuck out of our yard! Don't come back! What was the? We've got shots fired on the East Block yard.
Shots fired on the East Block yard.
That's quite a big thing, isn't it? Oh, yeah, that's a gigantic thing.
So what do we do? - Huh? - What shall we do? Er, we can't go there, so it's death row.
- So, you guys, we've got a shooting - Shots fired? Well, we have the guns.
So we have a shooting on the East Block yard right now.
Probably some type of serious assault, one inmate on another, and the armed gunmen have had to discharge their weapon to stop the incident.
What was weird was when we were out there and we were coming back The atmosphere had been quite friendly, and then the atmosphere went a bit ugly.
- Did you feel that? - Yeah, when the alarm went off.
We started getting heckled and people were saying, "Get out of our yard" - It's because of the area we were in.
- Why? Er, costhe area over there, those guys have Some of them have crimes that they don't want people to know who they are or where they're at.
- child molesters? - Yeah, you could say that.
Hey! Release the hounds.
All right.
It was dinnertime at San Quentin.
I'd arranged to eat with a couple of inmates from Alpine Section - a gay man called Chris Mitz and a transsexual named Didi.
Since meeting Debra and her partner Rob, I'd been curious about the romantic relationships between prisoners.
- Are you wearing a little bit of make-up? - Huh? - Some mascara? - Yeah.
How come? Honestly? On the streets, I'm just, really just a gay boy.
I don't really act or dress feminine, but I've learned that in prison, for homosexuals, instead of being the masculine gay male, having the feminine side, although it does seek bring a lot of unnecessary attention on myself and a lot of it negative, I think it makes it a little bit more easier than to be openly gay.
The more womanly you become, the more respect you get? Not necessarily respected, I just think Instead of being, like, someone wanting to beat you up or hurt you, they're like, "Oh, that's a girl, "I ain't gonna" Excuse my language, "fuck with her," or stuff like that.
You know, it's an image, it's not reality, you know.
I'm not really a girl, but in a sense when I portray myself that way, it makes things go a little bit more smoother.
How are you feeling, Didi? Well, as far as I'm concerned about it, she's right because you cause more negative attention on yourself when you try to hide being a homosexual, and they find out that you're a homosexual.
Later on.
I don't know, I guess it's a psychological thing when they feel that you're playing a game and Like, we don't have to show them or nothing, but that's just the way prison life is.
People that are feminine and use make-up, like we essentially do, attracts a lot of attention from inmates seeing that female affection, we have that female aura, and they seek that and want that.
- Have you found anyone? - Er, yeah, I have as a matter of fact.
He's sitting right there, with the glasses, right there.
He's really a special guy.
- He can't take his eyes off you.
- No, he can't.
I can't take my eyes off of him either, most of the time.
But a lot of prison relationships, it's an unhealthy environment for that kind of thing.
I've hesitated in the past, but this just happened so I'm going with the flow.
Is it like? Being gay, right, and, and behind bars, you sort of have your pick of hundreds of men, in a way.
Do you know what I mean? Is there a case for saying it's quite a good place for you to be? This is still an unhealthy place to have a relationship, period.
I mean, this isn't an ideal place to have a relationship.
After dinner Chris took me back to Alpine to meet his new boyfriend, Ronnie.
- How are you doing? - Pretty good.
You're Ronnie? - Yes.
- I'm Louis.
So you and Chris here are kind of an item now? Yeah.
I mean, it's very seldom that you'll see something like this, especially in a penitentiary.
Why are you in protective custody, by the way? - Me, I'm an ex-gang member.
- Which gang? I was a Nazi Low Rider for 14 years, yeah.
Now you're in what basically, you know, to me would seem like a, it's like a homosexual relationship? - Would you consider it that? - I guess you could say that, yeah.
- And yet you're a former Nazi Low Rider? - Yes.
Isn't that kind of a contradiction? Yeah, I've been a dropout for seven years now.
Yeah.
What would your Nazi Low Rider buddies think if they saw you now? Er, they probably wouldn't be too happy.
And, Chris, aren't you? Chris, aren't you Jewish? - Yeah.
- Jewish? And you're a former Nazi? Yeah, a white supremacist, yeah.
It was the second most notorious prison gang in the state of California.
From the Nazi perspective, doesn't it make it even worse that Chris is Jewish? No, not really, because I look, you know, I look at her as a human being.
That would be like this white guy right here, you know what I mean? I really don't look at her like that.
But you're not a white supremacist any more? - He's looking at this.
- I look at what's in the heart, not Not the skin colour, you know what I mean? So you two haven't started rooming together yet? No.
Does that mean you don't know if the physical side of it will work? Well, no, we, you know, we haven't went that far yet.
What are you laughing at? It's more than sexual.
It's not just sexual.
Yeah, it's the companionship, we love to talk.
Especially when you're in a penitentiary there's not too many people you can actually talk to and hold a normal conversation with.
It's different when you find somebody you're compatible with.
Did I ever think that I would be compatible with a person like this? No.
I'm almost 38 years old.
No, not in a million years.
But, I mean, sometimes you have no control over what happens.
- He's been married for almost 13 years.
- You're married? But To someone on the outside? So what's she gonna think when she sees this? Well, if she watches the programme, I'm really tripping, you know what I mean? It's the chance that you've got to take sometimes, you know what I mean? Especially It's a chance you've got to take.
- Have you got kids? - Yeah, I've got two kids.
13 years of marriage and now this out of nowhere.
That's pretty special to me.
The end of my time at San Quentin was drawing near, but there were some prisoners I wanted to see again.
I was on my way to Could yard to catch up with Playboy Nolan.
He was getting out soon, and since our last chat I'd found out he was a marked man, having dropped out of an infamous prison gang.
Risk of reprisals meant his yard time was restricted for his own protection to a metal cage.
- Are you doing good? - I'm doing good today.
So this is where you get your yard? This is where we get our yard once a week for about 11/2 or 2 hours.
And it's like a little cage in itself.
- They call this a walk-alone? - They call this the rats.
- They call this the what? - Walk-alone.
- Oh, yeah, the walk-alone.
- Did you say rats? Yeah It is the walk-alone section right here.
What were you gonna call it? No, I heard somebody say the rat section.
By active gang members, you'd be considered rats? - Yeah.
- Would you? Yeah, they consider us the worst of the worst.
cos we don't wanna affiliate or let ourselves be pushed into politics.
- Which gang were you in? - I was a Northerner.
Why did you drop out? Basically, because of the politics, and I just don't like being told what to do.
A lot of individuals like to I just don't like that.
I like to do as I choose, you know.
I mean, there's gang members out on that yard right now.
