Robert's story- in his words

[Lucrisid]

Gosh- I just checked to see if there's a new chapter... .
Have to repeat myself... this is a very interesting story!!!

[shortnswt]

Jeni-

I don't respond on this board very often but what can I say ... I mean goodness I have never been so moved. While reading this I had semi flashbacks of things in Michael's life that I experienced and things in his past I heard about. Roberts story has touched me in a way neither of you will ever know. Thank you so much for sharing it.

Vada

[bryanssong]

interesting.

[cherrie]

Jeni and Robert, wow jeni thank you for sharing this with us and I can't wait for the next chapter. I love to read and this has defintely kept me in suspense. Robert, my friend you have been given a gift of writing and I truly hope that you might think about writing a book. You know how to capture the audience and keep it interesting which most writers hem haw and then bring to a end and your like what. And it seems you have been given a gift many would love to have and there isn't like a real true story it is always so much more interesting to read then them fantasy ones by all means.I am truly looking forward to reading more!!!!!

Thanks again Jen and you to Robert for allowing us to read it!
Best of the best for you!!!!
Cherrie from tx

[Jeni]

DISCLAIMER: These are Robert's thoughts. ...the views contained in this post are not necessarily that of jeni or pto and are not intended to elicit rage or controversy...thank you!
JACKSON STATE PRISON-
There were around 8 of us leaving from the county jail on our way to Jackson. Of course we had on our leg shackles and belly chains. It was the beginning of January 1999, and we were loaded into the back of a van with the windows open. We didn't have any coats or anything to keep us warm. As soon as the van hit the highway, we were devestated by the freezing wind. We all huddled together as best as we could to fight the cold. In the front of the van, the cops laughed because they had protective clothing and heat. The ride lasted for 2 hours. When we turned off the freeway, there it was, what they called "the wall". Jackson state prison is the largest walled prison anywhere. There's a massive cement wall surrounding it and you can't see anything on the other side. On the other side of the prison, all you can see are rows and rows of razor wire. Just the sight of the prison is so scary, you have to appreciate it. It's everything a prison "should" be, straight out of the movies, sort of like a haunted building. On one side is a cemetery where men have died and had no family to claim their body. They burn your body, then dump your ashes into a 5 gallon bucket and bury you. All I could think was "please God, don't let me die here".
So they took us in, strip searched us, and made us shower while a woman officer watched. I didn't think a woman could watch, but as I find out later, in prison-there are no rules. They took our pictures and all the necessary procedures, then marched us down a long hallway. Now all the guys I've talked to told me about what was coming next. They said at first sight of "7 block", I would feel weak in the knees. So down the hall we walked, we turned the corner, and Oh My God! There it was, the notorious 7 block. Five stories high for as far down as you could see, nothing but cages painted with yellow bars. My knees did go weak, and I felt like falling down. It was breathtaking, all you could do was look up at all those cells and say "whatever it was I did to get here, I know I am not getting out of this one."
Imagine if you will, standing in the Vatican. On each side are about 300 cells. To coincide with the lock is the awesome roar of noise from all the prisoners, and the huge crashing sound that the cell doors make when they open the gates, about 70 at a time, crashing in unison. I'll never forget that sound. In fact, I don't ever want to forget that sound.
Your first concern when you step in side your cell is how to make it live-able. All you can think of is "germs" YUK!!! So after you've washed all the shit off the toilet seat, and I do mean shit, then you do what you can to clean the sink with the toilet paper you have been given.
Well, thats where you stay for about a month while they examine and classify you mentally and physically until you are designated to a prison. My first prison, I was to be shipped to Saginaw Michigan, a level 2, I was still a fish, and did not know anything. I was naieve to the fact that I was to be locked up with the same prisoners doing 10, 20, and 50 years.
This is where I started to learn about racism. Before I get into all that, let me give you a little bit of history about myself and my feelings toward racism.
Now I come from a fairly typical middle class white family. My parents taught me all the correct behaviors before leaving home at 15. Although they taught me "politically correct" ways, the underlying prejudice was always there. Dad would complain about people he worked with, and mom would yell at him "Bob, don't use that language around the kids."
Then, when I was 20 years old, as I have already told you, I moved to Hollywood, California, in pursuit of a music career. It was there that I learned, and believed in what was "the happening" music. The music I was into was a form of alternative music that promoted open mindedness, and racial harmony. During my 8 years there, I had two "black" girlfriends. Even now, having to describe them as "black" seems to be doing them a dis-service because I view them as individuals. (Just like saying I have a "white" girlfriend, or "asian" girlfriend. You know what I am trying to say)
