Locked In with Ian Bick - Ex-Inmate Exposes the BRUTAL Reality of Rikers Island in the Early 2000s | Ness

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

Ness shares his experience of being incarcerated at Rikers Island during the early 2000s. He talks about the daily struggles, the unspoken rules, and the harsh conditions inmates faced. Ness provides a firsthand account of what life was really like behind the walls of one of the most infamous jails in the country. This conversation offers a look into the challenges and realities of surviving Rikers Island. #RikersIsland #PrisonReality #LifeBehindBars #TrueCrimeStories #PrisonSurvival #RikersInmate #BrutalTruth #JusticeSystem Thank you to PRIZE PICKS for sponsoring this episode!: Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/IANBICK and download the app today & use code IANBICK to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup! Connect with Ness: https://youtube.com/@hellonrikersisland?si=31nSI5tT5Dh6OW5k Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://www.ianbick.com/shop Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 Introduction and Early Days on YouTube 00:07:31 Early Days in the Game 00:15:08 High School Robbery Incident 00:22:54 First Experience in Jail Mode 00:30:39 Daily Struggles and Violence in the Northside House 00:38:01 Escaping Danger in Prison 00:45:15 Life Inside Rikers Island: Dehumanization and Violence 00:52:21 Lessons from Rikers Island 01:00:00 Life Behind Bars: Halloween Arrest and Robbery Stories 01:09:18 Surviving Rikers Island: Life and Challenges 01:14:43 Life in a Tense Correctional Facility 01:22:21 Life Inside Maximum Security 01:29:53 Violations on Parole and Consequences 01:39:03 Challenges with the Justice System 01:46:12 Indictment in the Projects 01:52:21 Life Reflection and Personal Growth 01:59:37 Inspiring the Youth: From Struggle to Strength Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobil. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants to switch you to MintMobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available.

Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at Mintmobile.com. Josh, welcome to Locked in. This is, we're just chatting about this. This is a long time in the making. Yes, it is. It definitely is, man. I feel like you were one of our initial subscribers, like their early days.

From the beginning, like I said, I've seen you pop up on my YouTube. I guess you could call it, like, for you page or whatever you want to say. And I clicked it. I just been watching ever since, like, you know, like every day. Like, I be cooking, watching the sleep. I go to sleep. No funny. I go to sleep watching. My wife's like, oh, you always doing for? I'm like, listen.

I'm watching. I'm listening. I'm trying to, you know, learn. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Other people's stories and stuff. Because for me, it's like a motivation thing, you know what I'm saying? So it's just been like that ever since. Yeah, I always see you commenting. Your channel name is Hell on Rikers Island, right? That's right.

Yeah, so we'll definitely everyone subscribe and we'll have your link to it in the bio. I was actually just reading something funny on Instagram earlier. Someone posted, like, on one of those, like, hip-hop sites. why do men like watching YouTube videos? Yeah, I mean, you learn stuff. That's what I go there for, whether it's from other people's mistakes, you know what I'm saying? Me personally, I learn stuff every day from YouTube,

whether it's a regular video, information video, you know what's going on in the city, the streets, whatever, you learn something, you know what I'm saying? So that's how I look at it. Yeah, it's literally a search engine. And there's less, I believe, like fake news on YouTube than anything. There's more legit stuff because the legit stuff gets the views and sends people to it. And now is even with TikTok. TikTok, you learn everything on TikTok, you know what I'm saying?

So it's like, it's taking over now. So did you grow up in New York City? Yep, I did. So I'm going to start from the beginning, man. Yeah, take it from the top. You know what I'm saying? My life story, story. You know what I'm saying?

With my family, you know what I mean? Growing up, siblings and all that. So I was born in Manhattan, right? Not in the hospital. I was born in the back of the ambulance. So on my birth certificate, it just says Manhattan, New York. They don't even say a hospital, right? I don't even know a hospital.

I forgot. But I was born in Manhattan, you know what I'm saying? My mom's had me. She already had my sister. My sister was a year older than me. and we live at a young age i remember like you know bouncing around and stuff like this this is the early 90s that i'm talking about and um i remember we live i remember us living in like a shelter with my father and that was like the last memory i had of you know together as you know a family

or whatever my father my mother my older sister and me From there, they went their own ways. You know, they split up or whatever the case may be. And we moved to Far Rockaway, Queens, New York, Far Rockaway. We was living in the 40s projects. Before my mom even had my sister, though, and me, she adopted two kids from her friend that was addicted to, you know, drugs back then, crack cocaine. So they became, they was my older brothers.

was there before I was even born, you know what I'm saying? And they was my older brothers, you know what I'm saying? So it was dumb, then it was my sister, and then it was me. So we all living in Queens Far Rockaway, you know, my mom ended up adopting two of my, three of my cousins from her sister that I was addicted to crack cocaine. Because, you know, back then it was, it was, crack cocaine was just coming, and it was, it was, it was real. Like, a lot of people, families, was addicted to it, you know?

and including myself. Like my mom was addicted to that and stuff like that as a kid. You know, from Queens, we moved to the Bronx. I was in the second grade. I started second grade in the Bronx Elementary School right across the street from the projects that I was, you know, living in. And everything was good. Like the childhood was, you know, it was a good childhood.

You know, my mom, my mom, My mom was, she was very strict. She wasn't like a typical regular mom. Like she was into the streets, like heavy. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like I said, she was addicted to that stuff. She also sold it. You know what I'm saying?

So at a young age, at an early age, I was exposed to all of this. You know what I'm saying? I was seeing all of this. I was around. And like I always say, even though, my channel like none of this stuff is to glorify you know so i don't you know whoever's going watch it's nothing to glorify because this is something that you know that wasn't supposed to be going on in front of me and you know stuff like that so it's never to glorify um so like i said at a

young age i was i was sucked into that life like you know what i'm saying it was eight of us in the house eight of us in a four-bedroom uh apartment in the projects two four-bearer ones too bad for you know what I'm saying and my mom was a single mom basically you know raising eight kids on her own on welfare you know how that go all of that living in the projects um she wasn't like a dysfunctional person that was using the stuff she was a very functional addict like you know what I'm saying she always made sure we was good high clothes we had the best Christmases and the projects you know what I'm saying everybody used to want to come to our house to see all our stuff and all that, you know what I'm saying?

It was good. The childhood was good. Like, you know what I'm saying? Although she was very strict, like, when I say strict, I mean like no going outside on school days, only on Friday and Saturday, Sundays, you got to clean the house, clean the walls, all type of stuff like that. She was strict, you know what I'm saying? But she was also into that street life heavy, you know what I'm saying?

That's what I've seen as a young kid growing up and got me into the, the streets early at an early age, you know what I'm saying, trying to be like my older brother and trying to mimic my mom, you know what I'm saying? So it was, it was a crazy life, man. It was a crazy life growing up, man. It was a good one, but it was a crazy lifestyle growing up, you know what I'm saying. So yeah, we're just living in the projects, you know, we're doing what every other family's doing, trying to survive, you know what I'm saying, make it every day. My mom is hustling, like I said, she's selling drugs, you know what I mean? You see, you You're seeing the fiends, the crackheads everywhere you go.

So you know what's going on, you know what I mean? You're not stupid to what's going on around you. So, yeah, I sucked all that out then. And then I started getting into the streets myself. What was your first entry way into the streets for yourself? The first thing that I ever did in the streets was, I think I was 13 or 14 years old. I started selling crack at that young age. And I was loving it because the money was coming so fast.

It was, you would get a pack because back then, you know, I'm 13, 14. I'm getting packs from, you know, the older dudes. And I would get it and, you know, it would be going fast. And I'll go back and get another one. Same thing. So it was good fast money, you know what I'm saying? And then I got arrested. Like, I was like, I got arrested.