If they got If we put you If we put you in there right now - Oh, there would be conflict.
- What would happen? There would be a big, big fight out there.
Big melee out there.
- They'd try and get you? - Not if I get them first.
What do they do here? What part of life do they control? The whole point of being in a gang is to orchestrate unity, as one, together.
If I need food from someone, my white brother would give it to me.
If I need security, back-up, my white brother would give it to me.
Same with the blacks, and each individual gang.
- You've got a beef with someone? - They'll back you up, like your brothers.
Drugs, they take care of for you, all that kind of stuff.
But when you Are there drugs in the Are there drugs in prison? Me, personally, I would say there's more drugs in prison than there are Than people think.
There's a lot.
There's a lot of drugs? Is that bad to talk about? can we talk about that, Eric? - Go for it.
- Yeah? And so And do the gangs control that, by and large? Majority of the people, the gangs control the drug flow, but you've got to understand, just because I'm on this side of the gate and I'm not gang active, don't mean I'm any lesser of a man than them out there.
I could still fight like them, make money like them, I could still attack, I could still programme just like them.
I just choose to do it on my own.
When you get out, might the gang be after you? The threat is very high because when you drop out I dropped out of the Northern Structure.
My name goes onto the bad news list, and those people right there are supposed to be killed.
- Supposed to be killed? - Supposed to be killed.
So the gang you were in, the Northern Structure, put you on a bad news list.
And it's literally a list that's been written down by someone? It's a list that's been written down from every single prison, from every single higher person, higher up, and they put your name on that list, and the objective of the individuals on the streets is to control the drugs and the money and to kill these certain people.
And don't get me wrong, when I was out there this time You watch news stuff on the streets, and you see dudes with tattoos killed, murdered, it's just a wake-up call, like, it's reality out there.
- That's a gang hit? - Yeah.
What was it that got you involved in the gang in the first place? It was my brother.
He's a part of the Northern Structure.
He's affiliated to this day, right? But not only that.
Er Me growing up on the streets, that acceptance feels good, you know.
Like when someone says they love you, "Brother, I love you, I got your back," this made you feel good.
- They haven't got your back any more.
- No, no, no, no, no.
I've got my own back.
But it's all right, though, man, I'll be all right, I know that.
Been I'm alive this long, so Who says I won't live 50 more years? It was sobering that Playboy would always have a price on his head.
I wondered whether he'd ever be able to leave the prison life behind.
Back in Could Section, I caught up with Officer Olejos.
What do you see happening with Playboy Nolan? - He'll be back.
- He'll be back in here? - You think? - I know so, he'll be back.
The wise guys can't function on the streets.
They have a hard time, they have a hard time following the rules and the responsibility, that's the big thing.
They have a hard time with responsibility on the streets.
- They don't know how to adjust.
- They can't learn those skills? They don't want to.
It's not that they can't, they don't want to.
Why would you want to learn a skill when you've got free room and board here? Wouldn't you agree it's better on the outside? Here in prison you're somebody.
Out there on the streets you're nobody.
It was my last day at San Quentin.
The one part of prison life I still hadn't seen was the release of prisoners.
At Receiving and Release, the daily ration of inmates were getting ready to leave and, in theory, start their new lives.
- How many are going out today? - We've got 27 total going out today.
- 27, that's quite a few? - Yeah.
- You've worked this job for a while? - Five years.
From what you know, looking at these guys out here, do you have any sense of? Do you think all these guys are going to stay out? Maybe half? Do you think most of them will come back in? I would say at the most probably With 27 guys going out today, I would probably see about - more than half come back.
- How soon? It could be a matter of days or a matter of months.
All human beings are creatures of habit, and these guys are creatures of habit.
They go back to their old neighbourhoods, they tend to fall into the same groups of people that still disobey the law, and they get caught up.
How do you feel about going home? I'm nervous because I haven't had no human contact for two years.
I've been in a cell by myself for two years.
No windows, no sunlight Just locked up.
24 hours a day, locked up.
So what happens now? You wait here until? When are they gonna actually let you go? Whenever they decide to show up.
Another of the inmates going out today was Debra.
- How are you doing? - All right.
- Just wanted to say a quick hello.
- Hi.
Have you said goodbye to Rob this morning? - Yes.
- And what was that like? It was kind of sad, but, you know I'll do what I'll do and I'll see how this goes.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
He seemed to be hoping to continue the relationship, didn't he? - Yes.
- And you feel the same way? Yeah, sure.
I mean, you know, I've been doing this a long time and I don't have very much faith in these guys as far as long distance goes, but he's new to this, this whole environment.
And he's not really He's not one of these guys.
I think he I don't know, we'll see.
I sure hope so.
I hope it'syou know.
- So you're a little more realistic maybe? - Yes.
Yes.
I mean, I believe that his heart is where he says it is, you know? But time andand conditions change, so we'll see what happens.
It seems unlikely that HE'LL find anyone else, inside, doesn't it? Well, you never know, I don't know! Better not! I wondered whether Debra would stay out this time and how much he even wanted to.
I realised that many prisoners had spent so long institutionalised that San Quentin was now their home.
With little contact with family and friends, their real relationships were here.
And as much as the prison walls kept others out, they also forced those on the inside together.
Before leaving San Quentin, I had one last inmate I wanted to see again.
Armed robber and self-confessed torturer, David Silver.
With 521 years to serve plus 11 life sentences, Silver would never leave prison.
It seemed hard to fathom such an existence, or even whether a life like that was worth living.
- How are you doing? - All right.
Did you get your bit of yard time? - Yeah, the little that I can get.
- Yeah.
You know, don't get much here.
Are you inare you actually? Have you got handcuffs on? No, I'm cool.
It's just kind of a habit to stand this way.
Yeah.
You get handcuffed so much, you kind of pick up that little habit.
When we spoke last time, one thing I don't think I asked was, you know, - whether you felt remorse? - Yeah.
About what you did.
That's something you didn't ask me and Yeah, I feel remorse all the way for some things.
I was wrongwrongfully convicted for some things, but the things that I was convicted for, I accept all responsibility for my own actions and, you know, now that it's said and done, I've had a lot of time to think about a lot and, you know, naturally, you know, I mean, if I don't feel bad, then I'm just a cold-hearted person.
can you say anything to make me understand why you did those things? Well, to understand it you'd have to you'd have to somewhat think it was OK to do it.
So I don't think you'll really ever understand it.
Have you ever wondered whether there might be something wrong with you, mentally? I always wondered, was there some kind of chemical imbalance that I got, but then, you know, I think No, I know better, you know, so I don't thinkit's something that I act without thinking.
You smiled when I asked if you thought there was something wrong with you mentally.