One of my favorite sayings is "love sees no color". This racial integration is very common in California. Later of course, I 've told you about how I had participated in the riots of LA. Now you have to understand where I was coming from. Everything I stood for, everything I was fighting for, was against racism.
So, as I was saying, my first prison I was shipped to was in Saginaw, Michigan.
When I got there, I was surprised by how much freedom we had to mingle amongst the other prisoners. All we had to do was be in our cells during certain count times. When I first got there, I began talking to a guy who was a "nazi". I really wanted to listen to his views on prejudice so I could make a decision for myself, but after listening to him, it occurred to me that he was just a dumb hillbilly with a lot of hate in him. God I can't stand people like that. You know the type, small towns can breed small minds.
Later that day, the Aryan Nation wasted no time at all in approaching me. A member came to me and tried to recruit me, but I gracefully declined saying I was trying to stay neutral. He said "well, we'll look out for you anyways". Now at the time, I guess they knew what was better for me more then I did. These guys who had already been down for some time and understood how prison gangs worked. At higher level prisons, you NEED the protection of "your own people"-that is, your "own skin color". Like it or not, thats just the way it is. My first incident, I was sitting at dinner when for some reason I got into some sort of argument with a black guy. I don't remember what it was, but I stood up because I got pissed about something. All of a sudden, about 6 other white guys stood up too. They were from the Aryan Nation. They asked me if I was ok, I said, well..yea, and everyone sat down. For that brief moment, if felt very powerful. These guys were ready to go to bat for me. I didn't want to cause any problems but they obviously knew something I didn't.....right?
Later I started learning about the common hate that the races have for one another. Inside here you have 2 major groups-the white gang-the Aryan Nation, and the black gang-the Mobyts. Stay away from both if you can.
The next prison I was transferred to was Camp Ottowa in the U.P. of Michigan. This is the lowest security prison that a person can be held in, but it is where I have seen the most violence. I was certainly aware of all the racism, but I still tried to be neutral. I hung out with everyone. Well I had become friends with a black guy who was a Mobyte gang member. He had already been down for 5 years and he was huge from lifting weights. Soon he became my trainer. For the most part, I think I was well respected by everyone. I hung out with everyone but still spoke proper English. Alot of the time, guys start talking like they're from the ghetto, when they're not. There are terms for these guys, and they are looked upon as being weak within themselves. The fact that they feel they have to talk a certain way to fit in with a certain group.
Black men respect you if you just be who you are. As a white man with alot of pride, I see it as a total disgrace to disrespect the upbringing your family gave you for all those years, just to come to the joint, and start talking trash. There's an old saying in here. "You don't have to lie to kick it with us" and it is so true.
Well, like I was saying, my trainer was a "Mobyte" named "Country". A huge black man. Anyways, we were real tight, I mean good friends, until one day he flipped out on me and called me a "bitch". That one word is the worst thing you can say to a guy in prison. It means you must fight otherwise EVERYONE will be punking you out and pushing you around. For God's sake, why do we have to have this stupid prisoner's code of conduct? But, you must live by it. So I tried to save face without fighting with him, but before I knew it, he was beating me up REAL bad. He hit me SO many times, and so fast, I didn't know what was going on. When it was over, I had a fractured nose, a broken rib, and a huge black eye. Even "County's" own people somewhat disowned him afterwards. It was the same as me beating on someone in the 6th grade. Of course, everyone ratted us out for fighting and the cops tried to get me to snitch, but I didn't and this got me a lot of respect from everyone. But all in all, you know what, fighting is just a part of prison. All you can hope for is that you don't come out looking any different from when you go in. After the fight, the cops started writing "Country" tickets for everything and subjecting him to constant cell searches. I guess they figured they'd get him one way or another.
My next fight was with a white guy named Jerome. He had called me a "bitch" and so I socked him in the eye. End of story.
The next time wa a black guy named Clark. He jumped me when I was coming out of my cell because I put carrots on his plate when I was working in the kitchen. He choked me until I couldn't get air, and I passed out. My body went into convulsions but I was ok. After about 10 minutes.
In all my time I've seen guys stabbed, I've seen them get their heads split open with locks. That's just the way it is.
Continued...............