Like, and I got caught with the whole thing on me, like, literally. And I was scared, you know, I'm 13, 14, getting arrested, going to the precinct, going to the bookings, you know what I'm saying? Going to Spofford and all that. It was scary, you know what I'm saying? And it's just something that I went through and that's what it was. You know what I'm saying? I got caught up, sucked into the streets at a young age. And how'd your mom react to you selling drugs?

She must have known. She didn't know, honestly. Not at all? She didn't know. Was she just so busy trying to raise the kids? That's exactly what she was doing. She didn't know. And it's funny because she never seen me.

She never caught me. I don't even think nobody ever told her. Because, you know, people always in the hood telling your mother everything. Like, all the older ladies and stuff, the nosy ones that sit in front of the building and, you know, in the park when it's nice, they're watching everything. So they go back and tell your parents, everything. But I never did nothing on my block, like, around my building. I always went on the other side and, you know what I did. So people over there, I didn't know. I mean, I knew people, but my mom didn't really associate with nobody over there. So it was like,

I was good on that side. Like, you know what I'm saying? So she didn't know. And then. How would she have reacted, do you think? She would have whooped my ass. You know, it's an interesting perspective where you have a mom that's hustling herself just trying to put food on the table but wouldn't condone her own kids doing it. It's like such a, it's got to be hard to be put in that position. Do you guys think you know about sports? Turn your knowledge into cash with prize picks,

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or any other sport, prize picks is where real money sports action happens. Prize picks, run your game. Hope you guys enjoy using prize picks. Now let's get back into today's episode. It is, bro. It is. And if she would have knew, like, or caught me, she would have whipped my ass, like she would have beat the crap out of me.

Like, she did not play. Like, she used to give us curfews 8 o'clock on Fridays. Everybody's outside on Fridays. That's all the school kids, you know, Saturdays, the same thing, 8 o'clock. If we came in at 8.01, she was smacking dog shit out of us. I swear to God, bro. I swear to God. You know what I'm saying?

So that's the type of she was. Like, she didn't condone none of that. She didn't never want none of her kids to be in the streets. I'm saying. She wanted the best for you. Right. And she used to always tell me and my brothers, yeah, I'm not going to do what my brothers did to my mother

and have her going to these damn jails and these prisons, visiting. I'm not doing none of that. And she, you know what I'm saying? She kept it real until it. Like, you don't got to do none of this. Like, when she finally did find out, like before she passed away that we was in the streets and all that,

running around crazy doing stuff, she was saying all that. You know what I'm saying? Like, you ain't got to do this. But if you don't want to listen to me, there's consequences that come with this. And when you get caught up and go to jail, don't call me. I'm not saying no money. I'm not coming to see you.

I'm not none of that because I'm warning you now. I'm saying? So once she did find out before she passed away, she was on that type of time. You know what I'm saying? So after I got locked up, I end up getting out that gym, you know what I'm saying? Because my father was a cop. A lot of people don't know that. Oh, wow.

Yeah, he was just on, he lived in Brooklyn. You know what I'm saying? No relationship together Yeah, yeah We had a good relationship Me and my sister used to always go over there Spending weekends over there He had a big house

You know what I'm saying So it was good We've come in the projects Living in the project Going to a big house In East New York You know what I'm saying It was cool

It was cool You know what I'm saying It's just that Whatever happened Between him and my mother It just happened You know what I'm saying They went their separate ways

Um So after I got locked up for that Selling crack I got I ended up like basically that shit ended up disappearing you know what I'm saying my mother was connected well with the police as well too is it's crazy oh my story is so crazy bro it's like certain things I can't really say you know what I'm saying but I'm gonna say what I could say you know

I'm saying and um like I said so my father was a cop he was living in Brooklyn and East New York you know what I'm saying um after I got locked up that whole thing charged disappeared I came home for me. It was nothing. I'm back out, you know, being 14-year-old, I'm running the streets with my friends. 15 years old, I start high school at 15th grade. I go to Stevenson High School in the Bronx.

I'm in there. My mindset at the time is just like, you know, I'm young. I'm a follower. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to see what's out there and explore, you know what I mean? And I started seeing, you know, people in my neighborhood, the kids, my age, you know, making money. Because at that time, once I got locked up for that, I was like, oh, nah, this is not for me no more.

Like, you know what I'm saying? I was scared. So I'm like, I'll fuck with the weed, you know what I'm saying? I'll get some weed. It ain't, you know what I mean? Much is not nothing. They could really hit you in the head with, you know what I'm saying? You get caught with some weed.

they letting you go most of the time. So I started messing with that. I'm in high school. One day I see some kid, some Dominican kid. He got on the big chain. I'm like, oh, shit, shunning. I'm like, we're in the ninth, 10th grade.

Like, what he doing? Low story short, I end up robbing him in the hallway in the staircase, matter of fact. Took his chain and all that. Strong armed robbery, no weapons, no nothing. You know what I'm saying? I just basically extorted him out of it. I leave, I go home.

You know, I end up selling that shit, get the money, and I do what I do with it. Next day, I go to school. He told on me, I got arrested. Take me to the 43rd precinct in the Bronx, Soundview area. I get there. You know, they questioning me doing all of this stuff,

that and the third. and I'm basically telling them like, I don't know what you're talking about. They lock me up, take me to Spofford. It's my first time really in Sparford. No, my second time in Spofford, actually. When you growing up, like for me, I heard the word, the name Spofford before,

but I ain't really know. Like, you know what I'm saying? You know you hear about something and you're not, you don't know what it is until you actually experience it or if you ever experience it or go through it, that's what happened. So I get there,

it's like kiddie land, honestly. Ain't nothing really going on in there. It's not like the 80s, you know what I'm saying? It's early 2000s. There's nothing really. There's fights going on and stuff like that. No stabbing, no nothing. So I'm in there going to court back and forth.

They send me to a non-secure detention, which is like you living in a house with 10 other people that's locked up, but you're living in the house in the Bronx somewhere. I'm in there. I'm going to school right down the block for my project. I'm locked up, but they take us to school right down the block from my part, in my hood, basically.

So, you know, it was a good thing being in my hood, you know what I'm saying, close to my family, because if anything happened, you know what I'm saying, they write down the block. I end up getting sentenced to 15 months or something like that, juvenile. and I go upstate to some place called Tabor. I did like 15 months in the whole 15 months. That was like some structure, lockup, juvenile place.

Very hands-on. They was hurting people up there. Like the staff, they was hurting people up there. I end up coming home April, 06. I'm on juvenile probation parole or whatever. So I got a report to them. I get locked up again that same year, August, armed. So after that first robbery, I came home and started doing robberies.

