Calif. Prison Series Part 10

[jenjocson]

I hope you know how many peoples lives/hearts you have affected. Hats go off to you for taking the time to shed some light on an issue that for many of us including myself seems foreign. So thank you for your insight, its really appreciated! But don't stop now...your on a roll!!!

[MrsDoughty]

Thank you so much for this series!
You really put a lot in perspective and eased a lot fears I have for my husband being in prison. Yea, its not his first term. But, its my first as a Prison Wife.

You rock!

[marie8899]

Thank you so much for this valuable series! I wondered if it is permissible to send parts or all of these articles to an inmate who is new to the prison system. I don't want to do anything inappropriate, because I don't want to lose access to this forum or to cause my son problems.

Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by KConnor56

OK, guys & gals, more lose ends, & nitty gritty stuff about Calif. prisons.

I do want to take this oportunity to thank everyone for their kind words, & support in my writing of this series, & for Barbara for making them a permanant part of this forum. I trully am overwhelmed by this whole thing.

Menolly, started on me last year to put my thoughts down, with writing a book as the plan. I doubt that it will happen, but her guidence, inspiration, love, & support, have gotten me to the point where I can now do this.

OK, I think I'm going to be talking about all the stuff associated with being short (I don't mean how tall you are), getting released, work furloughl, etc.

As far as I'm concerned, anyone doing, or having less than a year left is short. Short meaning, your sentence is short, & your going home soon. When you have years to do, you can do two things, you can get a program, STFU, & do your time, or you can hard time it. Hard timing is stressing over what is happening on the streets, on things you have no control over. Trippin' on your girlfriend/wife. Marking each day on a calendar, your your own worse enemy. When you have a program, your time goes by smoothly. Some guys say short is less than 6 months, some like me a year. Most guys go through an attitude change when they get short. They start thinking about getting out, what theyre going to do, making release plans, & yes, the dreaming, & schemeing starts. You realize your not going to be around much anymore. I at least mellowed out a lot, as I didn't let things get to me as much as I did before. Hey, I'm going home, no worries, here. I would plan out my last packages, make arrangements to get any tattoes I wanted , & to collect any souveigniers to bring home. Make plans for my dress outs, if I'm going to take a bus, or get picked up at the gate. I might even relax & accept a visit or two, LOL. I begin to lighten up on the convict mentality. Yet, the most important thing, is to stay out of trouble. You don't want to pick up a case when your short. You've got a date, & it's close, you don't want to screw it off. Now in Calif. prisons when you get REAL short, like 14 days to the house, they put you on "S" Time. When you get to S time you lose your job, & can only hang out in your cell/dorm, on the yard. It is the most boring time, worse than reception, because your just waiting to be released. They are also doing last minute credit/time calculations, & warrent checks, & your just hoping everything comes out OK. They give you a piece of paper & you have to have the various dept.'s sign you out. The library, so you don't have any books you haven't returned, or owe any money for missing books, hobby shop in case you owe any money for supplies. Your job, so that you have returned anything you may have, like gloves, etc. You turn in all your laundry, except for one set of clothes, & if any are damaged, or lost, they will charge you. They do this to clear out your trust account, where all your money is. They run your name through interpol, to make sure your not wanted anywhere outside the US, & they run you through NCIC, to see if your wanted inside the US, & they run you through the Calif. system to see if you have anything, no matter how small holding you up here. If you do have warrents, they let you know & put a hold on you. They then make arrangements to send you to who ever wants you. They will hold you for like 5-10 days, & if they don't come to pick you up or make other arrangements, they will either out right release you, or sight & release you (Give you a ticket, where you promise to appear in court to take care of what ever it is they want you for). They also recalculate your time, & credits. We have what is called "E" time, for excused time off. When, your working you earn 1/2 day every month of E time. You use this time for doctors visits, lay ins (Where the doctor tells you not to work for so many days, if you miss a day of work for visits, or any reason for you to miss a day, that isn't the fault of the prison. If you take more days off than you have E time to cover, they will push your release date back. I have seen release dates pushed back as far as two weeks, because a guy took too much time off work. I tried to tell him, but he wouldn't listen, he thought because the doctor said he didn't have to work, that it wouldn't count against him. He was wrong. During this time you make all your deals to get rid of all the stuff you've accumulated. It's easy to get stuff on the streets, & hard to get stuff inside, plus someguys never have the money to buy, fans, or steroes, etc. You get rid of everything you don't want to take with you.It's a prisoner rule that you have to leave behind any walkman tape players, because they make tatt guns out of them. The night before your release, you get a ducat (a pass) that tells you to report to R&R in the morning for release. Once you have this ducat, you know your going home, so you spend the rest of the night giving your stuff away, & paying your respects, & goodbyes. There's always the "Lets hook up on the streets" deals, but they seldom ever happen, & when they do, they seldom work out. The wierdest thing is, I never had a problem sleeping the night before being released. I would get up, go to breakfast, say my last goodbyes, & head off to R&R. In R&R, they just process you out. This is where the high for me starts. It's hard to explain, but it is the strongest natural high, I have ever felt. Some guys get right down giddy, everyone is laughing, a lot of nervouse energy. You go into see the R&R CO, hand in you ID, & get you $200.00 ($1.10 per day, $200.00 max) gate money, & all the money in your trust account. Then you dress out. If you have your own personal clothes, you wear the, if you have had dress outs sent in, they give you those, if you have neither, you can buy a set of prison blues, or you can wear clothes that have been donated (These are pretty trashy). I bought prison blues once, & I think it cost me like 25.00. If your being picked up, they tell you if your people have arrived, if they haven't your getting on the bus for the ride to the bus station. They load everyone into two van buses, one goes to the gate for people getting picked up, the other is going to the bus station. At the bus station, they will either drop you off, & tell you not to F**K up, or they will buy your tickets & wait till you get on the bus. YOU ARE NOW OFFICIALLY OUT OF PRISON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is no other feeling like it in the whole world.