- So you had thought about that a bit? - Oh, yeah, yeah.
If I never thought about that, then there probably WOULD be something wrong with me! Do you feel you've got a life in here? You can make a life in here.
You can actually You can make a life as comfortable as it can get in here if you put your mind to it.
As far as, hey, I canI can look, you know It's a sad way to look at it, but in reality, it makes you more sane to I could just say, "Well, you know what, I'm on my 401.
"I'm always gonna have food, I'm always gonna have shelter, "I ain't got to worry about the stresses of losing my job, "I ain't got to worry about none of that type of stuff no more.
"I'm gonna be taken care of until I die.
" I can look at it that way and try to ignore the other things in life, as far as all the things that just make you smile, like, you know, out riding on, you know, on a boat in the water, or whatever, you know, other little things in life.
As long as they don't exist to me, I'm here, then they won't bug me, unless I want to put myself torture my mind and So you just narrow your horizons a bit? You know, the only thing that you don't have in prison is freedom, to an extent, right? And there's no, you know, women, as far as But then that, you know, that's just littlehelps in life that but you can get over all that, you know.
If you can't, yeah, you're gonna make your time a little more rough for you.
But after so long, that stuff's not even important no more.
- Shirt off.
- Huh? I'm going in.
- Shirt off.
Shirt off.
- Shirt off? When did they start this shit? Right, back it up.
Obey the law now!
Maybe some of the things that thrill you won't thrill me.
The things that thrill your cameraman won't thrill you OR thrill me.
See what I'm saying? Just like the things that thrill me, obviously, don't and won't thrill you guys.
But maybe the things that thrill me aren't going to get me 500 years in prison.
That's the thing right there.
Do I go through? Absolutely.
Thank you.
Just outside San Francisco stands one of America's oldest and most notorious prisons, San Quentin.
It's famous for its Death Row, but its main purpose is to house a transient population of nearly 3,000 murderers, sexual predators and small-time criminals.
Here they inhabit a strange world within a world, with its own rules and its own brutal code of honour.
And for two weeks, I've been allowed inside.
You want me to show you how to put the vest on? - Yes, please.
- And the reason why we have the vest? Yes, please, how do you put it on? The correct way is, you want to do it like this, unfasten the Velcro.
You slip it over your head and make sure it goes up high enough to cover the heart area and your major organs right there, the kidney and liver and stuff like that.
That's right.
And what is the necessity of wearing one of these? cos these guys have a tendency to either spear you or dart you, and this will protect your major organs right here.
I was with Officer Jamie Olejos in Could Section, also known as The Hole.
The inmates here are segregated from the rest of the prison and are locked down for 23 hours a day, many of them because they attacked other inmates or guards.
- What's he doing with that? - He's fishing, passing notes back and forth.
Look how far it goes.
Oh, that's nothing.
I've seen guys go eight, nine cells.
- Is that allowed? - No.
How come he's doing it in front of you, then? cos you guys are here.
You see, they also They've got little eyes they stick out, - a little piece of a mirror.
- Is that like a periscope? Yeah, I can sit down and cheer when the cops come.
What are you in for? Assault with a deadly weapon.
- Really? - Yeah.
- How long? - 15 years.
- And why are you segregated? - Why? I'm a dangerous threat to the safety and security of the institution.
That's all show.
Yeah! They're gonna make all kinds of noise.
That's a milk carton right there.
Do you actually quite like dealing with them? - Yes, I do.
- Why? Because most of the stuff that they say is amusing.
It makes you laugh.
What are the, um the labels hanging down? That's the fish lines, they got stuck up there.
And they just stay up there? Yeah.
Olejos had mentioned an inmate known as Playboy Nolan who was in Could for spraying unpleasant substances at the guards, a practice they call gassing.
- He gassed someone the other day.
- The other day? - Yeah, Nolan did.
- I gassed somebody? - Last week.
- Oh, yeah.
Remember when the guy came down and spit at you? Come on, this way.
So what was your original commitment? Well, now, we were car-jacking.
- car-jacking? - Yeah, car-jacking.
And, umyou, er you got how long for that? - I got three years for that.
- You used a weapon? Did I use a weapon? Yeah, they said I had a weapon during the commitment of the crime.
And they call you, umthey call you Playboy Nolan, is that right? Yeah, they know me as Playboy.
That's what he told you, huh? - Yeah, that's what they know me by.
- How come? It's just a name that's been going around for years.
So you assaulted COs, that's correctional Officers? - Yeah.
- With what? Any kind of liquid substance you could put together.
- Like urine.
- Yeah, any kind of liquid substance.
Urine? Any kind of liquid, it's just the easiest, cos sometimes - Faeces? - He said faeces? - Poo-poo.
- Oh, faeces.
Nah, nah, I ain't going that far.
No, but sometimes Urine? - Yeah, but sometimes - Your own? Yeah, it's not nobody else's! Yeah, but sometimes I've been in predicaments where I had nothing in my cell, and the only way to get my point across was come up with some kind of combination, you know.
Did you actually gas an officer? - Yeah, I gassed them.
- Which one? Which one? A lot of them! About five or six, huh? About five or six officers I gassed.
- Would you ever gas me? - No, I never gassed you.
- Would you ever, though? - Nah.
Why wouldn't you gas Olejos? I've known him for a long time, so You seem almost a little proud that he wouldn't do that to you.
No, I've known Playboy sinceseven years now.
Since he was about 17 years old.
I've seen him at his freaking worst, I mean unbelievable.
Worst, worst, I He just wanted me to open his frigging head, just shut him up, I mean, just for no reason.
And now I sense you have a pretty good rapport.
- Oh, we always had.
- Really? Yeah.
Oh, yeah, this is calm for me right here, just Oh, this is night and day, this guy was straight up like an idiot.
He was one of the worst ones.
Why don't you just, um? So do you feel bad about all the things you did? Do I feel? Well, in a sense I could have went about it a better way, right? But at the timethat was my only way to get my point across.
- can we see inside your cell? - Yeah.
So you haven't got much stuff in here.
I mean, I keep it simple, man.
It looks like nothing's in there, because it's simple.
You know, keep the basics there.
- can I touch your stuff? - Yeah, go ahead.
- You've got some coffee here.
- Yeah, that's coffee right there.
And you've got a lot of ramen noodles over here.
Yeah.
And then Why so many noodles? You've got, like, about 20 packs of noodles back there.
20 packs, because the food here is not Over the years it's really changed a lot.
They used to have a lot more flavourings.
The food's not so good? Thank you very much.
Oh, I can't shake your hand.
Hey, it's a joke! Out in the general population of the prison, inmates get yard time for just a couple of hours, twice a week.