[Jeni]

I spent a year and a half at that prison. Then I was transferred to a couple others before the end of my prison bit. Finally I was put into a behavior modification program called CPI in Waterford, Michigan. While I was there, there was a bully gang banger named Scott. This was a program that had men and women in it. Most of the people there were sentenced there from the county, meaning they did no prison time. There were a few of us from prison. I was in the best physical shape I have ever been in-two and a half years of lifting weights. By now I was also a little wierded out from all I had seen. Anyways, Scott was a bully who thought he was REAL tough. He would push everybody around and steal things from them. Everyone was scared of him because they had never been to prison. In prison, guys like Scott were a dime a dozen. One day, Scott started mouthing off to me. He told me he wanted the chair that I was sitting in. I said "well, why don't you get another one and sit with us"? He said "no, I want THAT chair you little bitch". OOOPS. There's that magic word! I went into the room where he was locked up at, and I waited for him. I was fuming!!!! When he came in- WHAM! I beat the everlasting hell out of him! I beat him so bad they had to take him to the hospital and put stitches in his face. For once, the blood on the ground WAS NOT MINE!!!! (Hee Hee) I was so proud, and everyone else was happy too. Of course I got busted for this one and 3 months was added on to my sentence.
Now do you see what was happening to me? I was transformed from a peaceloving man into an agressive fighter. It was all wrong and I knew it. I remember thinking back that when I first came into the system, I was constantly scared about what might happened to me. Towards the end of my bit, I had been transformed into a warrior with no fear what so ever. Something really strange happened, when you start, you're afraid of fighting, afraid of getting hit. After so many fights, you get really used to being hit. All that fear is gone. And most of all your fights' aren't like the drunken bar brawls you see, or maybe that fight or two you had in high school that lasts a few minutes. No these fights seem to last forever, no one to stop them, only those heartless bastards that watch for entertainment. I remember at one prison up north, there were so many fights, I used to jump off my bed and run out of my cell to watch. Well, after so much time, I even became lazy as far as this was concerned. I mean, you could hear guys fighting, but I was too lazy to get off my bed. I figured, well, I'll hear what happened tomorrow. I used to have a couple of friends that were locked a couple of cells down from me. The one night that I got beat up really bad, they said the only reason they got up off their beds to watch was because they never heard someones head hit the wall so much.
So like I was saying before going off on a tangent, I served an extra 3 months for that last fight in a disgusting technical rule violations prison. The sewage was leaking out of the toilets, and every day they would take us out into the world to go out on work crews. Since there was no tobacco allowed, a guy could make a lot of money by organizing a "tobacco drop", and then smuggle it in by stuffing it up his ass. These men were known as "keister bunnies." Did I ever do it you ask?......No comment, but I will telll you this: it's just a part of being locked up.
Ok, telling you about the Keister bunnies just reminded me of the funniest story ever. Oh my God it is funny! And since you have come to expect only the highest quality of entertainment reading from me (hee hee) ...I must tell you about it. I am sure Jen will love me for telling you, but Jeni and I have an agreement. I'd do this story as long as she copies it word for word.
JENI'S SIDE NOTE: Damn you Robert for making me type this!!!!!!!!! LOL
continue...........