There is one dirty little secret about S time. Some guys get jelouse, or trip on guys getting released. They also know you are doing everything you can to stay out of trouble so you don't screw off your date, so they will screw with you. On a couple of the yards I was on, the white guys would look out for each other, & if anyone gave a guy on S time any problems, guys with time to do, would take cvare of it, so the short guy would get his date screwed off. We took care of our guys, & we were taken care of.

Now for the big CDC Pie In The Sky. The carrot at the end of a stick. The Trap!!!
Work Furlough. This is really a messed up program, & I always avoided it like the plague. I was give good advice by an old school con, & over the years I watched, & he was right. Work furlough is nothing but a trap. Do you guys honestly think CDC cares if you make it on the outside? Do you think they are going to make it easy for you? This program is run by the same people who have ran the prison you've been locked up in. Do you think you can trust them? Do you think they care? Hell no!!!
First off, you can only apply 6 months to the house. Your name goes on a list, & you wait for your name to get to the top of the list, then you wait till a bed opens up at the place your going to be sent. There is no telling when this could be. You are give a 1 day notice. "Your leaving tommorrow". I have never seen anyonne go to work furlough with more than 90 days left on their sentence, & have seen a couple guys go with just a couple weeks left. Once you sign up for it, you can't refuse it. You have to go. Most of these places are old motels CDC has taken over, & they are dumpy. They give you $100.00 from your gate money (You get the other 100 when you get out). They put you in a room with one other guy. While at work furlough, you are still considered "in custody", so you can get 115's, & 128's (These are write ups, 115 are major, & will get you sent to the hole, & loss of time, 128's are minor, & usually mean extra work, or warnings.). In your room, you are responsible for anything found in the room, unless the guilty party cops to it (good luck). You have to follow their rules to the letter. You have to look for work. You have to be back at a specific time. If your caught somewhere your not supposed to be, come back late, or screw up, they write you up & send you back to the joint. You can't drink any alcohol, or do any drugs. They will test you. You can have visits, but no sex. There are all these temptations just waiting for you to screw up, & when you do, they come down on you hard. I have never met anyone who has done it successfully. Everyone I know who has gotten work furlough, or I've talked to who has gotten it all ended up back in prison with more time. One guy went to work furlough 20 days to the house & ended up back in prison with 6 more months to do, & thats not even the worse story. It sound good, but like everything, if it sounds good, it aint. Especially if it's from CDC. It is possible to do it, but you would have to really toe the line, not even think about screwing up, & be very lucky. Everyone thinks they can do it, but to acctually do it is another story. One beer, one side trip to the girlfriend to get laid, one joint, one party with friends, one late bus, & your back in the joint with more time. Thats a very big gamble. It really is better just to stay in prison, do your time, & get released.


Be sure and Read all 10 Parts of the California Prison Series - "What California Prison Is Like" - listed below!

PART ONE - Introduction & Rules

PART TWO - Reception

PART THREE - Clarification on fights, riots & stabbings & Rape

PART FOUR - Your New Home & Job, House Rules, Phone Calls & Such

PART FIVE - Drugs, scams, & schemes

PART SIX - California Prison Horror stories

PART SEVEN - (CCF's) Community Correctional Facilities

PART EIGHT - Prison Gangs, Racism, Correctional Officers, Mail, Visits, Phone Calls, and Questions & Answers

PART NINE - Points / Levels, 3 Strikes Law, Ad-Seg / SHU / Protective Custody

PART TEN - Short Time, Release, Work Furloughs, etc

[cblack23]

Years later and your writing is still having great effect on us, thanks Ken. Belfast huh? Emerald Isle is my favorite place.

[amala]

Thank you to cover so much. I read all 10 parts and a lot of my questions were answered. My daughter in ccwf just got sentenced to about a year. she is still in yard A. I am very worried about what happens to her in there. she is not street smart! any tips on how to survive with minimum damage in there? unfortunately she has DV so even thought her time is short, she may end up in level 3 based on your writing.
By the way, keep writing if you can. I think the stories from inside as bad as it sounds at times, will ease a mother's concern just knowing what is going on with their child in there. Thank you

[amala]

OH... Are you writing from inside the prison right or you are already out?

[hottmama21]

Wow!!! I just started reading the series and I think its great!!! Keep it up :-)