Inside San Quentin

life and here it's kind of cheap people consider hurts somebody for this the smallest of reasons I've seen guys think themselves killed in here for a box of cigarettes this joint is a keg of something man the whole department yeah but I said we got word out here today that they sent a letter to somebody and told him they're gonna tear this [ __ ] down I mean you know something scared me man I am afraid long as they have sank when I think you all with that violence tank wonders is a scary place you know and when when inmates come here almost without exception they're frightened people and frightened people behave differently [Music] first I walked in here as a that's Emily I made a mistake and I'm like you know I've got a lot of time previously and I wasn't used to come in an environment like this to people that care here the first week I was here I did seven years flat in New York in Attica and no one got killed God or in May there wasn't any stickies God knows how many people venture overstep since I've been here I've been here they're not secures that the first seven days two people were killed here we do have a high concentration of violence-prone individuals these guys are crazy so some of them are nice to San Quentin is the oldest and largest of the twelve male prisons we have in the system as many many many years of history and tradition behind it it's got a bad reputation and it tends to live up to its reputation people as soon as people drive up to this place they feel they have to get a knife or they have to protect themselves they have to become a tough guy it's an attitude it's a personality in itself I certainly hate to be in this type of an atmosphere caged up like that you know this says only four and a half by eight that's not much room and these guys majority of them lock down all day long you know that's all day just to come out for the Chow once whopper canteen the whole thing is based on the man's behavior would incite prison if the man can adjust to the prison life and conform to the daily routines that and trouble-free that he's given the opportunity to come and live in the West block the only remaining honor block within the prison today formerly there were two honor blocks the north and the west but due to the great influx of violent type people and within the institution the only honor block left is the West block this block here the bars are unlocked at 6:30 in the morning and you're out to 10:30 at night the only time you lock up is for caltime it's 5:15 the rest of time your doors are open you can do what you want to as yourselves as you see here and we get a little privilege like being being able to have cats without getting them picked up by the security squad but free run you'd be able to go different institution different areas in the institution and if you're less blocker you can go there without much problem this is my world I grew up in it I know it inside out I know what to expect it's my frame of reference you've lived on the streets when you walk out of your house in the morning you make automatic decisions that you don't think about whether you're going to go on a bus or what you're going to do as far as change goes and even the minor purchases and things that you make through the day and your constantly facing people that were different types of clothing that have different points of view you live in a very competitive manner in some ways in the fact that you're always ready to defend your own view and you don't even think about these things in here when I walk across the yard among 2,500 men I see nothing but people in blue in general I know where their heads are at I know pretty much what their stories are going to be after I talked on for three or four minutes and it's a it's a life that I'm as at home with as you are with your life's on the streets for me out there it's a constant pressure to at least give the appearance of conforming and I don't understand the streets I got physically ill the first time I faced a crowd after I come off the row I couldn't handle it there's too many different people to me different views Jia's person done this to you yeah sure or is it yourself or no so I know a lot of guys that they don't they won't talk about it that much but they don't want to hit the streets you know I mean they've never made it on the streets they don't know how to make it on the streets they go out for a vacation but they know when they go out they're coming back you know this is home don't you know they're institutionalized the state has taken all the initiative away from them as far as running their own waves and knowing how to run their own lives and here you sit back and major decisions are made for you you don't make your own major decisions in here [Music] you have us you have a rent provided for you you have a home provided for you have your food provided for you medical care everything is provided you know and the only thing that they ask of you is to do what they want you to do to conform you know and after you've been conforming for 20-25 years it gets to be pretty easy to do you know when I was young I rebelled I spent most of my time in the hole because I didn't go along with the rules you know no I fought the system but now I ride along with it and I find it rather easy to ride because I'm in the honor block you know I have my own possessions not a whole lot but they're not insignificant either you know for me they're much more than I ever had before in my life I never had anything on the streets I couldn't afford anything [Music] me [Music] ah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this time the second time loser Toby 27 years old this month and lost everybody mom's died when I was in the prison last time my father more or less just sold me this time around ripped my brother's letters and never I received any answers and it's just me and him and a family aunt kind of hurts you know I can see where they're coming from you know I've been a pretty big disappointment the only one in our family so we're going to try rolling I mean an idea [Music] they told me last time when I got out you know II felt you know this is what I could expect you know but you always tell you something you know they won't do that [Music] [Music] [Music] revolutionist in Paris we're gonna run her hitman and I said it's a death age of 19 three hours away from execution and governor night community life without possibility for all I've been here since actually I think I will be executed I'm walking in Death Valley now I was tired living on her bare skin you know I had a to survive how to eat other garbage Ken and I used to see kids better dressed than I am and and I said well that's for me so I joined them he's glossing in his gang I put some dope at 11:00 I was a drug addict at 12 but I was 15 I joined an organization collecting bedevils rt1 and gun-running used to steal guns from the National Guard armories any place we can get them verbalizing pawn shops and selling but then I got tired of getting picked up and pushed around or police or that's when I became a revolutionary I blow up police station just to be blown them up and just was fun um just to get back at me because I had I had too much hate in me you know I got to hate now and all right I don't man now this block is about the worst black in the institution and say the worst mainline block is for mostly stabbings occur and then on the fights and well anyone who was busted on the outside it was given us what we call a beef a disciplinary if he gets busted from an honor block he ends up here so the stand of the line east block is where are we call it little Vietnam around here two months ago with a stabbing on the third tier this between black and white type thing and the stairways is a good place this is where they usually do it cuz they're kind of hidden from their guns well as the commanding officer of this block what do you get to be the