I wasn't selling drugs no more. I come home that April of 06. I get locked up August 06, like four months later. Me and my cousin, we was co-defendants. We get locked up for a robbery. First time on Rikers Island, I'm 16 years old. I'm like, oh, man. Why do you think you had that progression to robberies?

facility you were in kind of made you that way? The juvenile facility? No, I did it, actually. It was real, like, a structure environment. Like, you know what I'm saying? It was a lot of rules going, you know, how you had to file the rules and stuff like that, go to school, do this, do that. Like, it wasn't no crazy juvenile facility, like, you know, some of them all,

because they're all crazy ones. But that one was the laid back one, you know what I'm saying? So it was like, it was pretty cool. That ain't have nothing to do it. It's just that the mentality. had still was just like I didn't care like you know what I'm saying and that's how it is nowadays with the youth they don't care you feel me like they don't care until shit gets real yeah so I go before I get to my guys island my you know my cousin telling me he'd been there before

we had did it it's crazy right we had did it uh robbery in Harlem me him and my one of my other brothers they got court I got away by the grace of God I don't know how It was just crazy. I got away. So he went to Rikers Island that time, my co-defendant I'm talking about now. So when we went together for this charge in 2006 of August, he's telling me, listen, bro,

when we get there, the shit going to get real. You got to remember, at the time, you could wear your own clothes. So whatever you got arrested in, that's what you have on Rikers Island. That's why it was a lot of fighting, barberries, cut. stabbings for people clothes you can wear gold chains you can wear pinky rings earrings

watches all of that you'm saying so he tells me yo listen when we get there if anybody asks you if you with it don't talk pop it off i'm like i bet say that this is my first time this is second time so we go through the process you know bookings central bookings the court all of that you get to Rikers Island I had on some white uptowns Nanky Uptowns you know with some regular blue jeans and the T-shirt

It was summertime He had on like a Nike sweatsuit And some Air Max 9-5s With the bubbles So you can't have bubble sneakers Or boots on Rikers Island They take those from you And they give you the

We used to call them the Air Patakis The orange Slipper-looking things They look like vans So they look like vans So they're give him those. Mind you, we came in with like eight dudes.

So we all knew, all eight of us. My cousin, like, yo, bro, I got to get up out of these. One of these things got to give up their sneakers. I'm like, I, what's up? So basically, we end up robbing some dude right there. After you go through the intake area, they take your picture and all of that, ask you, yo, you want to go in with that on? You sure you want to go in with that on?

Or you want to leave it in your property back? All right, go ahead. We go to the clinic. We sit in the back two rows is for the adolescents, you know what I'm saying? And there's adults like right in front of us, CO desks right there, C-O. Right there, they come in and out.

The nurses is in and back, coming in and out, calling people. We robin's due for his white uptown, the Spanish kid, right in the back. We basically friendly extorted him. That's what you call it in jail, feel me? We friendly extorted him,

got him to give up his sneaker. is we robbing people now for their pin numbers. You know, the pin numbers on Mike's Island is for the phone. Be like, yo, my cousin telling me, like, yo, we need pin numbers, bro. We're going to need these phones. So we robbing people with whatever the place, whatever the case may be. From the intake clinic, you go to Mar 1. That's like the intake dorm, open dorm, 60 beds, north side, south side.

They put me on the north side They put my cousin on the south side So now I'm on the north side I'm running into people From my neighborhood I ain't seeing months I'm like this is where you've been at, nigga?

Like what the fuck? He's telling me whatever the case may be What he is in there for This, that, and third Now I'm on jail mode You know what I'm saying It's my first time here I'm trying to see what's going on

With what it is What the vibe is You know what I'm saying How the phones is being ringed and all of that. Mar 1 is sweet. Ain't nothing going on. And there might be a little fight here and there over the phone,

over some bullshit. But other than that, it's sweet. Probably, I stood there maybe eight days. They call you two, that it don't matter what time of it. It could be five in the morning. Pack up. You, five, six, seven, eight people pack up. They call your name, tell you where you're going.

Mar two. Five lower. Five upper, three main. I'm saying? Me personally, I went to two, my Mar two. I get in there, bro, it's like 2.30 in the morning. I'm thinking, niggas, just sleep. There's a dorm, mind you, you know what I'm saying?

North side, south side. Like I said, I'm thinking everybody's sleep. Bro, I walk through the doors with the five niggas. Everybody that I went to the house with, before we even get into the house, they're like, yo, yo, we're going to hold each other down, right? You're going to hold me down, right? I'm just looking like, but I don't know none of you, niggas. I'm staying by myself, and that's just what it is.

So we get through the first gate. I look to the left side, bro. It's like 30, 40 niggers on the glass gate, bro, like this. I'm like, oh, shit. One dude points to my sneakers. He's like this. I'm like, oh, man. I just threw my head back.

I look to the right side. Same thing. I'm like, 30, 40 dudes on the glass, like waiting. Like, it's 2.30 and a little. morning why y'all not sleep like you feel me i'm like shit so they call my name south side before i can make it to go walk to the south side somebody's coming from the north side to walk through the the whole crowd and he's moving the crowd as he's walking through i look to the left and it's my man from my block i'm like oh shit you tell us yo that's my cousin y'all don't put him over there put him on this side

they put me on the north side that's the blood side the south side was the crypt side i'm like oh shit thank god from me so i get in there on the north side i see a few more people from my neighborhood that i know i'm like damn just like everybody from the hood is in here like the fuck so we just in there bro we re-rejelling you'm saying it's nothing else to do you can't do nothing it's the same shit all day every day and day out it's not like in prison up off, you know what I'm saying, where it's programs, you've got to go to this. Bikers Island, you're stuck in the house all day, bro. Unless, well, when you go to school, besides going to school, other than that, you're going,

you're staying in the house. You know, you go nowhere, unless you're going to a visit, you know what I'm saying? Other than that, you're staying in the house. It's the same shit all day, every day. So we're in there riots, all type of crazy shit, bro. CO abuse. The CO abuse back then, bro, was so crazy, bro. Like, I've seen a lot of COs from Rikers Island here, bro.

Like, Ebro, I know him from the box, you know what I'm saying? OBCC, oh boy, I was in the box to Southwest. Wait, really? So, Ebrod was there in the box? Yeah, he was there in the box when I was there. So you listen. This was 2006, I believe. Are the stories true that he says?

Yeah, how yeah, they true, bro. Yes. It's nothing that none of them COs from Rikers Island that ever came on your show, bro. Everything they said was the truth. Plus more. You know what I'm saying? It was crazy, bro. It was a crazy, crazy.

I'm talking about riots, lockdowns for days, bro. Like, if somebody get cut real bad, a CEO get assaulted, the whole jail is locked down. Every jail on Rikers Island is 10 jails. Every jail locked down. Three, four days, non-stop searches, back to back. As soon as they leave from messing up, You know, they come in and fuck up everything.

Uh-uh. Make you go through, put your head on the metal detector, all that, sco-all of that. Strip search, bend over, spread them, crack them, all that. Lift your nuts, everything. Four days straight, bro. They could leave five minutes later. Another search team is coming. You could be in the middle of fixing your shit, your wholesale, or have your joint fixed up,

how you already had it. Before the last search came. These niggas come. Another one, ESU, emergency search team. They come. fuck your shit up. And these officers aren't afraid to put hands on you. Hell no.

It's a totally different environment back then. Bro. Back then, bro, it was straight bones breaking. It was no talking, bro. Let me tell you something, bro. They had teams. They had, it was a team called H&M. These are two COs.

One name is HALT. One name is Miller. Miller is like 6'8. Ballheaded brown skin dude. And it looked like he was in a fire. You know how them people be in a fire and they got like lights, patches all over their body? He looked at this scary, bro.

He was like six, eight, bro. His hands was like two hands. Like, bro, he was slapping adolescents. These are 16, 17, or 18, road. He was slapping people heads off, bro. They was breaking bones. But it wasn't like today, like all the COs now is they're young. You know what I'm saying, 21, 22.

Back then, bro, the COs was 40. They was in their 40s, late 30s, early 50s. And they looked like they was on steroids, bro. Their arms was like crazy big, bro. It was like they had another team, B and Mac. You know what I'm saying? Mac, his name was Mac Donald. Bullhead black big stocky dude.

