IamA felon who was released from prison this week. AMA

As a fellow convict, congratulations on your release. How long are you going to be on parole?

Thank you!

Three years paper.

Are you allowed alcohol while on parole?

Depends on the conditions. I'm twenty, so no for me

haha,

I shadowed a probation officer and some couldn't drink or have internet access.

That's fucked

Did you learn any skills/crafts/trades while in prison?

Certified personal trainer, also took some college courses through the mail

How was the food? Did they have pizza Fridays, or something along those lines?

The food was edible... Some meals were ok and some were terrible. I actually worked as a clerk in food service - the highest paying job by far at one hundred dollars a month, so I had access to better food.

On Wednesday for lunch was cheeseburgers. People would actually say "I have 72 cheeseburgers left". Friday lunch was fish.

A lot of "stealing" took place, so chicken soup had no chicken in it because the cooks stole it all.

[deleted]

Not for the inmates, but as a clerk I had access to the officers dining hall, and I would go chop vegetables and fruit there to kill time after the kitchen paperwork was done. I have to say it was tempting to spit in their food. Probably would have gotten another charge though..

Do they have vegetarian meals in prison?

Yea, one of my daily jobs as clerk was making sure that was all set up. We also accommodated Muslim diets, and had a "heart healthy" choice for most meals.

Many people decided to forego the vegetarian diet in prison- it's hard enough to get adequate nutrition in jail.

So what were the other inmates like? What were the unwritten rules of how to conduct yourself around them? I say this because I've heard that there are often racial tensions in the prisons, and prison gangs to top it all off. Also, what creative ways did the other inmates use to smuggle drugs around? (I watch too much Gangland, and even though a lot of that is sensationalism, I find this very interesting.)

Hmm, well I'm Scotch-Irish, and whites were definitely the minority. There want much gang activity, but whites and blacks did avoid each other - which isn't to say that we weren't cordial... All my prison friends were white, which I found curious, because some of my closest friends on the street are African-American.

There weren't a lot of drugs... Tons of cigarettes though (contraband).

Cigarettes went for a few cans (prison currency is now mackerel fish, go figure) a piece, marijuana cost 10 cabs for a really skinny joint.

There was no fence, so people would "run the hill" and pick up packages. Not sure hire they hid it inside the prison, vents and crevices I suppose.

No fence.. At all?

No fence, no locks, except for the SHU, which was an on site building with cells for people who broke the rules

Why didn't people just leave?

One guy did. He left the week he arrived and hopped on a plane to Columbia. For the most part, though, people have no where to go.

Wow, did they do nothing about it? Are there no watchtowers?

Not at camps, only cameras

Not too many unwritten rules... don't snitch is a big one, and also the ways limited recources were distributed, the lines for the phones, movies, computers ect

What was it like?

It wasn't bad, but it was incredibly boring. It's like being in a conscious coma.

There was no fence, it was a big compound with 1300 people in seven different units. There was a baseball court, pool tables, gym, and movie theater.

Except for the SHU (special housing unit) it didn't even feel like jail. I missed my family, women, Reddit, and alcohol a while bunch though

What movies would they play? How often would you have time to play ball?

Two movies a week. They had a contract with universal, so it was all fairly recent - avengers, iron man 3, ect. They actually played the star wars original trilogy my last weekend, and Patton on veterans day.

That's crazy. So it was more like adult sleep-over camp with guards and stuff?

Lol. "club fed" they call it.

What hours could you wander around, and what hours did you have to return to your cell?

Good question. The compound opened for breakfast at 6am and closed at 9pm. Then you could watch tv until midnight or 2am on weekends. You could go almost anywhere when the compound was open, as long as you signed out.

Sounds like rehab, honestly.

Rehab with less meetings

Could you explain some of the details behind getting sent to prison, like why your friend got a longer sentence, etc. ? Good luck to you on the outside too!

Thank you!

Ok, so I was a drug dealer. I started dealing at 15 and got indicted shortly after turning 18. I started out dealing pot, and then found there was much more money in Molly (mdma).

I was a rather small time dealer, making about two thousand dollars a week, and spending it all on weed, parties, and women.

My friend got in on the business, too, but we didn't really do business together. He had his market and I had mine.

Anyway, he made it really big, like $50,000 a month profit.

A 'friend' of ours who worked for my boy got caught, and worked directly with the feds to buy drugs from us.

He bought four ounces, or 2 grand worth from me, and tons more from my boy.