effective incarceration on an inmate well take an animal furs you know keep an animal caged up or a dog chained you know they become kind of well hostile and all very unfriendly no we're always I mean animals they make krummel's here the situation here is pretty hopeless that the smallest things that a free person can give is highly appreciated for that reason the teachers are respected and maybe even loved a little bit but during the lockdown I might I might find that I'm giving some man a copy of him of a novel that I pick up free outside a bookstore that throws it out and for that I'm a good guy on the blocks I felt safer walking through East Bloc with with so-called right businesses and all kinds of criminals and then I feel in lucky markets you know I don't know who I'm dealing with but generally speaking convicts I find give you a chance give you a chance to be a human being if you be if you behave humanely you're pretty much in if you treat it if you treat a person viciously you can get away with it here because the men are in Chains okay any judgments said many of you probably already heard Gibson had a piece refused locked up first no one in after him flak vest etc Howard was hit twice in the arm minor injury officer Howard that's correct sergeant Marrero got a scrape on one of his hand officer Sanders got a slight graze on the one of his hands with a knife no one's serious Envy oopsie that's Gibson Gibson was then taken to the hospital place in the psych ward where he is now the Sykes the other perhaps he was mentally deranged the town is acting out behavior that then as I see it would preclude the possibility of DA prosecution any questions comments criticisms a neck teen is not the proper name the drug it's a there's there's a word for it that has something like 24 25 letters but first short they call it a neck team and what you do is the officers and the green shirts come in and they put you in restraints handcuffs and they put shackles on your feet where you can't kick and the doctor comes in and he sits down with a little folding chair a little metal folding chair and he says well now mr. Smith you burnt your mattress last night why did you do that well it so happened I burnt my mattress because I had nothing else to do I had no books of any kind whatsoever I had no type of nothing to keep my mind or anything else occupy except staring and looking at the city so I decided do something cause a little sick sight on that burn my mattress so he says no we don't want you to do that again mr. Smith so we're going to try and give you a little therapeutic drug that will help you it's called the neck team and I want you to listen to me very carefully when I administer it naturally I have no choice in the matter unchanged and restrained and have two or three people sitting on my arms and legs I can't do a damn thing about it so he throws out I abide irmak swabs my arm injects a Knick team intravenously instead of in their muscularly it goes straight to the main immediately upon injection your body goes into a convulsion just some spasming say four to five seconds a spasming attack and then the body is immobilized so feeling of being suffocated with pillows on your face and at the same time of having an enormous amount of weight on your chest or that you can't breathe it's a feeling of total paralysis of your hands your arms your legs your toes you can't move anything you can move your eyes slightly but only slightly I mean it's very hard just to move them a fraction of an inch either way it's it totally mobilizes the body is like a catatonic type of state and but of course it's a limited state but your thing is this the doctor understands what he's doing to you he knows that you're not going to die you don't know that you may think as most of us thought as I personally thought that he put too much in there that openeth he's killed me accidentally I thought that perhaps maybe the sadistic son of a [ __ ] and did it on purpose I didn't know what he was doing but I knew that I was dying I had no I know I - going to die and he said now you're not gonna do that again are you right you're dead and naturally you cannot talk back in order to talk you must be able to get air and can't get air in this sense of the word that you can breathe like we're breathing now you're living on the oxygen that's in your lungs and the oxygen that flows through your lungs and the pores of your body but it's just enough to sustain the blood flow to the brain so that you don't lose consciousness but that you feel the total effect of a death sentence and I've been close to death many times and you can believe me that that is perhaps the closest feeling to death that I've ever experienced in my life and he consistently just consistently drives into your head you're not going to do it again are you now you wouldn't want this to happen to you again would you as you would talk to a child a six-year-old eight-year-old child and the effect of the neck teen itself whereas often about three minutes where that you get partial movement well during that partial movement degree they remove your restraints and they get out of that cell because after five or ten more minutes to be able to have full movement of the body and believe you me if they were in the Sun at that time you would gladly kill every single one of them and you wouldn't think nothing about it you'd think nothing what's so everybody my understanding of an acting and the gas treatment that they administered was simply for dramatic effect to an effect to create trauma in your head where that you'll refrain from doing something that they consider against the rules something they consider a violation of the rules that the the trauma is so severe that instead of you saying well I'm not going to do that again yes you say that I'm not gonna burn that mattress again I'm not gonna break that wall again but what you do plot you say now how can I get a hold of something where I can kill one of these son of a [ __ ] this is what you start plotting so you forget the petty minor stuff they get rid of the aggressiveness that the Ken of hostilities by burning and making noise and breaking things you do it because you are afraid of the enacting you are afraid of the gas treatment anybody says they aren't they're a goddamn liar but you start planning on how you can assault severely preferably one of the people that administered this to you but in actuality anybody that's in a position of authority that has authority directly over you that you can retaliate against and say now son of a [ __ ] if you do this to me again I'm going to get another one of you people this is how your mind works this is how my mind work this is how many of the men that I lived with on s3 this is how their minds work an adjustment Center is the area where inmates are secluded from other inmates their captain individual sells most of the day they remit they're there for variety of reasons some because of violence the pilot acts in the prison others because of dealings of drugs others because they have been victims of attack and they're in need of protective custody but there's because it's just really afraid to go on the mainland we have a variety of inmates there a few of them are mentally ill most do not and I'm there the psychiatrist to do a variety of things and I've I find it quite interesting it's a depressing situation being within here because you want to go out to the yard maybe two or three times a week and like I say you know guys got a little six-by-eight cell here and you know it's it's even worse than you know what a dog would have to be living under and anyway the medical conditions having there nothing all they do is just give you a few suppressants you know just kind of knock you out and keep a man happy to give him a few uh stimulants you know just what they think would be you know happy with in other words that would just pacify the man but it's not it's