B was another boyhead black big stocky dude, bro. Like they was breaking people up, bro. Like it was crazy, bro. Like they was breaking George, arms, like, I. It was crazy, bro. Like, especially the adolescents because, we young you feel me we don't know no better we just taking the shit and going on some niggas is fighting back don't get me wrong but they're getting twisted after they fight back like

they are breaking them up like you know what I'm saying and it was just crazy bro like back to back searches bro back to back fights like I was in his one house right five main this was like oh seven beginning to oh seven late oh six beginning to oh seven So it's two dudes that run the house That got the house You feel me One dude got half The other dude got half

Then there's four dudes that got That's on the team You feel me They the ones who's basically Running down on niggas Yo, you're gonna be with the program You're gonna send in your commissary Your phone calls

You go to visit You're gonna give us your new t-shirts Your new boxes And shit like that Just sneak it whatever So Two niggas running the crib Four niggas on the team

Back then it was chairs It was colorful chairs in the day room. You couldn't sit on that chair if you was a nobody. Like if you pulled the chair, you better expect to get smoked by the whole house. Everybody jumping right then and there. If you was a nobody and you just came in and pulled the chair and sat down, there was none of that, bro.

And now they got those chairs out of there because of, you know, my generation that was coming through Rikers Island, fighting over the chairs, getting stabbed over the chairs, cut over the chairs, phone smashed and their face over the chairs. the chair TV smashed on people heads over the chairs. They took them out. You know what I'm saying?

And like I was saying, I mean, that one house, five main north side. Bro, it was hell in there, bro. It was hell in there, bro. Every day, the nigga that ran the house used to come out. We used to line up for school, 8 o'clock in the morning, something like that after breakfast. He used to be at the top of the tear by the CO's bubble.

And he'll scream, yo y'all niggas want to go to school today or y'all want to stay in for the whole morning once two to three niggas say we want to stay in for the whole morning that's it that people just start popping off so whoever came in the night before that wasn't with the program or we're trying to

I'm not with nothing bro it was done they was getting beat right there like beat right there next thing you know CEO press their PBA boom is over turtles is coming beating up everybody locking everybody locking everybody in locked down for the whole morning everybody go back to sleep now for me come out the next tour at four o'clock if they even decide to let us out i'm saying so that was a everyday situation in

that house bro every single day bro like i got jumped in that house by 30 niggas bro in a cell at that so you got to tell us that story there was no like so what happened was right one day we in the house, right? We're in a day room. Everybody's in the day room, watch the TV. You know, the niggas on the phone. And the COs rush, they came from the back of the house because there's a staircase back there, you know, locked door.

They got the key. So they rushed the back of the tier and came in on the search. Everybody's, you know, surprise search. Shit, like, you know, jail shit. That's what they do. They come out of nowhere from the back door. Hey, everybody on the fucking wall. Don't move out.

So they rushed the back of the tear, came in. Niggas on the phone like, yo, search, search. Everybody in day room, like, oh, shit. the high shit, I'm saying? They rush the dayroom, everybody on the wall, on the wall. Boom. They start searching everybody. Everybody's in the dayroom and a circle around the wall with their hands up.

Searching, searching. Next thing you'll know, bro, we're supposed to lock in. At that time, lock-in time was at 10 o'clock at night. We're supposed to lock in and start getting locked in about 9.50. They're still searching. This happened probably like around 8-something. It's lock-in time. We're trying to go in ourselves, you feel me?

and they're in this one cell. I don't know what they're doing. When they come on a search, they go hard, bro. They break walls sometimes and all that. So I don't know. I guess they got some type of metal hit, like with a metal detector inside the wall that they start going in the war in one cell. These niggas find a 45 caliber bullet in the wall, right?

Of the cell, no bullshit, bro. And, you know, they take the shit and they leave. So we don't lock in to about 1145 going on. 12 we was just all in the day room chilling while they were still searching that cell from 8 o'clock so they leave we finally lock in they thinking there's a gun in the house now next thing you know two o'clock in the morning three o'clock two 30 or something i hear my cell door open uh that's not normal normally that mean niggas is about to run in your cell and kill you you for beat the shit out you so i'm thinking that's about to happen

But I'm so deep into my dream, bro. I don't know what I was dreaming, but I was so deep into it, but I still knew that my door was opening because that's just the jail instinct. Like, you know what I'm saying? And next thing you know, bro, I see a shield,

one dude with an AR-style rifle, another one behind the shield, the one that was holding a shield with a nine in my face. Get the fuck up, get the fuck up. I'm like, what the fuck? They snatched me out the back. With boxes on.

That's all I have. on, I think, boxes and the sweatshirt. Cuff me with the flex cuffs. And I'm like, yo, what's going on? They walk me out myself. They got something that's called the A and B gate before you walk inside the actual house of the, you know, where the M-8 is.

They walk me through the A, I mean, through the B gate, and I see police tape, do not cross everywhere. I'm like, what the fuck? I see other niggas from the house on their knees and boxes and flexi cuffs. I'm like, yo, the fuck is going on. Nobody know what's going on.

So they take us all down to intake. Intake is where you first come in through the building. You know what I'm saying? They do your ID and all that. And it's like mad cells down there. Big cells, small cells, medium cells. They put us in two big cells. The whole north side, which is probably like 30-something niggers,

they put it in one cell. The south side came. They came down with the whole south side after they took us to the, you know, intake. they put the whole south side in the cell right across from us. It's 3 o'clock in the morning, 3.30. There's a bunch of 16, 17-year-olds all in these cells acting like animals, bro. Everybody yelling, screaming.

Fights start breaking out. So I'm sitting down in the corner, mind you, they was trying to make me with the program in this house. You know what I'm saying? I was good on the island. You know what I mean? That first time I went there, I was good because there was a lot of people from my neighborhood. I had a couple fights, few fights, you know what I'm saying? But I was good.

But in this house, particular house, five main, they tried to test the waters, you know what I'm saying? So they kept trying to come at me on some sideways friendly type of extortion, but it wasn't happening. I never gave up nothing. You feel what I never, ever gave up nothing. And they never took nothing from me. So we in themselves, 233 in the morning, now they're picking out people. Like the two dudes that run the house, they did. The four people that are on the team that I mentioned, they did.

And then you got all the dayroom dummies that they pop off dummies, you know what I'm saying? If they tell them pop off, they're going to pop off. You know what I'm saying? So I'm in the corner. This one dude grabs my foot and pulls me off because it's like a little, a little, you know, cement little thing coming out where, you know, you could sit. He grabs my foot and yanks me off the thing. And I'm like, oh, man, I fall to the floor. I immediately curl up because it's.

I mean, I know they all gonna try to get hits on because this is just how Rikers Island is. So I curl up. Next to you know, everybody's trying to stomp of me, punching me all type of crazy shit. I'm like, ah, man.

But it's not really affecting me because they all hitting each other trying to hit me too, you feel me? Because you got 30 niggas and one dude, it's not going to work. Everybody's going to be on top of each other

trying to hit, you know what I'm saying, hit them and they hitting each other. So that's how I happen. But, you know, they did get their hits in and all of that. and I'm like, all right, it is what it is. I'm not about to die in here, like, you feel what I, after that they just left it alone.

They went on to the next thing. And I was like, all right, it is what it is. Like, feel me? After that, I was good, though, in that house, you feel what I mean? They ain't never try to play games with me again, none of that. And, yeah, it was that, that situation was crazy. I thought I was going to die, honestly, bro, because there's nowhere to run.

Like, you literally in a cell and it's locked. There's nowhere to run at all. You can't go nowhere. You just got to deal with it. And they had guns? You said they walked in with guns. No, those were the COs. Yeah, but they had guns commonly?