Now lets see. Ahhhh yes........."keister Bunnies". You see my friends, the way it's supposed to work is this. You take a plastic sandwich baggy and put a small amount of tobacco in it. (about a quarter ounce) Then you take it and compress it and wrap it up so it's about the size of 1/2 a cigar. Then you steal some of those white surgical gloves that the cops use to do strip searches. Then you put the tobacco into one of the fingers of the gloves and tie it off, and then tear if off from the rest of the glove. For added protection, re-tie it off in several fingers to add extra layers. This is what is called a "plug". Then you smear a little vasoline on it and , well, stick it where the sun don't shine.
Now you want to wait until the last possible time frame before you actually do this cuz it automatically feels like you have to s#*t. After your strip searched, you go to the bathroom, sit on the toilet, and wrap toilet paper around your hand to make a "catchers mitt", then you catch it as it's coming out. Careful though, this triggers "movements" afterwards. Then you wash it off, remove the plastic coatings, and Wa Lah! you have a bag of tobacco. This is also the way drugs are smuggled into prison but Iwas never into that because I came to prison to get OFF drugs, not to stay on them.
Now thats the way it's supposed to work out, but......This one particular day, the cop assigned to us was an hour late coming to work. Our work crew would go from location to location cleaning YMCA'c, etc. At one location we would pick up the tobacco. At the next we would make our plugs, and at the last one, just before going back to the prison, we would "keister" our plugs. Now with any luck, you'll have a bowel movement before putting your plug up. (you know, it's much more comfortable) Well, I came back from the bathroom with my plug in place and we were waiting to leave. All of a sudden, my boss looks at us and says "since I was an hour late today, we're staying another hour". We all just looked at one another like "oh sh*t!" So I tried to wait, but believe me friends when I tell you, my stomach started to churn and I knew what was coming. "Oh, I can't believe this-i am not going to make it, I'll get busted!-DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!" Well, when you gotta go, you gotta go, and no matter what, you gotta save the tobacco at all costs cuz at $5 a cigarette, your holding about $75-100.
JENI'S SIDE NOTE: I swear this is almost done!!! LOL
continued...
So I went to the bathroom, made my little toilet paper catchers mit, and well, damn. AFTER the clean up process, I was ready to re-do the whole plug thing. But wait, no vasoline! I used it all up the first time since we only bring a little, enought for one time. What the hell was I going to do? Now, somewhere along the line, someone had told me NEVER EVER use liquid soap. But I looked over onto the sink and there was a bottle of peach scented liquid soap. "Peach-what can be so harmful about that?"
So I did what was needed. Well, about 3 seconds later...........Fire-Fire-Fire! HEEEELLLLPPPPP!!!!! Again I quickly made another catchers mit, praying to God all the while, I mean Damn! I was foaming!!!!! There were bubbles!!!!
At this point, I was so disturbed and frustrated by the whole situation, I just wanted it to all end. I wanted the cops to bust the door in and take me away. And, that my friends, was the last time I EVER smuggled in ANY tobacco.
I do hope your laughing right now because it really was hilarious! Yup, I am gonna tell you the harsh realities of prison life!!!
Well now 2 1/2 years later, I was finally allowed to go to the center halfway house in Pontiac, Michigan. There I was allowed to be in a work release program. While there, I got a job washing dishes at a restaurant called "Fox & Hounds" in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Two and a half years later, and then I met her, Jeni........