not medical treatment because they're not a examined by medical staff well they're locked up 24 hours a day they can't get out you go to movies have TV says all they can have in here is their legal work and magazines and books and they do have an air phone for a radio that's about all but they're limited to I I've been trying to expand the program that's available here but of course problem Corrections are always short of funds and I haven't able to get any funds to pay instructors other than the one that we have so I have been working with volunteers I have an art instructor from college Imran that comes in from time to time and looks at the artwork and offer suggestions and I have a yoga teacher who also as a volunteer who comes in a couple of days a week and is offering yoga instruction to those that are interested in makes a general interested in keeping fit and yoga exercises are just another way of doing that plus it it may relieve some of the anxiety and tension there's no more emotionalism in the ACS for example since they're in cages all the time then out in New York you see a little bit more of it in their adjustment Center like the inmates throwing food and the stuff on the officers which they wouldn't do out on the Main Line because they would be locked up for and here they are locked up they have nothing to lose for it what do you do with your leisure time I a lot of reading or just talking it's beyond sound if they'd have more exercise and a little more progress here the things you could make in your cell and stuff you know that our it might ease a little bit of under pressure and so instead of looking at the bar they're looking at the calendar because I don't get it well I got a date right at the present you know what I have a release date at the present when she released our 1980 1980 there but I already lost that so you lost that because they're going to BAC know I lost that for throwing water on an officer last week they have to exercise which is an hour he stayed but you only get that about once a week because of 17 people on the tear and that's 17 hours you know so you don't hardly get that loop once a week or once every two weeks there's no man convict or cop or counselor free personnel or anybody else that has been in this adjustment Center longer than myself nobody there's nobody that knows this adjustment Center better than myself there's been no man in California history that served longer in the hole and when I say hole I mean segregation isolation where that you are confined in a segregated unit longer than myself other than 17 days I've been confined in the hole for eight years and seven months and 14 days right now anybody is in that adjustment center right now ain't got nothing going for and I mean nothing they're dead as far as the world is concerned as far as this institution is concerned they're buried I don't know how put it in words I just don't know man these booths they shot me this dude he's even firing a warning shot you know he just shot me out of the yard and I see the bullet come out about an inch under my heart and he's trying he's supposed to shoot you - just the main me you know but he shot me and uh dude was trying to kill me you know they've been shooting people like that a lot lately though cuz they'd be shot a black dude in B section and then shot him in the stomach - you know they're supposed to shooting the leg or something you know but Ryan shot another wife new Zion there - the shotgun that's what they've been doing a lot lately you know they said it's supposed to be a deteriorating for the name the strip channel as a cell it should it doesn't have a sink in it the toilet is removed as well hole in the floor for toilet which is flushed from the back of the cell there's nothing in the cell at the inmate can rip apart the mattress is put in there is fired for if it can't be set on fire I say the inmates are not to be back here is some of them just like I could stay back there I don't know you might talk to black hole of Calcutta there was absolutely no lighting to sell whatsoever you were fed a ration about so-called Rd restrictive diet which is a loaf of minerals vegetables and they say all of the daily proteins and vitamins that you need to subsist but it tastes like sawdust and it's frozen and you have to wait till it falls off before you can eat it remember now we're speaking of the years of 65 and 66 this is when this decision came down so after being placed in there and stayed in there for eight and a half months in the strip cells and I mutilated myself severely in my arms my chest I cut my own self with Ajax tops of Ajax cans razor blades and filters anything I could get my hands on in order to get out of the hospital reasonably sure there's several lacerations with razor blades all the way up the arm starting from the wrist and running to the joint of the arm in this joint of the arm severed the artery of three times there's what they call the plastic tinned ectomy in there which is uh pieces of plastic to replace veins that were cut out with razor blades and the same thing this arm all the way up to the joint same thing and the reason for that was to try and obtain a transfer to the California Medical Society facility and it was more or less a sham I wasn't really crazy but I was willing to do anything to get out of that strip cell even if it meant seriously destroying my health my arms starring my body or whatever when you say real fear I think anybody who walks into a prison feel some apprehension if he doesn't he doesn't understand where he is what it's about and baby when you see what this place is like you can't see what it's like by having people talk to you and I think you have to live here you have to have those doors wrapped in the morning and walk out hoping that you're going to make it through that day with everyone here lives in fear there's different value system here in the prison whereby it's it's okay to kill someone under certain sit in certain situations such as if that person has killed a friend of yours or a member of your gang you're supposed to beat Ali eight by killing them or if that person always you dad's may even be for just a few packs of cigarettes it's okay with the inmate care group to kill that person it's just a different value system san quintin is a reputation place like you know and everybody here has to more or less have a reputation you know in order to survive it you know like a guy that usually come in and try and does his own number it's kind of hard you know and that's where your game type of things come on the only only a small percentage of the inmates really espouse this different value system actively maybe 10 15 percent of the population the rest of the population are somewhat terrorized by the small percent at this time they're afraid to speak up against it they're afraid to try to control these inmates the only way they could control and probably become violent themselves and I wish not to do that so that the 10 or 15 percent that are violent that do belong to these gangs are able to pretty much run the prison see the guy doesn't know kung fu he has the fight for five or six years and he gets blown in the middle with all these lions and they're just not somebody there to shelter him just like me he does the homework but India does the fighting well he's totally lost he'll be healed become homosexual dirty we use and abuse he'll never probably be able to face a woman again in life they'll never be able to live a normal life by having children like other people so he asked to go told his he's white so nicely he would go to the white group the violence centers around a couple of things one being narcotics on the trafficking drugs you know that's in the prison the illicit trafficking drugs another meaning homosexual activities certain inmates are homosexual of course and and they sometime with time are fought over by the other inmates doesn't it to men cause