Well. I thought they're not allowed to have guns. Nah, it wasn't. The reason why they had guns is because they thought that it was a gun inside of the five main north side. Once they found that bullet in the war, they thought it was a gun in there in the house. But it wasn't. You know what I'm saying? That shit must have been old, been there for decades, you know what I mean?

So it wasn't nothing there. So the COs, the ESU, the emergency service team, dumbniggas came. That's the ones who came with the rifle. Yeah. Those are the ones who had the guns. But probably like rubber bullets or? No, those were real guns. They brought real guns.

Those were real guns. Those wasn't no rubber bullets, boy. Those were real fucking guns. Those wasn't no rubber bullet guns. Now, what happened to you, would that, had you ever? seen that happen to you, happen to other inmates. Where I game jump?

Yeah. Yeah, I was a part of it. Yeah. Yeah. How old you? Bro, every single day, there's alarms. Every day, multiple, more than five. Every single day.

And adolescents back then, 06, 07. It was crazy, bro. Like, bro, it was multiple alarms. On the school floors, on the visit. You could be on a visit with your family and get popped on. Just right there. I thought that's like a safe zone in prison. No.

Hell no. No, not on Rikers Island. Maybe in other states is like that. But in New York State, bro, New York City, Rikers Island, bro, they don't care if you with your grandmother, your kids. If you got a problem with somebody or if you got beef with somebody, niggers will pop off on you right there. Or right before you even get on the visit floor.

Now you're looking with a cookie, bust the lip to go on a visit. Real shit, bro. Why would you jump? other people. Why do you participate? For me personally, it was just like in 06 it was just to like be down

basically like you got it. In Vikings Island bro at that age bro you have to become a product of the environment that you went sadly or you're going to be a victim of the environment that you went. You know what I'm saying? And that's just how it was back then.

Like it was real shit going on like it was real like it was real problems real static real beef on rikers island back then like you know what I'm saying with the gangs the YGs the YBs the bloods you know I'm saying the Crips all that the pothias all of that it was real gang beef on there like it was riots in the chapel bro like in the chapel like normally we go there to come say with other gang members and exchange paperwork or information whatever the case may be People don't really go there for the, for it to be, you know what I'm saying, the chapel.

Like, you might go get some rosary beads and that's about it. But really, you're going there to link up with your man's that's on the other side of the building on another house that you're both gang from the same gang. And y'all got information in trade or whatever the case may be. So, yeah, it was riots in the chapel, bro. Like, ESU chasing niggas down the hallway. Like, niggas is running down the hallway. Like, you know what I'm saying? Running from ESU getting court getting beat up, all type of crazy shit.

Bro, was, like I said, they was beating niggers' asses on Rikers Island. It was never a day where COs wasn't putting hands on the adolescents, bro. They even put hands on me, bro. Like, I was in the sixth building because for that first time I went to Rikers Island, it was, that 06, August, I got sentenced to one year for the robbery I did. So by the time I got sentenced, I had seven and a half months, like seven months and a year Rikers Island is eight months. So I go to the six building one month. I'm out. I'm going home. So I get to the sixth building and over there is a little different. There's only two

adolescent houses in the six building at that time. Now they changed it. But back then it was only two adolescent houses, five upper and then think five lower. The rest of the building was adults. So I think I went to five lower. Over there is different. There's nobody running in the house. It's two people with the phone that got half of the phone. So it might be, I might have half of the phone. And if, you know what I'm saying? Just for instance, you might have half of the phone with me. It's three phones.

So it's six dudes that got the phone. You know what I'm saying? It's most of the time there's two blood phones and a neutral phone at the time in the adolescence. So I get to the sixth building. My code is already there. The one I caught the case with, he'd been there by a couple months before me. So he's running shit over there. He got the phone over there.

He's doing his thing. I get over there. Before I get over there, though, I had went to court the day I got sentenced to something, and I seen somebody from the 6th building in the, like, bullpen area, and I had rode a little kite on the paper, and I sent it over there with him. Like, I'm coming for that phone when I get over there,

that, blah, basically, on some bully shit, basically. So I get over there, I mean, first morning I wake up. some dude approaches me. He's like, yo, you such and such. I'm like, yeah, wow, what's up? He's like, yo, you drama cousin, right? I'm like, yeah, why, what's up? He's like, yo, the phone on the left is yours.

I'm like, I say that. So that's how that went. And I'm in there basically running shit for the last month of my eight-month sentence. So say a guy like me walks in and wants to use the phone. How does that happen? What happens? Bro, in dumb times, bro. If you were to just go walk up to the phone and touch it,

you're going to have about two, three, niggas, maybe four surround you. And one may be hanging your shit up or taking the phone from you. You can't just walk in there and touch the phone. Like, you got to ask, like, you feel I mean? Even now, it's probably still like that. But back then it was, niggas was quick to kill you.

Like, what? They'll smash you with the phone. Like, you know what I'm saying? So if a person like you walked in, you would have to ask to use that phone. It's just that simple. That's just how it was. Why was the phone so valuable?

That's the lifeline to the outside world. You feel me? Everybody wanted to speak to their family, their girl, their kids. You feel me if they got at the time. Commissary, you got to check your account to see how much money you got, you know what I'm saying, for commissary coming up. You know what I'm saying? So that phone was like everything for everybody, you know what I'm saying?

It was just only for the fittest, you know what I'm saying? Whoever was the strongest person, like, you know what I'm saying? Or let they, as we would say back then, let they nuts. hang. You know what I'm saying? If you wasn't a person that I was ready to let your nuts hang

or drag your nuts and let niggas you're not one of them soft niggas you're going to do what you want then it was over. Couldn't the prison just install more phones?

Yeah, but they ain't doing that shit. Why I only have like say two or three phones? I feel like you could have a bunch. I feel like it's a controlled thing, you know what I'm saying? Prison is not meant

or jail is not meant to be like a hotel. You know what I'm saying? It's meant to to, to supposedly change you, but that shit don't change you. I think a place like Rikers just makes you more violent.

That's all it does, bro. Making more of a criminal, bro. That's it. So, yeah, man, it was crazy, man. It was times where on Rikers Island, they would dehumanize you, bro. Like, really dehumanize you. Like, if two people had a fight or whatever,

altercation, bro, they would make the whole house pay. everybody stripped naked 60 dudes strip naked line up next to each other ass and balls dick right next to each other bro and everybody's going like this holding their shit like literally bro I swear to God bro like they will really

violate you bro Captain Kelly he was a bitch-ass naker both of them there's two of them the light skin one and the dog skin one they both bitch-ass niggas bro they will violate you bro that you fighting too much on the tour making them come out and have to do paperwork bro

one by one they crack in your cell taking you in the day room you walk in the day room there's five football player looking niggas bro like this and the captain is slapping the shit out you go back to your cell now

that's how it was bro I swear to God bro like how often are you in yourself throughout the day in a typical day um it depends like because um

anything could happen like I say in adolescence unless you go into school a visit, a sick call, you're in the house. You're not in your cell unless you want to be. You know what I'm saying? Unless you want to tell them, you all, crack myself, lock me in,

I'm going to sleep or whatever. But you normally in the day room, you know what I'm saying? But in, and being, like, typically be, that I'm locking you down, bro, it's like every day, bro. Every other day, bro, because there's always something going on. Always something going on. A whole lot of politics, jail politics going on. You know what I'm saying?

And, yeah, it was real, bro. It was so real, bro. I watched the CO, bro, knock out some Spanish dude teeth, bro. Made him bite the fucking concrete, bro, and hit him in the back of the head, bro, and chip all his front teeth right here, bro. That's how real it was, bro. Like, it was, bro, I've seen dudes one day normal like you.