Right before they arrested us, the FBI sold my boy a gun. He got a five year enhancement fir that, and additional time for being the "ringleader".

Ok, so I was a drug dealer.

I don't know the first thing about logistics in your "industry", but did you yourself have a supplier? How exactly did you arrange drop offs with your clients/supplier to minimize risk?

Well, people have told me that I'm a dealer of death and evil and all that, but I look at it as one of the purest forms of business. What I mean by that is that it's business without government intervention through taxes and regulations.

Now, I'm currently working on a double major in econ/finance, and so many of the concepts are things drug dealers do intuitively.

In terms of the day to day "grind" - awesome. We had an international supplier who we never met face to face. The work involved going to parties and clubs and just asking "are you looking?" For bulk deals, I had a burner - a pay a you go cell phone.

Cool, just one follow up question... how did you meet the international supplier originally? How did he get the drugs to you?

Online, on an obscure website, kind of an underground Ebay. He just sent em through usps. They don't really check unless they have reason to.

Have you ever watched the HBO show, "The Wire"?

One of the major characters was taking business classes and asking very interesting questions of his professor.

If you have, you know what I'm talking about. If you have not, then I highly recommend it.

I have not but I'll check it out

You make it sound exotic and exciting like in the movies. But really it's easy (or was) to procure large amounts of methylone and sell it.

Oh be quite you damn aspie. Lmfao. It WAS exciting. I mean, the parties and money were exciting. Who cares how I got it?

I hope the little pussy who ratted you out gets his throat slit.

Live and let live

What was the first thing you did when you got out? Any reason behind it? Thanks for the AMA!

Ate guacamole while browsing Reddit!

Were you able to keep up to date on current events?

I read the wall street journal, and they had news TV

How much of your sentence did you get off for good behavior? What are your conditions on being released, parole officer, halfway house etc...

I got 45 days (you only getgood time for sentences over a year, hence the one year and one day), but I lost a month for taking a dozen hard boiled eggs out of the chow hall.

I'm at a halfway house now, but I'll be home next week. Then I have three years of probation, which can be dropped after a year without incident.

What were you going to do with all those eggs and how did you get caught?

Eat them! I was trying to get that money with 5000 calories a day. On the way out of the kitchen, the food service administrator saw the bulge. Real asshole. He said "you sons of bitches are robbing me blind". As if he paid for the food himself...

What is it like after a year of separation from society?

Nothings really changed... everyones dating the same people, doing the same shit.

What blew my mind is the people who had been down for decades. Imagine not seeing an iphone, or even a computer

I'm a cabbie. I gave a guy a ride from a fed lockup last week. He'd been in for ten years. I let him use my smart phone to make some calls. He knew about them, but hadn't used one, or seen one in person. He was blown away. Business was slow and he was waiting on a bus station to open so I bought him dinner and spent about thirty minutes looking at my phone and showing him different aspects and abilities of the phone. Good luck, brother.

That's awesome, you're a good man.

Any drugs or alcohol in a place like that or do they keep a pretty tight hold on things?

Pot, cigarettes, and alcohol. Some cell phones too. At a camp you have less than at a medium or high security because people don't want to get caught and sent somewhere higher

How is the bud normally smoked, and how do they take care of the smell? Plus, how much did it cost?

Out the back door of the unit our on the bathroom. $10 (paid in cans of mackerel fish) for a joint. They would look for gaps in the guard coverage. Oftentimes we didn't have guards in the unit

Can you explain why the hell cans of mackerel fish were currency? I get that you wouldn't have money or anything, but... fish, really? And wouldn't they be hard to pass around?

When I first heard the word "cans" in relation to a financial transaction, I nearly lost it.

Services were severely deflated, for instance, hair cuts were two cans.

You'd think stamps would be better, but you can always eat fish...

For the most part, you only needed about ten cans to get what you wanted. For amounts more than that, Pepe would send money directly to the commissary funds.

Two hundred cans looks ridiculous

damn, was it like a solid j, or was it like a .5 for it? I'm thinking it was most likely middies in them?

It was dank, but only .1 gram mixed in a spliff. I never smoked inside, but I assume that it would be enough to get you high after not smoking for a while

People really wanted pot so bad that they would risk a worse prison sentence?

I mean, you don't really think about it like that when you're already in prison. Plus, these weren't the smartest guys in the world. They've been gambling with the law all their lives

wow congrats on your breakout! do you find it harder to cope with getting jobs and shit like that? Also what is your family's output? Or are the just happy to see you :) ?