another is just fight for territory you don't want to be king of the mountain want to run the prison run whatever you know racket there is to run will see all the black guys have got a whole lot of doukas just just one okay the white guys want something if you don't have a a group to confront them with there's something to deal with them with women you don't get any of the mechanics I mean it's controlled everything if there's a stronger group they would control the best part of the movie they would control all the trees they would control the part of the yard for exercise they would just have total control see people aren't indiscriminately running around in here with knife sticking people for no reason at all at all any more than they're dropping bombs in Vietnam or anyplace else things are done for certain reasons and that's the same at present you got people in here that have disagreements and everything else you have that's the same as anybody else they have emotional problems the same as anybody else and they have one way of taking care of unfortunately on the problems one one thing mainly on them problems just get pushed so much just at one time it blows everybody's bomb they just they just don't care you don't care about the guns don't care about nothing just blow it and no one plans nothing like that you know yeah I think because everybody got you got like you got like a pressure cooker here now yeah what the try to do here is call a lockdown to keep problems down there Duke build Moorhead builds more attention I've been in these blocks and what they call climate controls to try to feel that feel out the institution the attitudes is it going to be a problem tomorrow we open this place up well when you're going to some place like east block man you can come to cut the tension with a knife in there the guys were saying well who's got hit today the blanks doing this and the whites doing this who's doing it give me a shank because it afraid they're locked up and they're cut off in the rest of the institution so lockdowns do cause problems I think I think they should find out what the problem is deal with the problem open the institution up and and just not punish everybody prison punishes everybody if one guy does something wrong here today maybe tomorrow 500 people are gonna get punished for [Music] [Applause] [Music] everyone [Music] there was a Pearl Harbor type attack on black inmates by some Chicano inmates and right now the situation so test that I don't think there's any way we can safely release the general population the only way we're gonna keep peace among them is just not allow them the opportunity to get at one another you know the Mafia you know was involved you know we know the Mafia initiated the action Mexican Mafia yeah all right - they've you know they've been known then obtain the blacks have been at odds because of a stabbing that happened laughter you see and they've been talking about it you know trying to the different leaders have been talking trying to kind of quiet down supposedly you know so every telling y'all the mixin mafia decided that and everything get out first you know well you know it could offend me too you know I could have been on saying position just so happened that all I happen to be in the hospital in a ducky when that happened but I seen the guys I knew one of them you know there's nothing really you can do you know really to alleviate the fear that everyone had you know of what response you know the blacks are gonna have you know they not two of them a day it you know what's the mood right now coming from where you see a pretty tense I find that as I walked through the tears and a lot of the fellows are pretty frustrated and uptight and also that just a lot of mumblings going on a lot of things that are kind of point to the tenseness of the whole situation how did the blacks feel now I've only talked to a few but I hear rumblings it's all I'm hearing but there's a rumor so I can't tell the guys just hate to be locked up that's all all this retaliation people are building this up into a big thing like it's a great big race war there's only certain people involved it's not the general population the general population are in their cells hoping they could get out like you stated you know there's just a few that are causing the trouble but how can you fit how can you pick out those few separate them from the mass and let the mass go about doing what they want to do at this very moment the thing that's being done is everything is at a standstill we have every inmate locked up with the exception of a handful who are out performing necessary functions like hospital workers food preparation and such all it's doing is delaying it really because you know if these guys won't get on they can't get out that's that's the dilemma you know because we have to do something you know because it's very serious right now this whole institution is like a powder keg you know everyone's so quiet you know that's no one's really raised in your hair all everyone just scared you know and that's really bad the weapons you see here have been picked up around the prison on various times some of them are made out of conventional items stuff that you'd find in a machine shop or anything various stabbing instruments there they taped the ends of these so that it makes it extremely difficult to get any fingerprints to identify the man using the knife with a knife here we had bombs they make bombs out of match heads this one down here out of pipe will show you the explosive force that can be generated by just match heads sometimes I'll use things with pieces of glass and it's sort of like a shrapnel device these two items here are darts they can get a piece of conduit somewhere another half inch of three-quarter inch conduit with a nail and with a paper and a little glue which is not hard to come by and shoot these things and they'll drive them through a half-inch board with just a wind there's no problem at all and to show you that totally extremely go on weapons you see the bone up here looks like a deep part of a t-bone I have never seen although I wouldn't say it hasn't happened any incident involving a bonafide knife of this nature that you know came from the kitchen er came from the other thing it's the things they've found have usually been handmade things that they made out of a piece of scrap iron or something of that nature some more things that are more conventional tools a screwdriver that's sharpened here on the end this was probably a bolt and as you can see it's sharpened on the end a measuring rule that someone gather which is very hard steel and it's sharpened on the end is that a machine gun I not sure if this was made in and used an escape attempt here about six or eight years ago when two people overpowered one of the maintenance men here one of the free maintenance men and took off out the West Gate this probably could be a zip gun and this is maybe the firing pin that would work into it which you just it's a one-shot affair and it is very deadly of course looks like a spear yeah it does and pointed with a toothbrush a toothbrush so you see us a harmless looking thing like a toothbrush can be a serious weapon over here on this side is a garage this is to go around someone's neck and choke him very nicely and that's the end of that this is very soft what's it feels like there's buckshot in there very good blackjack again no fingerprints and no marks on the person not to speak up to identify the type of instrument that did you can see you can make a hacksaw done anything adjacent is that we have some ropes and looks like some inner tubes some more ropes a rope bundle there with a hook to go over the wall a package with road maps and probably other clothes a saw a shovel to try and dig your way out a mass to leave on your bed to the officer thinks that you're still there beyond that is a key that will hook up to an automobile so