Next day, bro, they faces unrecognizable walking down the corridor, bro. eyes can't even open raccoon eyes nose bro unrecognizable bro like it was so sad bro like what the COs used to do to us bro like it was crazy bro

like for real Were there any good COs there? Nah hell yeah It was a lot of good COs there yeah but we always when I was there we always got the fucked up ones

and I'm saying the bad ones they only care about getting that check and leaving you know I'm saying and you gotta remember back then it was no cameras really like that. Now we're hurt they got body cameras and all that and it's more cameras out in the hallways, but back then there wasn't no cameras really like that. So they'll take you in the

back somewhere where there's no cameras and crunch you up real quick and bring you right back to your house, not even to medical. Now, are they doing this because they just don't like inmates or because the inmates have provoked it to this level? Some inmates might provoke it, but most of the time is just not even because they don't like them. It's just because they could do whatever the hell they want and get away with it. You know what I'm saying? Like it's a power thing? Yeah.

That's exactly what it is. It's a power thing. That's exactly what it is. Like, I've seen captains get demoted back down to a regular COs, officers, like, whatever the fuck they did. But I've seen it happen. I've seen CO females get fired for fucking around with inmates, you know what I'm saying? Bringing in shit, you know what I mean? I've seen all type of shit in them buildings, bro.

All type of stuff. I was getting stuff like, you know what I'm saying? Here in there, some Chinese food, you know what I'm saying? KFC chicken here and there. And I'm saying? Because you got to understand one thing. When you, when you jailing in Rikers Island, them COs, bro, they be there sometimes three days straight, bro, doing triples. They don't get to go home and see their family.

You know what I'm saying? And if they do, it's for a brief moment and it's right back to the job. Especially if you knew, they're killing you with the hours over there. COs calling in, calling out. I mean, like, y'all ain't making it. Now they're stuck. Can't go nowhere. No meal.

They can't go to lunch. None of that. So over time, especially with these females, even with the guy CEOs, too, you're seeing COs that's from your hood in there. Like, I'm saying? I got family members that's COs right now on Mike Azale. You know what I'm saying? Captains, regular COs, all that.

You know what I mean? So you're seeing them all day, every day. So that relationship, it starts to grow, especially with the females. How come your dad and mom couldn't bail you out of this robbery situation, but they could bail you out of the drugs? This robbery joint, it was like out of the hands, like, because they already told, well, my mom, for that first thing that happened when she got me out of it, it wasn't actually, like, me getting bailed out. Like, you know how you go pay. It was just they knew some people that knew some people, you know what I'm saying? So that happened in the borough that I was from.

I'm saying? The Bronx. So she knew people and especially the area, like the, I would say they would call it from up here, like the district, which is like the confines of like a certain precinct area. So she knew like a lot of higher up people in there. And then it's like once I started getting older, it's like if you're not going to listen to your parents, they just get like, sadly they just give up on you. like you want to be a you want to be grown you want to be an adult you're going to see what this shit is about basically you know what I'm saying that's exactly what they're telling you you don't want to listen to me you got you if you learn the hallway that's on you because I'm

telling you and that's that's the problem today with the youth you know what I'm saying they can't they don't learn from the ones that came before them like me or you you know I'm saying but yeah that was why like you know what I'm saying um they couldn't get me out of it And then my mom, my mom, like I said, we wasn't a family that had money. You know what I'm saying? My mom was always struggling, you know what I'm saying? And my pops, he was doing his own thing, you know what I mean? He always told me, like, don't go to jail, man, because I'm not going to be able to always get you out of a situation.

Like, you know what I'm saying? Or your mother. So that's why, man. Honestly, I think my mom was trying to make me learn a lesson. You know what I'm saying? because she always told me. Like I'm her first biological son, you know what I'm saying? So she always told me like that's not the place for you to be.

Like I don't want you going there. I don't want you doing this. Like, you know what I'm saying? Honestly, I was trying to follow in my father's footsteps, but I ended up getting in trouble, caught up with the law. And, yeah, that was wide, bro. I sat in there and I just rotted away on Rikers Island for that time. You couldn't tell your dad what was going on there?

at Rikers because he was a cop. Yeah, but that shit, that shit don't mean, he couldn't have did shit about it. He couldn't have did a damn thing about it. Like, you know what I'm saying? If he could have, I would have probably told him. But at the time, I was so caught up in the environment. It was like, I didn't give a fuck.

Like, you know what I'm saying? When I got to the 6th building, like I was saying, right, I had four weeks left to go home. Mind you, the house that I was in, I had the phone. It was a Crip house and a blood house. And I'm like, what, what? What did I just walk in? This is never allowed.

You live, you are blood, but you're living with Crips or you're a Cripp and you're living with Bloods. But that's just how it was. Like, one half of the dorm was blood, the other half was Crips. So there was always a lot of problems over the phones in there in the Sixth Building. One time this dude, I'm talking to my girl on the phone, this dude, this Crip dude comes over and bang my call. I slapped the shit out of him with the phone bro, we start fighting right there C-O come slap both of us

to us go play our bunks I'm like I can't do nothing about it It is what it is So I got four weeks left there One time me and my man Was slap boxing right We in the bathroom slat horse playing around The CEO's coming in all mad and shit

For whatever's going on outside I don't want no horse playing on my fucking tour Y'all niggas better act right This that's how they talking Mind you, they're from the hood. They're from the street. So this is how they talk. I catch y'all playing.

Y'all already know what it is. So me and my man slapboxing in the hole, I mean, in the bathroom. This niggas, the CO sitting on the chair after the desk. He leans back and he sees us. Let's go. Y'all already know what it is. I'm like, what? Mind you, I'm still new there.

Niggas was already warning me about this particular CO. His name is Ingram, bitch-ass nigger. If he ever see this, I'll have fuck you, you know. But yeah, so right, he violated me, bro. We don't need horse playing around. He don't need to put your hands on us, right? So he tells us, staying right in front of him. He tells my man, chin up, nigger.

He put on his Nike gloves. Bro, he slaps the dog shit out of my man three times, bro. Oh, shit. He's like, yeah, now is your turn, nigga. Chin up. Or he slapped me out of nowhere. Boom! I was like, oh.

Like chin up, nigger Slap me again, bro I weaved it though The second time and he hit my chin He's out, oh, you're trying to move You're trying to move Put your chin up, nigga Third time he slapped the dog shit out of me, bro

I would, bro, he busts my ear drum and all that I went home with a busted ear drum I didn't know no better I could have got, you know how much money I could have got over that A lot, yeah What? Bro, he busted my ear drum I didn't know no better

I went home like that, bro and all of that. And then the crazy shit is, too. The night I went home, it was a riot between the bloods and the crib. The whole door, 60-man riot, bro. Two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning. Niggas has had a riot. Turtles come.

I'm trying to play the side because I go home in the morning at 8.30, 8 o'clock. I'm out of here, so I ain't trying to get caught up in none of this. C-O's come, turtles come. They start beating everybody ass. I move over to the side. I'm going home, yo. I'm standing, I can stand right here, right? I'm leaving.

They're like, oh, no, you ain't going home. I'm like, what? You know what I'm saying? So that was a crazy ride. I ended up going home, though, obviously. I went home. Same mentality. Still started robbing motherfuckers again.

Me and my cousin, my COD, started doing the same thing. And I didn't learn shit from Rikers Island, bro. Like I said, Rikers Island, don't teach you nothing positive, bro. Nothing. If anything, it teaches you how to be more of a criminal, more of an animal, more aggressive, you know what I'm saying? More self-centered, you know what I mean? You don't care about nothing to nobody else. You know what I mean?