Other than showers and mealtimes, these are their only moments outside their cells, a chance to socialise and make allies.
Escorted for my own safety by Lieutenant Eric Messick, I was in West Block yard, where most of the inmates are doing time for parole violations.
Tell me what you're doing over here, you're just relaxing? - We're the white guys.
- The white gang? Yeah.
Would you be part of a, er? Are you part of a skinhead gang? - What is it? - The Woods.
What does it say? - BBH.
Barbarian Brotherhood.
- Barbarian Brotherhood? Do all the different races have different areas? Yeah, that's the black area over there, the Norteno area over there.
White area over here, Indians over there.
- We keep it segregated.
- How come? Because we don't wanna programme with thempretty much.
- Keep a clear line.
- Yeah, white power, you know? I ain't programming with them.
707228.
I mean, in the outside world people tend to rub along, you know, different races get along more or less, and so how come inside it doesn't work like that? It's for no confusion, so we don't get confused between races and stuff.
We stay away from them and they stay away from us.
It don't mean we're racist, we just don't want to live with them.
Is there someone here who's in charge? - No-one's gonna say that.
- No-one would say that? Why wouldn't anyone say that? Then they'll high-profile us and then put us in The Hole.
If they think someone's in charge they're gonna slam you down and give you internment.
So someone here might be in charge, but you wouldn't say? No, can't say stuff like that.
Are most of you here on violations? Almost at least 50% of us are cos of meth, - at least the white guys.
- Robbing a pharmacy.
- Robbing a pharmacy? - Robbery.
Really? - Yeah.
- How many? - 31 counts.
- Really? - Yeah.
- How long did they give you? I'm on a 90-day observation, I'm still not sentenced yet.
So how long do they? With 31 counts, how long could they give you? Er, 38 years.
You look quite young.
How old are you? 19.
Yeah.
We're all pretty young.
How did you hook up with these guys? cos he's white, we take care of our own.
He looks kind of new, you know, did you spot him and think, "We'll look out for him"? Yeah, we work in the kitchen together.
We try to take care of everybody.
Yeah, we work in the kitchen together, too.
For new arrivals at the prison, their first port of call is Receiving and Release.
San Quentin is a clearing house for prisoners from all over Northern California, who either serve short stretches here or are assessed and sent on to other prisons.
Most have been in and out of institutions their whole lives, bouncing back on parole violations or serving longer stretches on serious crimes.
Would it be OK to ask why you're in here? - Drugs.
- What kind of drugs? Methamphetamine.
What was your original conviction for? Assault on an undercover officer.
What is something that you do on the side? Well, I mean, that was just something that I did on the side, stealing cars, you know.
Yeah, it's kind of like a hobby, you know.
Not really something that I should be doing, but kind of like a hobby.
What is it that makes you, kind of, keep coming back? It's too easy to do the time.
There's nothing there to give you any kind of incentive to do the right thing.
You mean it's too easy to do the time like it'sin what way? I don't know.
To me, it's worth taking the risks to live the way I want to live.
I was on my way to meet a new arrival in Badger Section.
This is where inmates are sent if they're considered especially dangerous on account of the seriousness of their crimes.
The senior officer in Badger was John Gladson.
- How do you do? - Hey, how are you doing? - Nice to meet you.
- Good.
And who's down here on this floor? This is the Level 4, so these are the real bad guys.
When you say Level 4s, you're talking about These are the guys who are the most dangerous.
They're Level 4s because they have done something very serious or attacked another inmate or a guard? Yeah, that's how they get their Level 4.
Murder, rape, rob you know, robbery, extorting stuff from other inmates.
That's how they get up to be Level 4.
Are these guys Level 4 up and down here now? Yeah, everybody out that you see is a Level 4 and considered extremely dangerous.
How are you doing? Are you Anthony? - Yeah.
- How do you do? - Who are you? - We're from the BBc.
We were just going to chat to you because we've heard that you'd just got here on Friday maybe, and this is your first time ever in prison, is that right? Yeah.
And we wanted to see how you were getting on, basically.
Oh, it's cool, it's like a playground here, man, it ain't nothing, man.
Ain't nothing scary about this.
And how did you wind up here? Eryou know, with the trial, you got life.
What did you get it for? - What for? Oh, murder.
- How did it come about? They said I killed my best friend, man, sothat's how it came about.
Really Maybe it's a silly question, but did you do it? - Oh, no, man.
- What happened, then? You know, somebody set him up and just put my name in it.
Really? And your sentence is for how long? - Oh, 50 years to life.
- 15 to life? - 50 to life.
- 50, 5-0? - Yeah.
- Wow That's a long time.
Yeah, you know Gotta do it.
And then Officer, if you? I mean What's that? This gentleman's just told me that.
.
he has 50 to life, 5-0 to life.
I mean, would you have any advice for him? Yes, don't be tipping up gangbanging, but Try and do your own time, don't do somebody else's time.
And you know what, 50 to life can be dropped, you know? - That's a little steep.
- What does that mean when you say, "Do your own time, not somebody else's"? OK, well, what happens is the gangbangers try to get the fellas to, uh the young guys to do their bidding for them, stab people or or, you know, extort money from people, things like that.
So that way it keeps a guy like him, a youngster, in trouble all the time, so if he ever does go before a Parole Board, they would look at it and say, "Hey, you know what? You was in trouble all the time.
" Given this is your first time in prison, you're facing a long stretch, you don't seem too intimidated by the whole experience.
Nah, it ain't intimidating.
No.
You said it was like a playground.
Yeah, it's like a playground, man, it ain't intimidating, know what I'm saying? You can't let nobody punk you, man, you know what I'm saying? I ain't the one, I weren't the one on the streets, - and I ain't gonna be the one here.
- Meaning? Meaning that you can't make me do what I don't want to do.
And I ain't scared of nobodyperiod.
So that's it.
You know, if I was in your shoes, if I was in your shoes, 21 years old in here, here in San Quentin, in what's probably the most intimidating part of it, in the Badger Section, I would find that intimidating.
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, we're two different people, you know? The type of life I grew up around is way worse than this, you know what I'm saying? I've got to wake up hearing gunshots and people getting killed on the streets, - this is nothing, you know? - Is this pretty normal? This ain't nothing here, man.
Is that pretty normal, Officer, for a new inmate, even if he's new to the whole experience, that he wouldn't even be fazed by any of it? No, most new guys are fazed by it, and they're overwhelmed, a lot of them, with what's going on, but Anthony here better not show any signs of being overwhelmed, because he's with theyou know, he's with the real criminals, and so he has to keep up a good front, and that - He can't show weakness.