you can steal it and still run and on and off and then another shovel along the top of the thing is another rope spread out that they've made out of sheets to get down off the wall the escape mechanism means that people want to get out and a pictures show what happens if they don't a charge of Directors rule 11:04 color ban the specific act was possession of to prison made stabbing instruments you can admit to the charges as written which of the charges with modifications or delay the charges I denied the charges I asked for a lie-detector test and a physical examination in order to clear myself of the charges but I haven't had any response there you know normally give a lighting technique chest and this this late data wouldn't you know this is a serious thing right ears it can cost me a additional year to you know well my time okay I was only in that cell for three days yeah give us some I your what you know about how it got there yeah I come from how the adjustment Center they moved me from the adjustment Center uh March the 28th at that time they ran me through a metal detector and a skin search and a squad search I got to a B section and they ran me again through his skin search and placed me in the cell and uh I didn't have any property so you know I didn't really have any reason to go through the cell you just just very happened on March 31st and you moved into that cell at March of 28 right you can lift the cell over when you moved in on you don't you make that a habit well I didn't have any property so I really other noise in do I go through having having been imprisoned in three years about that you're aware that right that you're responsible for everything that's in yourself I'm responsible for what I know is in myself if I don't know so I don't know something's in my cell I don't know how I could be held responsible for it you know we all know that you don't know what's in there that's why I requested a lie detector test or physical examination of something like a rectal examination and said I was supposed to the keister stash so that's again because they finally human pieces or what they thought it to be but that really the charge is really the possession and they weren't found they're not saying they were in your rectum at the time they found them you know that that as far as I know so we not even considering that last sentence they're all we're concerned about the knives and a plastic bag in yourself if they move you from one place to another place or that cells postive them you know I've been gone through prior to me my arrival right it had been well it had been then evidently the officer who made the search didn't make it a very thorough search of the cell or what's near what he searched that's possibility too right no that's not well it's as far as I can see you know I don't know why I requested these tests see that that's why I stated in my to the investigating officer is does my word against the evidence right yeah we know when it was one factor no matter what you're saying is one factor one act as there was two knives Tom and myself you never practice your no I'm not denying that if the officer says he found two knives in myself well I'm not denying that were you there at the time no any time I was done in the shower usual procedure them they take that level minute shower yeah I know or take them out of their cell you wouldn't normally be there have you ever had this kind of a charge against you before I step outside I'll call you right back take Kelly the committee discussed this with the consensus of the committee that you weren't guilty and responsible or what's in your cell and he's the only real fact we have it they were found in there the recessing attend a cell status perspective today I'd like to also tell you that you have a right to appeal yeah all right within ten days here's your copy okay there are many different reasons why people commit crimes and why persons may be violent and most persons are not that are violent are not violent most of the time they're only violent for short period time and most persons that commit crime that's only one aspects of their lives for many different reasons ranging from lack of education lack of opportunity to do something else lack of practice in doing something like of proper job skills and work habits many prisoners come from families that did not encourage things such as education and productive work and learning that they associated with delinquent peer groups out where the value systems were not those that are held by general society also many suffered a lot of deprivation and with their families they were mistreated by their families they have a lot of built-up anger at this and then they project the anger that comes from a family situation on this society in jail perhaps fifteen to twenty percent of the inmates in the Department of Corrections are seriously mentally ill I think some of them need psychiatric care they don't belong in here you know state just doesn't have the facilities or your home away from home right I was railroaded on the Piedmont man the son and then some on call out man but I was on all three of them every time I walk down this hallway I feel that some part of my life it's being taken away you know and I feel that when I'm wandering on it's always I have to watch my life and this here puts a lot of catchin on the man when you first come in from what people know about it they're afraid of it you're you know you're just completely you're afraid you watch the back back of you the front of you the sides of you you don't know who to talk to and what to say so you keep to yourself most of the time it's not monotonous there's something different every day I've never had the same kind of a day twice I don't believe I've ever had a day that I worked for the department that I disliked I like my job real well I like the men I work with both the convicts and the officers [Music] now we're doing the smack even a slap with which do if you want to get some [Music] if we're lucky we have a mirror that we can check and see what's going on outside otherwise we just look straight ahead all day and we end up with nothing Superman yeah I'm the first time and the last time I thought this place done convinced me that once you in here it was hard to get out it's easy to get in and hard to get out so I'm acquiring anybody oh that's out there if you doing something wrong you better do it cooler don't get cold and you come here you're gonna see the real life here this this is a cold place don't be a stop [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you show me we have can we show how to react now yeah well I've had one visiting past your nap could you have more if you want to but I told him not to come you know how come how come it's no sense that I'm coming you know [Music] I'm all chained up all the time you know hey there's dudes in here that can't even relate to their own mother when they go out to visit them in that in that visiting room out there and it's a heavy seen Nancy any guy said no to table with a big smile on his face holding his mother's hand and don't even know how to talk to her because he the only thing he knows is San Quentin you know and he says mom how's it going house dead house is you know how's my brother you know what and that's it that's as far as it goes what can they say or they're doing fines for us I'm so sick in the hospital and he feels bad he's on a bigger bummer them and everyone out there I get visits uh maybe every three weeks maybe want some more I don't really like them you know so close again cuz you've run out of things to talk about well even if visiting you might get a visit you know even though you haven't done anything they're not involved in narcotics or any other thing that uh they might be looking for no kind of skate plans the pig that's in the visiting room might not like you the way you carry stuff when you call me here so he would