Yeah, so I went back out in the streets. How old were you when you got out that time? I was 17. Yeah, 17. I turned 17 on Rikers Island. Actually, I got locked up August, 06. birthday of September 06

and I came home April 07 my mom's passed away two weeks after I came home like literally in my crib like in my not in my arms but like in my sister arms type of shit

so she passed away when I was 17 two weeks after I came home um after that man it was just like a down a downward spiral after that, man.

I just fell into the streets even deeper. Like, my father was still alive, you know what I'm saying? But I ain't listened to him. I didn't really care to listen to him. Like, it was like, my mindset was like, as I got older, it was like, nigga, I'm getting older, I'm getting grown. Where the fuck was you all these years? Even though, like, you was there, you know what I'm saying?

But you wasn't there the way I really wanted you to be, like, in the household type shit. You know what I'm saying? You was there, though, but I like that. and yeah I started getting in trouble again I came home from that shit mom passed away everything her funeral

we did all of that put her to rest so now is my sister basically my two older brothers well my oldest brother he's already moved out already then my second one under him he's still there and then there's my other one after him

he's still there well no actually he left he went to Florida and he got a body here. And it's me, my youngest sister, and my two younger brothers. So my sister's basically 18, basically, no, basically being a mother now. My little, little, my youngest brother,

I think was eight years old when my mom passed. Yeah, he was like eight or something. And my sister basically raised him, took care of him, you know, and raised him, basically. She had to step up and fulfill my mother's shoes, you know what I'm saying? So she's the head of the household now, you know what I mean? Trying to provide and do what she's supposed to do for the younger ones and all that. I'm 17.

I think I'm growing, so I'm, you know what I mean, doing my own thing, but I'm still living there. So now I get locked up again. Mind you, between all this time I'm getting locked up for bullshit, smoking weed, cursing the cops out. They don't, you know what I'm saying? Stupid stuff. then I get locked up again Halloween 2007 for another robbery Yeah that was my shit

Because it was easy You feel me? It was easy one through three Let me get that It was that easy So are these like sophisticated robberies Nah these are just people I see Walking around with shit that I might like

Or a gold chain Because that was back then That was the thing in my neighborhood Everybody was getting robbed for chains Whether they was $100,000 Chains 50,000 whatever Gold is worth more You know what I'm saying? So as a young kid, you're seeing gold everywhere. You're like, yeah, I need some gold. That's how my mentality was. You know what I'm saying? So that's what I was doing. Me and my friends. We was robbing people for their chains, whether it was with guns, without guns, whatever the case may be. So, yeah, that was the thing. You got arrested in Halloween. Yeah, I get locked up Halloween night, right? With a cold deal. We go to court. And the crazy shit about it.

is that, right? I got locked up that night. The crazy shit is that we didn't even rob the dude, though. We did not, he had nothing. So it was nothing to rob. What I thought he would have had, he didn't have it.

But I had robbed this same dude earlier in that year, I think, in February or some shit like that. And that's what they got me for. Like, I was so pissed off when I found that out. Because after we did that shit on Halloween night in the building and the projects,

it was in the elevator. He didn't have shit. So we left. We ran down the steps. Got out the elevator, ran down the steps. We out. My building's right behind the building that we was just in.

So I went upstairs to my house, changed my whole outfit. You know what I'm saying? Put on a whole new outfit. I come downstairs and there's seven DTs in the fucking lobby hemming up some nigga from my block that's drinking a 40 in the lobby.

They got him on the wall. So me and my Cody try to walk past. something right out the door. Nica grabbed my arm. He's like, hold up. You got a scar on your face? Come here.

Let me see. And I'm like, oh, man, they got me. They locked me up because the nigger told them about my scar. And I was like, fuck. So I get locked up, go to the bookings, back to Rikers Island. But now I already know what this shit is all about. I already know what's going on here.

I just left a few months ago, you know what I'm saying? So I already know. So I get back over there. My weight is already up because I already know all the COs, you know what I'm saying, from the last time. I have a cousin that's working in the exact same building that I'm in. You know what I'm saying? I didn't even realize he was my cousin until later on. Like, it was crazy.

But yeah, I'm back in the four building because that's an adolescent building, C74. I think I was 19. I just turned 19. Birthday in September got locked up Halloween, 07. I just turned 19, but when I got locked up, I lied to them. I said I'm 18 so I could go to the adolescents, back to the adolescents, because that's, you know what I mean? I already know what's going on.

I never been to the adults. I ain't, at the time, I don't want to go to the adults because I don't know what's going on over there. I don't know how they are, you know what I'm saying? So I get back to the four building C-74. It's like, no funny shit. Everybody's like, yo, bro, then you just leave. I'm like, yeah, bro.

Bullshit. I go to Three Main. Three Main is not really a house that's being ran. It's what we called the back then That's a free for all house So everybody's basically doing whatever they want Even the punks N'nickers that's nobody

They're doing whatever they weren't You know what I'm saying Over time after a few months The shift started turning into a house And certain people was running it They end up leaving going upstate the prison Or whatever the case may be Going to the box

Coming out going to another house And I end up having the crib At one point with some other duel from the Bronx So we wasn't really doing nothing in there We was just chilling You know what I'm saying? It was a lot of joking around going in there. A lot of snapping, cutting eyes, telling jokes, you know what I'm saying?

It was probably a few fights here and there. Then they tried to revolut, basically take the crib from me and dude that I had the crib. They sent some, not even they, some pop-off dummy from Queens popped off for me. I'm standing by the bathroom in the day room. I'm, you know, about to get on the phone, waiting for the phone. And he just comes up to me and he punches me dead right here. middle of my nose. And I looked at him and I'm like, mind you, I'm 6-1. He's like, excuse me, he's like 5-6, 5, yeah, 5-6, short dude from Queens. He punches me in the nose

right here. And I looked at him and I just two-piece it. Bing-bong, it didn't even phase me. Like, it hurt it a little bit, but it didn't faze me. I, I have two-pieces. Bing-bomb, he fell back. His man's came. They start trying to jump me. Boom, they hit me a couple times. And I mean, whatever the case may be, I get it in with them, start shaking it with them. the CO hit the PBA button, Turtles come, you motherfuckers pack me up. When they pack me up, like all your stuff, all your belongings is still in the house.

You're an intake. They take you the intake while all your stuff is in the house. You'd be an intake for three, four, five hours for no reason just sitting there until you go to the clinic and then they, you know, look at you, whatever you're good, you're good. Now you go back to the house at two in the morning so find out they're moving you to another house.

So now you might have to get it shaking again once you get to that new house. But in the midst of all that, you can't even really go inside to get your shit. They have other inmates pack your shit. So niggas are stealing your commissary. Bro, niggas stole my truth. Back then, like I said, you could wear your own clothes.

It was a fashion show back then. Everybody was trying to get fly on Rikers Island for the COs, female COs. You know what I'm saying? Like I said, they're there with us all day. So niggas is trying to make an impression. Nigger stole my true religion Paird brand new

300 and something at the time For me My girl just bought me On a visit New Haynes T-shirts Sox boxes Brand new they stole all of that I get

I get to I get to the house I forgot what house I went to I think I went to Three Upper No I went to the box actually I came out the box And I went to Three Upper

because I signed out of school. You could sign out of school and go to the three upper and then do whatever, sleep all day on the phone all day. So I go to three upper and I see a dude from my hood that I know that I grew up with and I see a dude that I

that I had in a sixth building on the last bid with the program. I was basically restored him and he has the house like he's running the house that I just got in but I was extorting this dude in C-76. Fee-Seption. me long story show we end up getting cool and I end up taking the house like for me I had to crib with him because the other nigger had left and all that my son steaks from Brooklyn

he left and um yeah we was just in the crib I was like it was a sign-out crib so you know I'm saying it was only like 15 people on my side on the north side the south side had a little bit more but north side was the sign-out side feel me so we was just chilling in there regular shit same shit every day. Like I said, it's nothing to do in there, bro, literally nothing to do it. If you ain't got weed,

if you ain't got tobacco, if you ain't got, you know, commissary and all of that to, like, try to do something, make a meal, you know what I'm saying? The smoke in the back,

there's nothing going on there, bro. It's the worst place to be in the world, one of the worst places to be in the world, bro. That's crazy how they let you sign out of school, like how it's not mandatory. Yeah, but, yeah, that's only when you're 18, though.