- Why? Weakness is, uhthey got people that prey on weakness.
And how would they prey on it? You know what? This is prison, they got all different types of things.
They'll take their canteen, you know, the stuff that they buy from the store, things like that.
If you show any weakness, that stuff's gone.
Even sometimes your manhood, you know, so You know, he's doing the right thing, he's staying strong and not showing any weakness.
That's what he has to do in order to survive.
And just to be clear, your contention is that you didn't do anything wrong, - you were wrongfully convicted? - Of course.
Yeah, of course, man.
I didn't do nothing, anything.
I'll take you back.
Breakfast time at San Quentin is a carefully regimented operation where more than 2,000 inmates are fed in a series of 20-minute sittings, and given brown-bag lunches to eat later in their cells.
I was going to be eating with two of the members of the Barbarian Brotherhood who I'd met in yard.
I was hoping to learn more about the way the gangs work inside prison and looking forward to my first taste of prison food.
What IS this? It looks like potato shit.
- Potatoes, and what's this? - It's supposed to be like gravy.
Gravy.
Do you see the politics of the place right now? Well, it's all blacks at one table, all whites at one table.
Everybody keeps an eye out and watches.
They all watch in case they see anybody taking trays or food off other people's trays.
You've got to watch for that shit.
If you were black and you offered me some of that food, I couldn't take it.
Really? Why? It's just part of the rules, man.
Prison rules? If you did, you'd get beat up.
Who would beat you up? Me.
This guy.
- You would really do that? - Yeah.
- We've got to get you.
- You do? We'd tell you not to do it first, and then we get you.
How? Probably just mob you, like, two or three dudes will just attack you.
Three dudes would come up and attack me? And do what, pummel me? - Yeah.
- How bad? Till the cops stop 'em.
You really mean You really mean it? Yeah.
Why would you do that? Tell him, Nick.
It's just how it is.
Hungry, man! It was hard to believe they could be so brutal about something so trivial, but I wondered if these strange codes of conduct were a way of creating gang loyalty and camaraderie in surroundings designed to keep inmates apart.
So what's the plan now, you go back to your cell? - Yeah, for the rest of the day.
- For the rest of the day? And that's it? See you later, guys.
A little later Eric was taking me back to West Block.
The prisoners were now locked down in their cells for the rest of the day.
You're up there on the, erit's called the gun rail, is that right? - Gun rail.
- What have you got in your gun? - Regular bullets? - Yeah, .
223 rounds.
.
223 rounds? Yeah, they have a ballistic tip on them so that if I do fire, they don't ricochet off the cement.
They're a non-ricocheting bullet.
If someone managed to jump from here down to there, would you be authorised to shoot at them at that point? Yes.
And that would be shoot to disable or shoot to kill? No, shoot to disable, shoot to stop the threat.
I was in West Block to meet an inmate who was due to be released.
His name was Bradley Walridge.
How are we doing? But he preferred to be called Debra.
- My name's Louis, I'm from the BBc.
- Hi.
- You're getting out on Friday? - Yes.
How do you feel about that? Um I'm excited about it.
So do you consider yourself a-a wo? - A transgender woman.
- Transgender woman.
And so tell me a little bit about how you ended up here.
OK, well, I guess, um I've been doing this for almost 20 years.
What? - coming to prison.
- In and out? - Yes.
- What were your convictions for? For robbery and a stolen car, being with guys that were criminals and going along with them.
- And how long were you in this time? - Three months.
- Three months? How's it been? - It's been OK.
Aside from always having to worry about getting moved.
- Is there someone in there now? - Uh-huh.
- Who? - My partner.
- How did you find each other? - They just moved him in the cell, and one thing led to another.
- Hello.
How are you doing? - I'm great.
And what's your name, if I may ask? - My name is Robert.
- May I open it? Yeah, let me put my shoes on.
- How are you doing? - Good.
What's your story? Why are you in here? Well, right now I'm going I have to go back to the county to get my sentence, and I think I'm going to end up getting three years.
- For? - Um automobile theft, uhassault on an officer, drivingwhile intoxicated, uh hit-and-run with injuries, so on and so on and so on.
So how do you feel about Debra leaving on Friday? - I'm happy for her.
- Really? Yeah, absolutely.
She could do better on the streets than she could in here.
What is it that works about the relationship? I don't know, it just does.
She's real special, you know what I'm saying? Shut the fuck up! Do you think this relationship could survive outside here? - Oh, it will.
- Yours? It will, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That's interesting, cos I know in a lot of times something like this could be circumyou know, situational.
Yeah, circumstantial and situation, the circumstances wereyeah.
Forced together, making do? Yeah, just making whatever, but I don't know.
There's a lot of, uh There's a lot of people thatthey try to separate us, you know what I'm saying? Like today, they tried to separate us, you know? People are jealous of us, you know what I'm saying? People really hate on us.
- People in here can be close-minded? - Absolutely.
- Do they judge you? - Yeah, of course they do.
Of course people judge me, you know? But that's not always it, they usually try and Somebody wants to get one of the girls in their cell, or whatever.
Right.
What it is is, you know, these guys are like - They're starved for companionship.
- Yeah.
You said one of the guys would want to get one of the trans in his cell.
For what? For what?! Hello! For relationships.
Mainly, it's a lust, you know what I'm saying? They lust That's true, though, isn't it? They get to have a relationship, to have a little house and go to work every day and come home every day and You know? You said, Rob, that you'd like to continue the relationship on the outside.
- Do you feel the same way? - Yes.
- Do you? - Hmm.
Absolutely.
I'm almost 40 years old.
He's barely 30.
Right, that's what I mean.
So why not? No, he's a lot better than that, it's a lot more than just that.
I actually like this guy.
- Thanks, guys.
- All right.
can you tell us what's going on? can you say what's going on? WellI knew it didn't look good in here so But, no, I don't know yet.
What have we got? What's there? What's there? Sure? What do you think is going on? I'd just be guessing right now, so It must have been a false alarm, actually.
You know what? That's the first time I've seen you look a little bit worried.
Well, that's because I didn't like the way it looked in here, the moment we walked in here.
They're down to I think there's only about three or four officers in the whole unit right now.
If there was like a mini riot in here, they would lock this building and we'd be in here.
That's correct.
We would have been locked in there for a while.
And would I be deputised at that point? I would have to do everything to try to get us out of here safely.
I was a few days into my stay at San Quentin, and so far what had struck me was how, in spite of the harsh realities of prison life, the inmates could still form relationships as comrades and lovers.
And I even sensed a kind of warmth between them and the guards.
I was also surprised how open they were with me.