say well I won't even shake this guy now he come back in you know I think he got something so you go inside a ticking what they call to receive a release then they tell you this trip ok just stripped to bare nudity and Danny tell you to all equal to all the changes out run your hand through your hair look in your ear open your mouth raise your arm bend over spread your cheeks turn around and raise your testicles turn around and raise your right foot turn around raise enough foot all these kind of you know changes that I serve no purpose available because like a lot of people who are just trying in this in that prison trying to get a quick as they can and these kind of things I've seen these kind of things channel into something where the brother might resent this and say something you know that have even thinking he might not have said it in the beginning so he say something you know out of total respect for himself and angry at being totally disrespected and this could turn into a brutal beating for them you know eight or nine Peaks and your visitors come from because there's no it's the only place the world where he will be the shot indiscriminately for a fistfight you know what I'm sure that anywhere people ought to be able to understand any where men or women you know congregate that's gonna be disputes just kaledin fisticuffs but that's the only place in the world where he will be the shot and kill for a fistfight like 1972 kill three righteous comrades of mine just blow him away for fighting and it was ruled justifiable homicide you know about the so-called judiciary system in this country and they give their families and took a some some you know and that don't compensate the fact that those people's sons are dead because some trigger-happy guard you know shoot in a yard they kill comrade of mine in 61 Booker shot him down they shot another comrade of mine shot is testicle Oh Fitz fighting no weapons is two men selling dispute they shot of six times each what to do about people like me and a lot of other people that's you know that being in prison you know don't you don't nobody know how it is in here you know the other one you can talk to him all day and never understand you know but I understand I know everything I've been all my security holes I've been I've been the AC for a I've been the B section I've been every Mac secure the holy but I've been there you know what I haven't seen the changing in prison all I seem to get worse and worse and worse and I watch it every day you know and I ain't got you know like I said I don't live on pity you know I'm like I said I'm always gonna be strong because you know what i'ma do which like I said like I went to the boy after 17 years and you know what they tell me they tell me that uh I don't have a place a job not like that what I suppose having seventeen years you know I was 13 years old what that supposed to have state race but you know what but you know like I said not my photo you know I'm intelligent I got all my pride my dinner too you know but just like I say they say while I like to besides like to fight a lot stuff like that well because the way I got this I got a quick temper but you know fighting some time you know it just something something to do some timely you know like I said you can't take a bunch of thousand people to crown what was becoming all be friends you know sometimes people do get you know a little drove up behind that and then next thing you know there's two doors popped open and someone gets hurt that's just a boring dude order to get popped open someone gets hurt well sometimes there's two doors wrapped open instead of just worn like it's supposed to be and this happens quite quite frequently if you check some of the rat-faced went to two prisons are allowed out at once volunteer but sometimes it's a mistake in to allow date yeah this mistake made and there's two people who's at fault for making that mistake well there's only one person who runs the bar box it's not most attacks of most violence are provoked not to be inmates alone but to staff and that that is my profound believe for I'm knockin fan fan Quinton at the end of the world like you know 67 when he had the little uprising which was the a black thing only one of the PX took his thinking of like comrades milk so now that the blacks decided they wouldn't gonna go to work so the PX tried to turn this into a racist event they start picking out white comrade kick up to recession and agitate them team well the Blessed get ready to attack you they are having himself consequently you put all the whites down a lower yard and all the black is on up your yard and he went down there and it's criminal shot a lot away come out white comment about it's a few balls in here that fritter foxy but there are other Bulls in here just like the other ponies was in the streets nothing then capable of dealing with men they don't know how I saw a murder up there on the yard and in front of a bull ain't got him before this camera to say this on the mid-1600s Brown got killed I saw it my name is Benjamin Gerald Brown be 86 60 I saw a man walk up behind another man with a bull stand up on the tower with a gun at brave risk-taking watch this man and take his life I've been in the system 20 years I'm personnel barber I lost my respect for Everett bull in the joint that's right I did I've seen it I've gotta take a razor and working their neck I've never nicked a man in the in the joint and I saw that had I been out there I definitely would have been afraid because those offices are up there and they're up there for a reason they're not up there with those guns just to look pretty they're up there to protect me if you have the opportunity would you escape no hurry there is absolutely no way I'm gonna go out there and come back looking like a leadbottom SID whenever the Highway Patrol got through with me they wouldn't have to bury me I sink into the ground not because I would be shooting at them or anything else it would just be simply because I'm in here for killing on highway patrolmen and the animosity out there I figure they got their chance and it was a right position whether I was honored or not escaping with a the fact that I'd been on death row first-degree murder killing Iowa patrol officer I wouldn't have to dig no hole I just sink below the ground bubbles if you had the opportunity would you escape no at this point I would have when I first came in if I had the chance but escaped now it's too late to escape they've already taken all this time they might as well take the rest then two kinds that I was convicted for already in my eyes hideous and at the time they thought that I was arrested for these two offenses which involved deaths of two elderly women and you know hi Robin said what are you gonna call it I just blow in the courtroom and just I just tend to the hip I mean excuse me had to hit da threatened juries and there's in on stuff like this and my whole outlook and at that time was very negative fact there's a manhunt and then well because of my attitude not about the others [Music] my name's John radius I just turned 19 and I'm in here for murder [Music] well the boy just turned two years old 24th you know I was really down now because of that you know and I had my birthday in here and had my anniversary in your hair you know and you know I haven't I haven't touched my little boy in the whole year you know and like they give you medication here once in a while you know when I'm down and out you know like when I get all depressed you know and then I just take you know a couple of volumes or whatever you know to calm me down go to sleep you know forget about it you know well how would you feel I don't mean locked up in a cage 24 hours a day you know not much exercise and constant thought coming to your mind you're gonna be executed [Music] even though I see the death penalty for killing a man I don't believe anybody should be dead I don't