[flygirlaa2]

Hey, this is good, keep typin girl

[Jeni]

DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!! I had finished this ALMOST to the end, and my cat Josie jumped on my lap. Well, where did her paws go??? DAMN!!!!!!! Now I have to re-type. DAMN!!! LOL
Ok......
She was beautiful.
JENI'S SIDE NOTE- I swear I didn't threaten him! LOL
continued...
She was voluptious, just the way I like, big boobs and all!
JENI'S SIDE NOTE: objects in mirror are larger then they appear? LOL
continued......
But the most striking thing about her was her big blue eyes. Well, pretty soon it was obvious we had the "hots" for one another, so I went to her parents and asked permission to date her. Her mom wanted to know if my crime I went to prison for was a sex crime, and since it wasn't , they said it was ok. (?) I think they trusted me because I was one of thier hardest workers and I have some things going for me.
Believe it or not, I am very trustworthy, and I am damn good looking (grin) and I have a HELLUVA personality!!! Who could not love me???
Well, it wasn't long before I moved in with Jeni. She's got a sparkling personality and together we never stopped lauging. And the &$%$^$%^$* was great!!!<---edited by Jeni!!!!!!!!*
I am not going into detail!!! (Jeni's note "no your not!!!")
So anyways, life was really good. I was living with Jeni, I worked at the restaurant on weekends, and during the week, I worked as an electrician and attended electrical school. Everything was fine until one day I thought I could use heroin just once, and not get addicted again! Well, needless to say , one time turned into a week long binge. I knew where I'd end up, so I made the decision to go to a state sponsored methadone program. In all actuality methadone is no better then heroin. it's just state sponsored drugs, cheaper, and better and more addictive.
So for the next year, I continued school, work, and stayed on methadone. Everyting was alright until one day, i told my parole agent I was on methadone. She freaked right out! "I am ordering you to stop methadone use immediately!" Well i was on 100mgs which is a lot. If I stop it cold turkey, my body could go into seizures. She said "if you go into seizures, call an ambulence" Yea right, while I am laying on the ground shaking, I'll just pick up the phone and call. Needless to say, I didn't stop, she placed me in a couple of rehabs which didn't work out. I knew it deep down from the first time I picked up again where I would end up. It was just a matter of time. Sometimes the most important lessons in life take the longest to learn.
All in all, towards the end, I begged my parole officer to put me back in here. I viewed it as some "fine tuning" I needed to straighten out where I had momentarily messed up. So there I went one last time, my second time to prison. GOD, It was so different this time, so embarassing, so degrading.
By the way, before I forget, I would like to mention that in the past several years I've been tested for HIV several times, and if you can believe it, I am clean. I am very very fortunate. God loves me so much for some reason, and I don't know why.
Well, now I was back in prison, a couple of months at county jail which were fairly hard, coming off drugs and all. Now back to Jackson.
After a month there, I saw the parole board and they recommended a 6 month flop. Now that recommendation still had to go back to Lansing to be reviewed by the other board members. This process takes up to 45 days. During this time I was kept at Jackson. Then one day a counselor from Jackson called a bunch of us into his office. He said, and I quote "The ony reason I called you in here is because I've called Lansing and the parole board had decided to give you one year or more. BUT.....we here at Jackson WILL let you go to a new 6 month program. You will not get any credit for the 3 months you have already been locked up, and you must also sigh a paper giving away all your rights as a prisoner".
Well naturally we all signed, and a month later we were transferred to the new program in Coldwater, Michigan.
About 4 weeks later, the parole board sent us our final decision in the mail. They agreed to give us our recommended 6 months with all credited time so I would have been out in 3 more months. BUT.....it was too late. We had already signed up for the damn prgram so we were forced to stay in it. These bastards had lied to us, and there was nothing that we could do.
Now I hope I haven't made it sound like ANY time in prison is somehow bear-able, but if you have to do the time, you have no choice, just do it. But to trick a man under false pretenses into doing more time for no reason is so SO wrong. These people who are responsible should be the ones executed as far as I am concerned.
Well the new program was the foulest place I have ever experienced in prison. We were gunieapigs. The people in charge didn't know what they were doing. They gave us a rule book, but changed the rules every day. All under the threat of being kicked out. Once you were kicked out, they said we would have to do two more years minimum.
JENI's NOTE-there's not too much more, but my fingers are SO tired. I will write the end tomorrw. Robert took alot of time to write this down, and I apprecitate those of you who have read it. Thank you!

[Valerie]

Thank you Jeni, I appreciate you for typing it, and Robert for writing it.

[cherrie]

Thank you jeni and yes of course Robert. Take a rest I will be looking forward to reading the rest when your fingers are ready to typed more.

Cherrie from tx

[TxRenee]

Thanks Jeni for typing Roberts words for us to share with us..and Thanks so much Robert for writing this for us. I am printing this out and taking home to complete the reading I can hardly wait.
Thanks again to you both
Renee

[IRIST]

ROBERT, YOU WRITE A GOOD STORY, WHEN YOU GET OUT IT SEEMS TO ME, MAYBE YOU HAVE FOUND YOUR CALLING IN LIFE, WRITING, MAYBE THAT WAS WHAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR INSTEAD OF HOLLYWOOD AND JUST DID NOT KNOW IT, YOU HAVE SUCH A GOOD THING WITH WORDS, PUT IT TO GOOD USE WHEN YOU ARE IN THE FREE WORLD AGAIN, MAYBE YOU COULD TALK TO KIDS AT SCHOOLS AND LET THEM HEAR YOUR STORY, IF YOU KEPT JUST ONE PERSON OUT OF PRISON THAT WOULD BE A BLESSING. SO KEEP THE GOOD WORK GOING, DONT STOP WITH YOUR LIFE LET YOUR LIFE HAVE AN IMPACT ON ANOTHER LIFE THAT NEEDS HELP IN FINDING THEIR WAY. GOD BLESS YOU AND THANK YOU FOR SHARING WITH US YOUR DOWNFALL BUT ALSO YOUR SEEING THE LIGHT TO THE END OF THE TUNNEL THAT WAS SO DARK, YOU MUST HAVE HAD THAT GUARDIAN ANGEL WALKING ALL THE WAY WITH YOU THRU LIFE AND SHE GOT TIRED OF ALL THE RUNNING AND DRUGS SHE PUT A STOP TO YOUR BAD LIFE AND SHOWED YOU A BETTER WAY.