We still love him. Even though he is really stupid. Actually his sentencing has done wonders for me in our comment karma competition. This AMA is making me nervous though.

You'll never win! And remember our rule about not downvoting each other!

Thank you!

Well, I come from a really good family, and they have all (extended family as well) been beyond supportive. It was really eye opening and humbling for me in terms of how much love I received.

Jobs shouldn't be a problem. I feel most anyone I meet in person will give me a chance.

I feel most anyone I meet in person will give me a chance.

Still young and naive, it's so cute.

Well, I imagine this being down the road when I've acquired more wealth. If you're making a big business deal with someone, are you really going to cancel it because of a felony? Idk... I would hope not

Good luck to you in your job search. In this job market I would suggest only trying to get a job where you already know someone. Employers are picky and can be because there are plenty of qualified people to choose from. My experience (and my record doesn't have drug charges) is that it takes a VP or the like to make the decision to hire you not the typical hiring managers that it normally takes.

Hiding your charges are impossible because security companies are mining data on you as we speak and will save that data to look back on. Even arrests where I was not convicted of anything show up as red flags.

I honestly wish you the best of luck and my purpose of telling you all this is not to get you down, but to give you some insight that will hopefully make your search more fruitful.

I appreciate it! Well, like they say, it's not what you know, it's who you know.

Thanks for this super interesting AMA, and good luck with the rest of your life! I have a couple of questions if you're still going

• Are there any particular types of people who get picked on worst inside? You already said racism wasn't too bad, but as a skinny, fabulous 5'7 gay guy, I'm pretty afraid of prison.

• Was it easy to sort of just leave the contacts you had from the drug business? ie once you get sent down do they just no longer care, or are they harassing you to carry on as soon as you get out?

Glad you like it!

At a camp, it wasn't too bad in terms of that. Occasionally people would get slapped (not hit, slapped. It was weird...) There were actually a number of gays. All cool guys except one who sold bjs and wore kool aid lipstick, no one liked him, and the gay guys called him "her".

I worked in suburbia, selling to rich kids, so it wasn't really difficult to quit. All my customers were really supportive and understanding when i said that I was going to jail and couldn't hook them up anymore.

I can just imagine you casually calling up your friends and saying you are going to jail and they say, "K bro good luck."

Holy shit I lost it.

How has/will be your life affected because of this?

Well, besides the label and the year, hopefully it will be a positive growth opportunity. I met quite a few white collar criminals, and, since I want to go into business, I took notes on what they did wrong and how to avoid it.

So how long after parole ends will you start slinging again?

Ha. I realize there's more money and financial security in a legal job. Plus it's no fun having someone tell you when to eat and sleep.

more money

$2k a week from your previous comment, I take it that was revenue though...

Profit, lol. But money is literally everywhere. I could make money opening up a thrift store, I could make a living off a magazine...

I feel like I'm missing something about your connections.

Do you have a certain profession in mind?

CPA. Also would like to run my own business

So you went to prison for talking about doing something? Hope ya enjoying being out, good luck.

I don't understand?

The FBI busts "drug rings" by labeling them "conspiracies". I had never heard the term until I was indicted. There were nine guys on my case.

The FBI does this because they can charge you for "ghost dope" - if two people say you dealt drugs it's enough proof for them.

The FBI does this because they can charge you for "ghost dope" - if two people say you dealt drugs it's enough proof for them.

Thats fucked up, if true.

It's actually really common, and it gets worse. An old man in my unit who will probably die in prison got thirty years even though hr was trying to get his life together. Someone threw out his name to get a plea bargain and because he had priors, the judge convicted him.

Bullshit, everyone in prison says they are innocent.

Yea I thought that as well. Still tho, hard time for shit

.

It's interesting that you say that, because I meet a heroin dealer inside who thought heroin should be illegal. It was shocking to me that that was his view after seeing how corrupt or system is.

Did you browse reddit before going to prison?

Constantly

We use bananas as scalar reference now, so until I see one by your ID I'm assuming it's either the size of a postage stamp or a billboard.

See I missed all that. Lol. http://i.imgur.com/3rOlzan.jpg

How much money did you make all in all dealing? Has that all been confiscated now? What were your parents' reaction to your felony conviction? Were you a dickhead drug dealer, or were you a respectable dealer (relatively speaking, of course. Meaning, were you honest, or did you rip people off? Did you threaten and/or pull guns on people, etc.) In the end, was it all worth it?