believe anybody should be killed I don't believe that anybody should have the right to take a life or to impose that sentence on anyone yes I feel that the method of execution by gas is a very cruel one for the people who are witnesses to it and it's it's a very unpleasant thing to have to watch and I think that alternatives might be something as abrupt as blowing a person's brains out which while not as to pleasant to look at is not really as ugly overall as watching someone die in the chamber or perhaps a more peaceful methods such as injecting with an overdose of narcotics I favor the retention of the penalty only because it's the only proven cure that we've been able to come up with for people who are involved in multiple killings the other alternatives that we have developed I wouldn't care to be a party to such as turning a man into a vegetable through a lobotomy or planting electrodes in his brain so that when he fails a homicidal urge he can push a button on his belt and maybe have an orgasm to me these kinds of things would be robbing them of their humanity and I wouldn't want to be a part of that I'm here for what is called multiple murder with two murders I'm also here for robbery and I have three special circumstances allegations one which is robbery murder the other one which is supposed to killing of a witness and the third is for the two or more is mass murder each one of these separate special circumstances merit the death penalty who was Tony on the outside no Tony on the outside was a totally different person tell us a little about well I was born and raised in San Francisco lived in the Mission District of San Francisco which is the middle income area I was working at the time I was in just your normal working man that was about it the family no I wasn't married I was still living with my parents and just sort of mr. inconspicuous was just uh never uh I don't know how to put it I was never involved in any kind of crimes as the first time I've ever been arrested no prior juvenile record so this is a completely brand new experience and I've always it's sort of ironic now when I look back being that I was a member of the Republican Party on the outside that I voted for the death penalty myself when it was on the ballot because there's not too many people on death row that voted for it Samantha Pierce and he got pieces of broken lightbulb from a light fixture that was in the cell just adjacent to the gas chamber and slashed his throat with a piece of it and nicked his jugular vein and as the blood was spurting out of course the doctor said that we're going to have to hurry up or he'll beat the state well of course you can't advance the time fixed by the court for an execution but they did hurry the process of getting the man seated in the chair and strapped down and then had the door dogged and everything ready to go and in the process of hurriedly strapping him in one of his arms worked loose and flailed around and as the blood was spurting from his throat it hit his hand and his wrist splattered all over the interior of the chamber and the witnesses outside were fainting faster than the officers who are normally posted there to catch the one or two people who might fall could even make a move and of course when they spun round to see why everybody was fainting they near went down themselves [Music] [Music] [Music] I got life MLG 401 1980 yeah I don't like to go in the Reg about 80 to 80 but seems like a long time no waste a long time if you are looking at it personally my personal opinions I don't think that a lot of time rehabilitate nobody will do nothing for nobody out thinking if you sent a person to a madhouse like this here they gonna do number make me worse in the long run I kind of agree well forgot this guy's name but he was trying to induce your bill for no crime to carry over five years you look at if a man is gonna rehabilitate a lieutenant or change his ways it definitely took note 13 or 14 years to do it don't do number in veteran making a you know making bitter now I've been assaulted and stabbed more than anybody in California history that's reason they say that I'm kidding cushion spent the 109 stab wounds ball bats horseshoes straightened up Piko Piko bottles full soap gasoline bombs fire bombs and guns all types of things but at the same time I've done these things to other people I've killed me in seven men I'm 27 years old I've killed seven men I've assaulted numerous other men I've hurt I've raped other men I've salted staff convict all type of things I've done things too so can I say I you know what I'm blameless man I'm just an innocent little old victim that got stabbed all up and stuff order I say on the opposite hand look man I get my share of wrong I received my Sheriff being done wrong so I'm going to stop this in the hopes it will stop being done to me now in my case unfortunately I've gone past that point I don't I don't really have any hope one way or another of getting out for me I came in young if they would have gave me that modified indeterminate sentence and sent me out six months or a year more than likely I'd be a lawyer on the streets now that since that's my my you know choice of professions but because I'm not because they didn't see fit to give me a date to work toward you see my result you see what kind of man I am [Music] [Music] what you see now is the men coming out of the industrial area of the furniture factory to be exact you're being what's known the skin shook down whereby all their clothes are removed and there's all the clothing and their bodies are searched for contraband coming up to the main yard into the cell units they placed their clothes in a box the box has passed the officer searches the clothes another officer searches the body the box is then passed back to the inmate free of contraband inmate then puts his clothes back on proceeds down here it goes to another metal detector and then back up to the upper yard and the weights lock up and our factories where you start the Mentos make 5 cents an hour they grow up to 25 cents now and I have a few very few meets that reach the maximum of 35 cents now that the average runs from 18 to 20 cents an hour [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we split it off you know yeah the trade itself have you come to to like this and I think that once I get to the streets and where do you get paid for doing this here in the prison you'll get paid at all no they have what they call 3p numbers and here the lead man with the cuttlebug Lattimore he gets paid the guy that works the slices to pay and the guy works to freeze them hey I think they make $10 a night $10 a month it's because a man's in prison doesn't mean he's not going to going out to society again and if they can help the man get a job and stay employed it's gonna help help his chances of not returning and people just concern about that his dad Jojo start most people work in his location if an importer than a down suppose if you learn a trade that maybe I'm supposed to be rehabilitated to come back outside and get a job in the bulk of this work these trades are for one thing only for maintenance maintenance of the prison itself not only of prison itself but also for the water houses captain's lieutenants and people live on a reservation these with these trades are basically far bacon cooking don't economies cook for himself he cooked on prison guards you know they cooked for the officers their wives and their friends who come out to a snack bar the convicts can eat in this place even though they are a force to do the labor the cooking the bacon the dishwashing and what have you the first service' now that they get they wrote about things that you and I would consider absolute necessities so there's toothpaste in my case cigarettes and I hope you don't because of that necessity and you know writing paper you name it anything my job of scope is like employment agency we interview