[Jeni]

Oh Irist, you brought tears to my eyes.
That's all I am going to say-
I am printing this out and letting HIM see it for himself.
Again, thank you. You don't know how much that meant.

[Jeni]

Basically the program consisted of waking us up at 5 am, and keeping us awake until 9pm. We were to stay awake all day without being given anything to do, no tv, no nothing. We could watch religious videos thought, and this is where one of the problems was.
They had Catholic videos, and they had Muslim videos, and they had videos by Louis Farakhan. (sp)
My friends, do us all a favor, if you ever see Farakhan, spit on him. He is the biggest racist I have ever seen. He's a self proclaimed muslim and all he does is preach hatred. He's very good at what he does. Through the the whole mesmerizing speech on the video, he hypes people up with hatred, and then at the end of the video, as I KNEW he would, he tells people to send him money because "the revolution is coming and we need to be ready". People buy it hook, line, and sinker. He's no different then any of our past religious con-men. So every night these morons would watch this and then the arguments and fights would start. It was so frustrating. In one prison, I've never seen so much hatred, constantly, all day long. There was no where to hide, no where to get away from it.
Anyways, as you may know, I was kicked out after getting 2/3 of the way through. The reason I was kicked out officialy was for "engaging in acts of corruption". In reality, what I was doing was smuggling coffee into the program, since we weren't allowed to have extra food or coffee. I'm sorry folks, yes I did it, but I just LOVE my coffee. Looking back now, yea, I am sorry.
So now I have been given another year for my beloved coffee. Damn!
So now I sit at a prison in Adrian, Michigan. When I got here, some guys started telling me that 70-90% of the guys here are criminal sexual conduct cases. What? I've never raped anyone, and I don't touch little boys or little girls. But now that I have been here for a month, I have noticed something kind of interesting. In other prisons, there is a certain amount of racial tension. I mean, it's a constant factor. Imagine being tense all day from wake to sleep, not knowing if you were going to get into it with someone or not. In short, , men in prison have a certain amount of hate which can get directed towards another race. But in here I have noticed they channel their hate towards the CSC people. It gives them SOMEONE to hate. I guess it takes the tension out of the racial tension.
As for as me personally, I view myself as somewhat of a scale to balance out whatever feelings are around. I can be just as dangerous as the next guy, but I prefer not to be. Any kind of violence or hatred is such a waste of energy and disturbs the natural flow of doing time.
Now I am really tired of writing all this crap , but before I close I'd like to say a couple things.
Prison is hell, the cops are foul, and they write you tickets for things you didn't do. I know they've planted knives on people before costing them to do extra years on their time.
Prisoners are foul, they too plant things in your cell to get you bolted up.
God I wish you all could see what I've seen through my lifetime. To experience what I have. It's truly been an honor to know all the people throughout my life time out there, and in here too. For the most part, there is a common bond we all share once you take away all the bullsh*t and politics of prison life, that is we are all men doing time. As the human species, we are kind and caring by nature, and yes some do disrupt the flow, but as I am learning, they just don't know yet.
Also, I wish and hope that you people out there who know someone in prison, treat them the same way Jeni has treated me. She's been a savior through all of this, this time I have been locked up for 7 or 8 months so far. I have at least 110 (I just counted them) letters from her. Iam in prison and hate writing, but Jeni has the love to take time out of her day to write me all the time.
Watch for the movie!!!!
Goodbye my friends, feel free to write me!
Robert Bogues
AKA-Booga
AKA-Johnny Dangerously
AKA-Carjack
AKA-sleepy
peace

Well that's it all. What did ya think? I am SO glad that I got it all down. I swear after my cat Josie deleting everything last night, I didn't think I would make it! (and I was SURE she wasn't going to! LOL)
Thanks for reading-

[flygirlaa2]

I am totally amazed. It is like he picked up a paint brush and painted a picture. I see his life that clearly. He is a very good writer and quite a story teller. Very talented.

[Phil in Paris]

Thank you thank you thank you Jeni and Robert !!!