Me and my boy together made about half a million. All was confiscated, and worse, my boy has a 1.1 million dollar restitution to part to his victims when he gets out. My parents were really angry at first, but they were so amazingly supportive throughout the sentence. I was one of the good ones. I would often give people discounts, freebies to repeat customers, etc. it's hard to make a lot of money if no one likes or trusts you. No guns receipt the one my boy bought right before getting arrested. Worth it? No. And i won't do out again, but it was a learning experience

Who on earth are his "victims"?

The good people of the united states who had to put up with his shenanigans

So... the government? You can be ordered to pay 1 million dollars to the government just because? In criminal court? For a drug crime?

That doesn't make any sense

I know I know! I didn't believe it either. I guess it's just to make sure we didn't hide any away.

Scariest thing you saw/heard whilst inside? Congrats on being out bro!

Thank you! Feels good man.

The thing that terrified me the most was RDAP (residential drug abuse program). Two units were reserved for this 'treatment'.

Basically, the BOP offers a one year reduction for successful completion of the nine month program. The scary part was that they could take away that year for anything they felt like, and the people running the program were on power trips. People lost time for using two dryers at the same time, or taking two pieces of fruit out of chow. One guy lost his year and was transferred to a medium because his cellmate had contraband.

What was the racial representation?

Pretty much all Negro

Negro?

You were in for how long?

Lmfao, yea, jail will make you racist

Was there anything your family did/ could have done to ease your time inside? I ask as a relative of a prisoner

Well, my family was unbelievable. They came up to visit often and stocked me with books.

The easiest thing you can do that means a lot to inmates is staying in touch. Any word from the outside is awesome, even if all you say is "I did the laundry today", or anything.

Did you have to share a prison cell? If yes, did you get on well with your co inmate(s)?

Well, at first i was in a wing with about 40 people on cubes, then I moved into a five man room. I mean, people get on your nerves with that kind of proximity, but you get used to it.

As you said you were almost 7 feet tall did this mean you were too big for everything in the prison, ie beds,doors... ?

Great question! Yes, doors are always a problem, but my feet hung of the bunk about six inches. People would hang laundry on my toes as a joke

I served a 12 month and one day sentence

You sure? There's only a ten month gap in your comments.

Edit: I was skeptical of OP's story, but found this article. The timeline of his comments still doesn't match the sentence length he stated, though he mentioned elsewhere getting 45 days off his sentence.

45 days good time and about one month halfway house. I actually wouldn't have gotten the 45 days if I'd only been sentenced to a year.

Yeah maybe he was held for a month, got bailed out, then had a month before court, and already technically served that one month time.

Oh yea, this too. i served two weeks in county during the indictment, bailed, and then self surrendered directly to the facility.

Ah ok that's what I assumed. Did they go easy since you self surrendered, or does that not play into the equation.

No, I mean it's just a nice thing to be able to do. Transit sucks, you fly around all over the country before getting to your final destination.

Do you feel reformed? Are you scared you might end up back in prison?

No, I feel boned by the system and I just want to get out for good (like off paper). So if you call that reformed, yes.

I am scared. I mean, I won't do anything explicitly illegal, but we were talking about the appropriateness of sleeping with a 17 yo. I said for me (20 yo), it shouldn't be socially immoral. But my friend said: oh well now that you're a felon, they'll fry you!

And i thought, damn, he's right. And it'll always be like that. Tax evasion? Guilty! He's a felon!

I hope your friend gets out okay, how did you pass the time behind bars? If you could go back, what would you have done differently?

Hopefully he'll be alright. Definitely going to help him or however I can.

Everyone has a job, mine was in food service. There were movies on the weekends, a weight pit, various sport leagues, and yoga classes.

I don't know if I'd do anything differently... I managed to take some college courses by mail and also got a fitness trainer certification, so I managed to use the time relatively productively.

That sounds much nicer than I expected, probably because most of my ideas about prison come from movies. Thanks for the great answer, and best wishes for your friend.

So were mine! You can imagine how terrified I was. It actually used to be even better, there was a pool and a golf course, but then reporters published stories saying "these prisoners are living better than we are!" So they filled the pill in with concrete and made the golf course out of bounds.

Wow, that is cruel! I hope that they decide to bring more nice things like that into prison, I don't see anything wrong with prisoners having access to these things. I suppose that there is the hypothetical risk that they might decide that they really like being in prison, but I haven't been there so I won't assume anything.