They seemed almost grateful that someone from the outside was taking an interest in their lives.
- How are you doing? - Good! I was back in Could Section, this time to meet an inmate who stood out even among these hardened criminals for the brutality of his crimes.
OK? His name was David Silver.
I understand you're serving quite a long stretch here? Oh, yeah, very, very long.
I would say, uhprobably enough for all of us.
What's your stretch? What are you serving? Um First I've got to do 521 years and then 11 life sentences.
How come, um How come so much? cos I was on a a brutal home-invasionseries type of thing, multiple home invasions.
Brutal in what way? Well, I got convicted for 12 home invasions, home invasion robbery, uh.
.
multiple victims, uhbrutally hurt, uh shot, uh damn almost drowned, uh Just a lot of torture tactics.
Why were you doing torture tactics? That's, uh Well, of course in a home-invasion robbery you're there to rob, and, umif you don't feel they're giving up the information you need, you've got to pretty much torture someone to get the information you want out of them.
Were you getting money for drugs? No, I don't do drugs, I don't do none of that.
It's just, uhto live aI don't know, a better life, in a sense.
To have more better things instead of Look at me - not too many people are gonna hire me to work for them, you know, so sometimes I have no other choice but to resort to crime, you know? Unless I want to slave in a field somewhere, but I'm not gonna do that.
Were there any fatalities involved, did you actually kill anyone? No, nobody died, but some peopleprobably were at points where they wish they would have died.
It's pretty serious.
A lot of them, there's a shoot-out with the police at the end, uh you know, people were pretty shaken up.
Some things werewill never be forgotten, you know.
I guessthere was victims where they had their heads held under hot tubs for timesat a time Umsome were saying they were sexually assaulted with a pistol.
How old were you when you were convicted of this latest round of different crimes? - This, 29.
29? So you're about 33 now? - Yeah.
And so had it become kind of a career for you at that point? - Well, yeah, I went to YA at age 11.
- What's that? Oh, California Youth Authority.
Stayed there till I was 20, soyou know, that's, that's time.
Thenyou know, I went to prison at 22, you know.
I've been doing It's pretty much all I'm used to, unfortunately, er It's just now, I guess, I don't worry about getting out no more, I've just sort of made my bed andlive on through.
Boy, look how packed it is.
We've got a lot of guys out here today.
I was back with Officer Gladson.
It was yard again, this time for Alpine Section, a block that houses inmates who are segregated from the rest of the prison for their own protection.
can we get in there? You know what, I'm not sure if they'd let us in there or not.
Really? Yeah.
cos, er Usually it's so confined, there's too many people.
I'll ask, er Do you mind if I ask Eric? I'll ask Eric.
OK, all right.
Yeah, Louis, we're gonna go out there.
We'll keep it light, though.
Sound and camera and Louis and you.
This is the handball court here, Louis.
So who are the guys in here? Officer Gladson, these guys are What kind of characters are they? These guys are mostly gang dropouts.
Yeah.
Er, some sex crimes, you know, with children.
But And there's some guys told on other people in court.
But mostly it's gang dropouts.
We talked to this guy before.
can we go and meet this guy? Yeah.
- How you doing? - Yeah, pretty good.
Could you explain your tattoos to them? This one? Yeah.
It says skinhead.
In what language? It's They're Germanic runes.
- But you're dropped out of all that now? - Yeah.
How come you dropped out? Er, because something happened, I'm moving forward, something happened where they wanted me to stab my celly and I only had 59 days left, just because he borrowed a black guy's dominoes.
- That's why they wanted you to stab him? - Yeah.
Because he borrowed a black guy's dominoes? Yeah.
Why didn't you do it? - What? - Why didn't you do it? Because my mother was getting ready to pass away.
- And you wanted to get out? - I wanted to get out.
I only had 59 days left.
That seems so absurd, the idea that you would have to stab someone for borrowing a black guy's dominoes.
Doesn't it seem ridiculous to you? Yeah, it does, it does for something so minor.
But now, now it's like my eyes are open to it, so Do you see these guys as people just like you who, who have made different choices, or is it like a different class of people? Yeah, I could have made, there was a There were, like, 100 times I could have made the wrong choice and ended up at the wrong place, when I was growing up.
I could have ended up like my brothers.
- Why didn't you? - You know what, I was actually I wanted to I didn't want to hurt my mom's feelings.
Do you make any friendships with the guys? Oh, I get to know them real well.
I don't You don't We've got to keep a hands-off approach with these guys, as far as you can't really become friends, but you get to know a guy over years.
You get, you get friendly with him.
But this is probably a religious programme going on here.
Guys will have their own religious programmes.
That's what's going on.
- So, what were you doing just now? - We just had a Bible study on What was it on? It was on, er.
.
Being true to yourself.
- Being true.
- Being true to True to yourself, being true to Jesus, letting us know that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour.
What was your original conviction? Allowing a demon to take over my life.
In what way? To, ertorment me through dreams and visions and, and physical assaults, by opening the door to Satan, to demonic forces.
- What was your conviction? - I'm not going to say.
- You're not going to say? - No.
For what reason? Why won't you say? Because it's not important.
Whoever opens the door to a demon, whether it's by drugs Oh, we've got to get down.
OK, get down, get down.
OK, let's go over here.
You guys go ahead and walk in front.
Get the fuck out of our yard! Don't come back! What was the? We've got shots fired on the East Block yard.
Shots fired on the East Block yard.
That's quite a big thing, isn't it? Oh, yeah, that's a gigantic thing.
So what do we do? - Huh? - What shall we do? Er, we can't go there, so it's death row.
- So, you guys, we've got a shooting - Shots fired? Well, we have the guns.
So we have a shooting on the East Block yard right now.
Probably some type of serious assault, one inmate on another, and the armed gunmen have had to discharge their weapon to stop the incident.
What was weird was when we were out there and we were coming back The atmosphere had been quite friendly, and then the atmosphere went a bit ugly.
- Did you feel that? - Yeah, when the alarm went off.
We started getting heckled and people were saying, "Get out of our yard" - It's because of the area we were in.
- Why? Er, costhe area over there, those guys have Some of them have crimes that they don't want people to know who they are or where they're at.
- child molesters? - Yeah, you could say that.
Hey! Release the hounds.
All right.
It was dinnertime at San Quentin.
I'd arranged to eat with a couple of inmates from Alpine Section - a gay man called Chris Mitz and a transsexual named Didi.
Since meeting Debra and her partner Rob, I'd been curious about the romantic relationships between prisoners.
- Are you wearing a little bit of make-up? - Huh? - Some mascara? - Yeah.
How come? Honestly? On the streets, I'm just, really just a gay boy.