I was afraid Jeni would never type the end !!!

Wow Robert, this is wondeful, you're a good writter, and you know how to catch the attention of your audience !!! I really loved reading your story !!! Many facts you wrote (fights gangs racism, being called "bitch") are very similar to some stories my partner wrote me. He's in Florida, but I guess people are the same all over !! Of course I laughed a lot with your "peach liquid soap" story !!!
Robert thank you again, that was really worth reading !!! And thank you Jeni for typing !!
All the best to both of you
Philippe

[cepora]

Thank you so much Robert and Jeni for writing/posting this. You are definitely a talented writer, you had my attention the entire time! I also laughed at the Peach soap incident. That was too funny. I would love to print the story out and send it to my son. He is young, 19, and I think he should see what could be in store for him if he screws up once he is released (hopefully March). He is in county jail serving his time and the state system would be a whole new ballgame for him, hopefully he'll never have to experience it. Again, thank you both, it was a wonderful read!!

[Jody's wife]

hey this story is so mind blowing and yes it is probably all true no one unless they have been involved in drugs could understand that it can and does happen when you take them to the extreme, in a lot of cases they end up ruling your life my sweet husband is in prison now not on a drug charge but as a direct result of the course his life took as a drug dealer thank God he did go to prison it has saved his life brought us together and forever cut the hold drugs had on him sometimes prison is a good thing my heart goes out to you Jen I hope he gets home soon and oh hell yeah keep the story coming its wonderfull your Man ought to write a book and help the world with his story, may God be with us all the ones inside and those of us out here that love them!!!!

[TxRenee]

Jeni and Robert~
One more time I have to Thank you BOTH for this life story. I printed the whole thing out and my roomie read it and laughed and cried as I did. I'm now sending it to Tony who is in Oklahoma DOC. Robert you do have a talent for writing. Thanks for sharing.
Jeni your fingers numb yet?
*HUGS* to you both
Renee

[Jody's wife]

hey I jumped the gun a bit earlier I didnt see that there were 3 pages to this story as I write this to you I am crying I know what he writes about as far as prison life is so to true the way I met my husband was inside I was a nurse he was a porter in medical I saw too much working for the system Robert is so right its ugly and corrupt and thats just the guards the prisoners are the victims they come in a criminal but in so many cases are made far far worse by the very system that is supposed to be making them productive honest citizens again what a joke at least in the state of Texas there is no real rehab not unless it is brought about by the prisoner himself the men who get locked up and decree the time served will be to find themselves and save themselves with no help from the system what so ever what angers me the most is all the great unknowing masses out there that think Good they did the crime they should do the time and who cares how hard how cruel and unusual the punishment is I pray that some how some way these people find out what its all about REALLY ALL ABOUT Jen you keep it up girl stand by your Man thank God he has you send your dear Man my best wishes and tell him I LOVE MY COFFEE TOO!!!!! LOL

[cherrie]

Wow Robert thank you so much for taking the time to put it on paper which I am sure it was hard to do. But you defintely capurted my interest. Yes I will be looking for the movie!!!Best luck to you both!!!I don't know Jeni well but she seems right on in all she does and says here and I am glad that she found PTO.

Cherrie from tx

[Jeni]

You guys are wonderful. I am going to print all of your responses and send them to Robert. I too think that maybe he has found his calling in life, but of course HE has to know it too. We did talk about maybe when he gets out, trying to write a book or do a movie script or something. (maybe a little too much wishful thinking on the last one but hey, you never know right? LOL) Anyways-thanks to you all. Your words are always just what I need. Thank God for PTO!!!!

[Lysbeth]

Jeni & Robert, thank you both again so much for sharing. And Robert, I will never be able to look at peach liquid soap in quite the same way again...

Thank y'all again, best wishes to you both -
Lys

[Jeni]

Oh I forgot. Robert wanted me to post a picture of him when he was doing Hard Copy. It's kinda blurry cuz I got it off tv. (I have tapes of the shows, so I just froze a frame, and shot a picture) Sometimes I have just WAY too much time on my hands! LOL

[~cheenna~]

Wonderful story Jeni... thanks for getting Robert to write and share it with us. Robert, you truely do have a gift with words, I was sorry to see it come to an end. In a couple years you'll need to write an update and post it so we all can hear how it is going.
Take care,