inmates or Apple got a process in the fighter Gator farming for what makes you stay with scope I really I really enjoy it it's it's I couldn't find more interesting work I'd love to do this on the streets I wish I'd done this before I got here by Adam and I've got it what are you plans when you get out I'd like to follow the same line of work I think I'd like to stay in employment or in the way what are you trying to do the first day you get out I've got a sentence of life with no parole so it's a little hard to plan right now [Music] I think when you ask for that when you have a prison system of which one would be proud I'd say no but I do think so there are reforms worth looking at but the only reforms in my view worth looking at and those that are advocated by the convicts themselves you always have to look at the person at the bottom of that heap you know to see what kinds of reforms do make sense it's interesting for example that in the Auris nationwide thing going on now you know this cry for building more humane and modern prisons better prisons the convicts who live in those quality Pawel that you've been sharing in this film they're horrible cells have been no instance in dogs this kind of reform because they know only too well that the criminal justice system being what is more prisons or this resulted more prisoners they'll fill up the oprah's and smelter out the new ones and in places where brand-new prison should have been built and it's quite a few of them this is precisely what's happened so I would say no more prison building what watch out for reforms the prisoners want the prisons in California say don't give us a shiny new hospital don't give us naked eggs for breakfast get rid of the indeterminate sentence get rid of you have our Authority that's what they say and I think to find out their reasons for that is important I know what I want out of life I know what I want to achieve I can't do it in here and all that is all that door out there is doing is bar and me from the streets and achieving my life all right I put myself here a and and way up with myself here first-degree murder you know what all right you know what I'm up to it you know I know that I did it I you know I can't fight that I can't tell people how I feel inside about it how I hurt you no or the remorse that I have you know or how sorry I am that it happened but man it's done and you know if I'm to be punished you know fine tell me hey man you got to do the rest of your life in the penitentiary that way I've got no future except for a penitentiary future but I know where I stand give me something that I can work towards that I can fight against and I'll better myself to overcome that barrier the one there is nothing there a man has nothing to progress with nothing to build himself up to gain something in life he feels like nothing he needs to know that someday he's gonna get out so that he can plan as light as such so he sees a future that's the side I've done created a monster they don't know how to tangle with him that's what it is man San Quentin first place was never designed it just happened you know cell blocks were built they run out of space and they tacked another cell block on here and there's building there and it's a maze way of corridors and alleyways it's just ill-designed in every respect San Quentin is a huge monstrosity this prison is so big with so many little nooks and crannies in areas that it's really difficult to operate efficiently and that's one main problem we have just efficiency of operation nothing seems to work out the way it should it's it's difficult to influence a large population when when they're so spread out as if it's true at San Quentin I would like to see a smaller prison or a prison where you could have separate areas where the staff could get to know the inmates personally and the inmates could get to know the staff so you wouldn't have just uniforms running around some green some blue you would have individuals relating to each other and then you might have more opportunity for the inmates to establish a good working relationship with the officers who presumably have more healthy adaptive values than the inmate group alone they may not always be the kids that's one thing I think it's wrong another thing I would like to see change is more emphasis on education we have an excellent education department but like everything else at San Quentin the budget is very small and they're not able to completely satisfy the interest of the main that is here I think if we they had more teachers more money more funds they could expand their educational activities teach a lot more trades teach a lot more things and you would see a lot more positive change in inmates because everybody in here is not a criminal everybody in here is a convicted felon that's not necessarily ideal settings I like the camp system myself in a camp system you have between 60 and 120 men usually 80 men camps they live in a dorm setting they go to work in the morning about nine o'clock on the road they clear roads they clear streams they work with a fishing game they work with a highway department they fight fires all during the summer they work a six-day week and quite a bit of freedom your camp limits are usually about a half-mile square they've got ball fields weightlifting areas TV areas pool hall most camps have a swimming pool and to me that's the best the best system we've got when I was in the camp system I had guys in camp that came from right here and a lot of the guys that was in camp with me are right back here now so you can have your violent men in camp and they can make it all right they're a group of people that our society wants to put away keep away and keep out of sight and if we would have just as equally apply so that there would be the same percentage of middle low and high income people in prison you would see a greater improvement in our prison system because you would have people in here who would who would be fighting to get those improvements right now we don't have and our society doesn't want to make the improvement because it costs money and therefore you know our Rockets are more important than our men in prison people in Sacramento Corrections and we work in here at San Quentin I think we'd all like to see this place closed because it's far it's just it's antiquated it's old its tired and it doesn't and we've we've got nobody might say we've got an old retired and shortsightedness - because of the place I feel that San Quentin could help a lot of improvement do is the fact that C is environment what makes things tick in this environment that's outdated it's an impossible place because it's so old it's just that it's a bad team because there are too many people in too small space and it's just a very difficult place to run a very difficult place for inmates to limit the best thing I can say to San Quentin in said he's sure everybody in the business the inmate everybody knows that the place ought to be blown up and get out times are changing you know people are gonna change woodland but the San Quentin it ain't gonna change you just ain't gonna change no way the only way they're gonna change sank witness when they flatten it to the ground and that is a respect roof and you can say it over and over again because walls in San Quentin were built and hate they stand in hate and there ain't a bit of love and the world don't go around on here alone because where there ain't no love and you know understand him and with ain't no understanding there ain't no compassion there's no compassion you got a prisoner in that sandwich [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] presentation of this program was made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting [Music]

Channel: Clintwey12

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Id: YrSAJLRZ1bo

Length: 88min 39sec (5319 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 19 2017