I don't really act or dress feminine, but I've learned that in prison, for homosexuals, instead of being the masculine gay male, having the feminine side, although it does seek bring a lot of unnecessary attention on myself and a lot of it negative, I think it makes it a little bit more easier than to be openly gay.
The more womanly you become, the more respect you get? Not necessarily respected, I just think Instead of being, like, someone wanting to beat you up or hurt you, they're like, "Oh, that's a girl, "I ain't gonna" Excuse my language, "fuck with her," or stuff like that.
You know, it's an image, it's not reality, you know.
I'm not really a girl, but in a sense when I portray myself that way, it makes things go a little bit more smoother.
How are you feeling, Didi? Well, as far as I'm concerned about it, she's right because you cause more negative attention on yourself when you try to hide being a homosexual, and they find out that you're a homosexual.
Later on.
I don't know, I guess it's a psychological thing when they feel that you're playing a game and Like, we don't have to show them or nothing, but that's just the way prison life is.
People that are feminine and use make-up, like we essentially do, attracts a lot of attention from inmates seeing that female affection, we have that female aura, and they seek that and want that.
- Have you found anyone? - Er, yeah, I have as a matter of fact.
He's sitting right there, with the glasses, right there.
He's really a special guy.
- He can't take his eyes off you.
- No, he can't.
I can't take my eyes off of him either, most of the time.
But a lot of prison relationships, it's an unhealthy environment for that kind of thing.
I've hesitated in the past, but this just happened so I'm going with the flow.
Is it like? Being gay, right, and, and behind bars, you sort of have your pick of hundreds of men, in a way.
Do you know what I mean? Is there a case for saying it's quite a good place for you to be? This is still an unhealthy place to have a relationship, period.
I mean, this isn't an ideal place to have a relationship.
After dinner Chris took me back to Alpine to meet his new boyfriend, Ronnie.
- How are you doing? - Pretty good.
You're Ronnie? - Yes.
- I'm Louis.
So you and Chris here are kind of an item now? Yeah.
I mean, it's very seldom that you'll see something like this, especially in a penitentiary.
Why are you in protective custody, by the way? - Me, I'm an ex-gang member.
- Which gang? I was a Nazi Low Rider for 14 years, yeah.
Now you're in what basically, you know, to me would seem like a, it's like a homosexual relationship? - Would you consider it that? - I guess you could say that, yeah.
- And yet you're a former Nazi Low Rider? - Yes.
Isn't that kind of a contradiction? Yeah, I've been a dropout for seven years now.
Yeah.
What would your Nazi Low Rider buddies think if they saw you now? Er, they probably wouldn't be too happy.
And, Chris, aren't you? Chris, aren't you Jewish? - Yeah.
- Jewish? And you're a former Nazi? Yeah, a white supremacist, yeah.
It was the second most notorious prison gang in the state of California.
From the Nazi perspective, doesn't it make it even worse that Chris is Jewish? No, not really, because I look, you know, I look at her as a human being.
That would be like this white guy right here, you know what I mean? I really don't look at her like that.
But you're not a white supremacist any more? - He's looking at this.
- I look at what's in the heart, not Not the skin colour, you know what I mean? So you two haven't started rooming together yet? No.
Does that mean you don't know if the physical side of it will work? Well, no, we, you know, we haven't went that far yet.
What are you laughing at? It's more than sexual.
It's not just sexual.
Yeah, it's the companionship, we love to talk.
Especially when you're in a penitentiary there's not too many people you can actually talk to and hold a normal conversation with.
It's different when you find somebody you're compatible with.
Did I ever think that I would be compatible with a person like this? No.
I'm almost 38 years old.
No, not in a million years.
But, I mean, sometimes you have no control over what happens.
- He's been married for almost 13 years.
- You're married? But To someone on the outside? So what's she gonna think when she sees this? Well, if she watches the programme, I'm really tripping, you know what I mean? It's the chance that you've got to take sometimes, you know what I mean? Especially It's a chance you've got to take.
- Have you got kids? - Yeah, I've got two kids.
13 years of marriage and now this out of nowhere.
That's pretty special to me.
The end of my time at San Quentin was drawing near, but there were some prisoners I wanted to see again.
I was on my way to Could yard to catch up with Playboy Nolan.
He was getting out soon, and since our last chat I'd found out he was a marked man, having dropped out of an infamous prison gang.
Risk of reprisals meant his yard time was restricted for his own protection to a metal cage.
- Are you doing good? - I'm doing good today.
So this is where you get your yard? This is where we get our yard once a week for about 11/2 or 2 hours.
And it's like a little cage in itself.
- They call this a walk-alone? - They call this the rats.
- They call this the what? - Walk-alone.
- Oh, yeah, the walk-alone.
- Did you say rats? Yeah It is the walk-alone section right here.
What were you gonna call it? No, I heard somebody say the rat section.
By active gang members, you'd be considered rats? - Yeah.
- Would you? Yeah, they consider us the worst of the worst.
cos we don't wanna affiliate or let ourselves be pushed into politics.
- Which gang were you in? - I was a Northerner.
Why did you drop out? Basically, because of the politics, and I just don't like being told what to do.
A lot of individuals like to I just don't like that.
I like to do as I choose, you know.
I mean, there's gang members out on that yard right now.
If they got If we put you If we put you in there right now - Oh, there would be conflict.
- What would happen? There would be a big, big fight out there.
Big melee out there.
- They'd try and get you? - Not if I get them first.
What do they do here? What part of life do they control? The whole point of being in a gang is to orchestrate unity, as one, together.
If I need food from someone, my white brother would give it to me.
If I need security, back-up, my white brother would give it to me.
Same with the blacks, and each individual gang.
- You've got a beef with someone? - They'll back you up, like your brothers.
Drugs, they take care of for you, all that kind of stuff.
But when you Are there drugs in the Are there drugs in prison? Me, personally, I would say there's more drugs in prison than there are Than people think.
There's a lot.
There's a lot of drugs? Is that bad to talk about? can we talk about that, Eric? - Go for it.
- Yeah? And so And do the gangs control that, by and large? Majority of the people, the gangs control the drug flow, but you've got to understand, just because I'm on this side of the gate and I'm not gang active, don't mean I'm any lesser of a man than them out there.
I could still fight like them, make money like them, I could still attack, I could still programme just like them.
I just choose to do it on my own.
When you get out, might the gang be after you? The threat is very high because when you drop out I dropped out of the Northern Structure.
My name goes onto the bad news list, and those people right there are supposed to be killed.
- Supposed to be killed? - Supposed to be killed.
So the gang you were in, the Northern Structure, put you on a bad news list.