Yea, oh well. I mean, some people really seemed to like it. Think about it, you got nothing on the streets and then all of the sudden you have cable tv and the meals a day?

Every time I wished they had something, I reminded myself that it should be bad so I wouldn't go back.

They did have sriracha, though.

First off congratulations for getting out, and also having a plan for staying out, my question is how did you spend most of your free time?

Read a lot. Studied. Played cards, lifted weights. Played dungeons and dragons.

Was dungeons and dragons a popular prison activity? How often would you play?

Every night. It was for our group of 6, and people were always stopping by to see what we were doing.

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http://i.imgur.com/2RA5iR2.jpg

No way, I moved away from Morgantown recently and used to drive by that place a lot. What are you going to do for work now that that's on your record? I think it's wrong that people have records to begin with, because if you served your sentence, unless someone raped or killed someone then there is no reason that they should be discriminated against at the job.

Small world!

Well I'm interviewing at my old job at panera bread this week. Should be able to get that.

I've always wanted to run my own business, so that's always an option. One thing I did before prison was run a promotion company that through parties. I am definitely going to go back to that as well, hopefully have a successful club of my own soon.

It does suck, but I'm almost seven feet tall and I have decent people skills, plus I'm working on becoming a CPA. I hope that anyone who meets me in person will be more than willing to work with me, despite my past. Perhaps I could even spin it as a positive.

Did you ever feel for your safety in your prison? Was it a minimum-security prison? What was the worse offense that would get someone into minimum security but not medium or high security? What are the major differences between minimum and medium security (and high security)?

Never, thank god. Yes, it was a minimum. You have to be nonviolent and have less then ten years left to get into a camp. You're designation is based off a point system - you get points if you're violent, escape risk, ect. You lose points if you have a ged, are nonviolent...

There are 6 levels in the BOP: Level one camps (club feds, easy time) Level two lows (first level that is "behind the fence") Level three and four are mediums (this is where you start to see gang violence and rapes Level 5 USPs (Leavenworth. The worst of the worst. Hard time.) There's only one level six, in Marion. 23 hour lock down. Reserved for cop killers

Have u ever tought about planning an escape

Hahaha. We joked about it. There was no fence, so we said "here's the escape plan: choose any direction and start walking, avoid buildings".

Now, when I first got the charge I was really scared. They were talking twenty years, that's when I felt like fleeing to Canada.

I didn't see this question: What was your first meal when you were released?

Burger with guac and pepper jack cheese

Did you ever drop the soap?

Individual showers, so not a problem.

Does it weigh on your conscious that you have probably killed some one with your product? If not killed then ruined the lives of many.

Lol, no. I made people feel awesome.

The electronic music culture isn't really like that. They're all about peace and love and all that bullshit. The people who are overdosing at raves now are being sold bad drugs. Really, the government is the one fucking up people's lives

How was the sex?

I was at a camp (minimum security) with white collar and drug dealers. That isn't really an issue until you get to medium security prisons or USPs.

Could you get any drugs in there?

If so, what kind and how much did they cost?

Did you get bullied when you first came into the prison?

Make any friends that you plan to keep in touch with?

Whatd you do to pass the time?

No bullying, cigarettes were the main thing at a few bucks a piece. definitely met some good people. We played dungeons and dragons a lot, plus the typical prison stuff, cards, weights, tv...

I've heard a lot of this about jail- were many people there who were clearly mentally ill?

Yea, I mean, the saddest part was seeing the guys who were just destroyed by the system. Institutionalized, you know? They would buff and mop for hours each day to make their cubes look like bowling alleys.

I think you have more of that in county jails, places that oftentimes scoop homeless off the streets.

Did you learn your lesson?

Well, my mistaken assumption was that the cops were content to just keep it out of stores. Now I know better.

Don't know if this was already asked or not but how much sex really goes on in there?

Well, at an FCI it was all consensual. In the biggest unit, the "thunderdome" they supposedly had a "horse stall", named because of the four legs inside

Do you have a job lined up already? Have you experienced discrimination based on your legal history?

Also, did you ever write or receive letters while in prison? I hear that a lot of prisoners do that to be occupied for a little while.

I should be going back to the same job. I hope I won't have too much trouble... Yea I sent a bunch of letters. There was also a sort of email system.

Ah, cool. Well, good luck to you, man!

Thanks!

How did the police operate while investigating the ring? Did they do a huge bust after they got enough evidence?

Check out my response to shotinthederp