And it's literally a list that's been written down by someone? It's a list that's been written down from every single prison, from every single higher person, higher up, and they put your name on that list, and the objective of the individuals on the streets is to control the drugs and the money and to kill these certain people.
And don't get me wrong, when I was out there this time You watch news stuff on the streets, and you see dudes with tattoos killed, murdered, it's just a wake-up call, like, it's reality out there.
- That's a gang hit? - Yeah.
What was it that got you involved in the gang in the first place? It was my brother.
He's a part of the Northern Structure.
He's affiliated to this day, right? But not only that.
Er Me growing up on the streets, that acceptance feels good, you know.
Like when someone says they love you, "Brother, I love you, I got your back," this made you feel good.
- They haven't got your back any more.
- No, no, no, no, no.
I've got my own back.
But it's all right, though, man, I'll be all right, I know that.
Been I'm alive this long, so Who says I won't live 50 more years? It was sobering that Playboy would always have a price on his head.
I wondered whether he'd ever be able to leave the prison life behind.
Back in Could Section, I caught up with Officer Olejos.
What do you see happening with Playboy Nolan? - He'll be back.
- He'll be back in here? - You think? - I know so, he'll be back.
The wise guys can't function on the streets.
They have a hard time, they have a hard time following the rules and the responsibility, that's the big thing.
They have a hard time with responsibility on the streets.
- They don't know how to adjust.
- They can't learn those skills? They don't want to.
It's not that they can't, they don't want to.
Why would you want to learn a skill when you've got free room and board here? Wouldn't you agree it's better on the outside? Here in prison you're somebody.
Out there on the streets you're nobody.
It was my last day at San Quentin.
The one part of prison life I still hadn't seen was the release of prisoners.
At Receiving and Release, the daily ration of inmates were getting ready to leave and, in theory, start their new lives.
- How many are going out today? - We've got 27 total going out today.
- 27, that's quite a few? - Yeah.
- You've worked this job for a while? - Five years.
From what you know, looking at these guys out here, do you have any sense of? Do you think all these guys are going to stay out? Maybe half? Do you think most of them will come back in? I would say at the most probably With 27 guys going out today, I would probably see about - more than half come back.
- How soon? It could be a matter of days or a matter of months.
All human beings are creatures of habit, and these guys are creatures of habit.
They go back to their old neighbourhoods, they tend to fall into the same groups of people that still disobey the law, and they get caught up.
How do you feel about going home? I'm nervous because I haven't had no human contact for two years.
I've been in a cell by myself for two years.
No windows, no sunlight Just locked up.
24 hours a day, locked up.
So what happens now? You wait here until? When are they gonna actually let you go? Whenever they decide to show up.
Another of the inmates going out today was Debra.
- How are you doing? - All right.
- Just wanted to say a quick hello.
- Hi.
Have you said goodbye to Rob this morning? - Yes.
- And what was that like? It was kind of sad, but, you know I'll do what I'll do and I'll see how this goes.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
He seemed to be hoping to continue the relationship, didn't he? - Yes.
- And you feel the same way? Yeah, sure.
I mean, you know, I've been doing this a long time and I don't have very much faith in these guys as far as long distance goes, but he's new to this, this whole environment.
And he's not really He's not one of these guys.
I think he I don't know, we'll see.
I sure hope so.
I hope it'syou know.
- So you're a little more realistic maybe? - Yes.
Yes.
I mean, I believe that his heart is where he says it is, you know? But time andand conditions change, so we'll see what happens.
It seems unlikely that HE'LL find anyone else, inside, doesn't it? Well, you never know, I don't know! Better not! I wondered whether Debra would stay out this time and how much he even wanted to.
I realised that many prisoners had spent so long institutionalised that San Quentin was now their home.
With little contact with family and friends, their real relationships were here.
And as much as the prison walls kept others out, they also forced those on the inside together.
Before leaving San Quentin, I had one last inmate I wanted to see again.
Armed robber and self-confessed torturer, David Silver.
With 521 years to serve plus 11 life sentences, Silver would never leave prison.
It seemed hard to fathom such an existence, or even whether a life like that was worth living.
- How are you doing? - All right.
Did you get your bit of yard time? - Yeah, the little that I can get.
- Yeah.
You know, don't get much here.
Are you inare you actually? Have you got handcuffs on? No, I'm cool.
It's just kind of a habit to stand this way.
Yeah.
You get handcuffed so much, you kind of pick up that little habit.
When we spoke last time, one thing I don't think I asked was, you know, - whether you felt remorse? - Yeah.
About what you did.
That's something you didn't ask me and Yeah, I feel remorse all the way for some things.
I was wrongwrongfully convicted for some things, but the things that I was convicted for, I accept all responsibility for my own actions and, you know, now that it's said and done, I've had a lot of time to think about a lot and, you know, naturally, you know, I mean, if I don't feel bad, then I'm just a cold-hearted person.
can you say anything to make me understand why you did those things? Well, to understand it you'd have to you'd have to somewhat think it was OK to do it.
So I don't think you'll really ever understand it.
Have you ever wondered whether there might be something wrong with you, mentally? I always wondered, was there some kind of chemical imbalance that I got, but then, you know, I think No, I know better, you know, so I don't thinkit's something that I act without thinking.
You smiled when I asked if you thought there was something wrong with you mentally.
- So you had thought about that a bit? - Oh, yeah, yeah.
If I never thought about that, then there probably WOULD be something wrong with me! Do you feel you've got a life in here? You can make a life in here.
You can actually You can make a life as comfortable as it can get in here if you put your mind to it.
As far as, hey, I canI can look, you know It's a sad way to look at it, but in reality, it makes you more sane to I could just say, "Well, you know what, I'm on my 401.
"I'm always gonna have food, I'm always gonna have shelter, "I ain't got to worry about the stresses of losing my job, "I ain't got to worry about none of that type of stuff no more.
"I'm gonna be taken care of until I die.
" I can look at it that way and try to ignore the other things in life, as far as all the things that just make you smile, like, you know, out riding on, you know, on a boat in the water, or whatever, you know, other little things in life.
As long as they don't exist to me, I'm here, then they won't bug me, unless I want to put myself torture my mind and So you just narrow your horizons a bit? You know, the only thing that you don't have in prison is freedom, to an extent, right? And there's no, you know, women, as far as But then that, you know, that's just littlehelps in life that but you can get over all that, you know.
If you can't, yeah, you're gonna make your time a little more rough for you.
But after so long, that stuff's not even important no more.
- Shirt off.
- Huh? I'm going in.
- Shirt off.
Shirt off.
- Shirt off? When did they start this shit? Right, back it up.
Obey the law now!