Yeah, But even still, that's still wild, you know? They should force that. That would give you guys something to do. Yeah. It was being forced, like, to the younger 16, 17-year-olds. But once you turn 18, I'm out of here. I was the type of person that I was on the phone all day.

That's why I did that. You know what I was on the phone from literally from 7 o'clock in the morning all the way to like 10. Were they charging for phone calls back then? Hell yeah. Okay. So you always had it. Yeah.

I had thousands. I had hundreds of pin numbers. You feel? You would take other people's pin numbers and people. and take other people with pin numbers or the CO females or the guys, CO male guys, will give me pin numbers like if somebody disrespect them, again, it's easy for them to call down and say, yo, what's this pin number or change it? So that way they can't use the phone.

So they'll be giving me pin numbers like giving me other people commissary, going to the other side, taking their commissary, bringing it back to me and all that. So when you hang up on one pin number, say your 15 minutes or whatever time is up, then you're just using another pin number to call out. That's right. And the system is letting you add the same number on to two different pin numbers. Yeah. Hell yeah. It's way more sophisticated in the feds.

Yeah, you get a 21 minute every five hours. So you get the 15 first and then a six minute right after. Okay. So every five hours, that come back. If you got 10 pin numbers, that's just 10. If you got 10 pin numbers, you got 21 minutes for damn there the whole day. Yeah. You feel?

me. So it's like, or for a lot of hours. And that's how I had. I used to walk around with my little Bible with all of them right there. I was so good with it. I was remembering those shit. How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount. New vehicle discount. Storage discount. How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usa.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. You're great at protecting your data, but lots of places could still expose you to identity theft. I thought it was safe. If that happens, LifeLock gives you

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And celebrate with music, culture, and flavors from around the world. Join us June 11th through 14th opening weekend as the tournament kicks off in Los Angeles. Tickets are just $10 and kids under 12 were free. Get yours now at Los Angeles FWC26.com. Like, yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, I was remembering them shit. That's how crazy it was.

How long were you in Rikers for that bid for? For that time, I did three. Three years. So I had to go up state. So I got locked up Halloween night. I went to Rikers Island. I stood on Rikers Island for a year. From October, wife is calling it.

From October to October of 2008, I mean, 2008. I got sentenced October 6, 2008, I believe. I went up north of October, 08.8. And so you got. out when you were like 20, 21? Um, I think 21. Yeah.

And what happens after that? Do you kind of start to turn your life around or are you back on the, you're back in trouble? I'm on parole for five years when I get out. But before that, though, prison in itself was just different. You know what I'm saying? A lot of gang politics. A lot of gang politics.

And that's actually where I wasn't in the game, really, this whole time. You know what I'm saying? I just associate with them. because I grew up around that, and that's what I've seen all my life. You know, I'm saying? Gangs and stuff like that. So I decided to join a gang when I went to prison, the Bloods. So you're never in a gang on the streets, and when you got to prison.

I was just acting like it because that's what I was around 24-7. So I joined the gang, the Bloods, in 2008, officially, in prison, and Marcy Correctional. facility. And the only reason why I joined it is because of peer pressure. I didn't even have to. My bid would have been smooth sailing, no problems. If I even, once I joint it, that's when the problems came. If I would have never joined that gang, I would have had no problems, you am saying? And it's not even your problems per se. It could be the person that's in the same gangs you. They probably become your problems now. You know what I'm saying? And so every,

when I first got up north, mind you, I ain't have shit. I ain't got nobody. Or, you know, all. The only person there is my sister. She held me down for the whole three years, sending pinkies, which is money orders. And, you know, commissary packages, clothes, stuff like that. So every day I'll go to the messel. I'll be walking to the mess hall. You know, when you go to prison, you link up with niggas from your city or from close to your city. Like for me, you know, Harlem, Bronx, shit like that, Brooklyn.

And I start hanging out around a couple of blood dudes, you know what I'm saying? and every day they asking me, yo, when you're going to throw this rock in your pocket, meaning turn stone? Because, you know, stone is a rock. I was blood, stone villain. And every day we walk into the mess or, yo, when you're going to put this rock in your pocket?

Go to the yard. When we're going to put this rocket in your pocket? You're with us all the time. You put the rock in your pocket. Die, turn stone. So I'm like, all right, fuck it. I end up just turning stone. Now I was like, you got to learn all this paperwork.

All this stupid shit, bro. I had three days to learn everything, everything. And I learned it, surprisingly. And so, you know, I'm in there. I'm chilling. Like, the bid is going smooth when I first get up north until the politics start coming into play in the prison system.

You know what I'm saying? Within that particular prison. The homies basically started going to war with each other. And I'm like, what? What the hell is this? Like, this shit is retarded. Like, so long story short, like I said, I was stone. We started going to war with each other over prison politics of a set getting faded,

meaning no good, no more, all this other stupid stuff, you know what I'm saying? And now it was a war between the stones and I'm stoned. So I'm going to school at nighttime, right, GED shit to try to get my GD at night time. But I got, I'm going to school with one of the head. dudes that we got war with now. And he's about 6'5, 250, 60 pounds. I'm only 6'1. I'm like 160.

And I'm like, oh, no, I'm not about to go to school no more. I'm going to have to stab this dude. Or he's going to stab me or son, cut me your son. So I'm like, you know what? I'm signing out. I signed out. My early release date was in six months. I'm like, I got it.

I'm trying to make it home for the 2010 summer. So a couple people end up getting cut on the walkway. It was crazy. I ended up finishing ASAT and ART. ASA is a six-month drug program, and ART is three-month anger management. So if you got a violent crime, you got to do ART. If you say you smoke cigarettes or you used to smoke,

when you first ever get locked up, you got to do a drug program. Wow, for cigarettes. Anything, bro. They don't care if it's a roly with just tobacco. If you say you smoke, you're going to do a drug program. So I end up doing them nine months. I finished it.

After I finished the nine months in Marcy Correctional Facility, they pack me up, send me down the block to Mid-State Correctional. So I get the Mid-State Correctional. Nothing but tension in the air with the bloods. Nothing, but everywhere you go, you fill it. And over there it is a little different because every compound is different, like the walkways. In Mid-State, it's so many blind spots.

Like, it looked like a big college campus. Like, you know how college campus? It's where it'd be blind spots a lot everywhere. That's what it looked like. And it looked like it's buildings. It's not like dorms. It's buildings. It should look crazy.

So you could get stabbed or anything anywhere at any given time and nobody will even know. Especially if you get caught in one of them in the cut somewhere. You left for dead unless a CO find you. So I get over there. Same thing. Tension. Tension. In the yard.

In the mess hall. In the gym. everywhere, prison politics. Next thing, no, I get a call from the council. You got to go to the council. I go down there. He's looking at my father. He was like, you're too young to be in here.

I'm sending you, you gotta, you gotta go. I'm gonna send you to Green or Washington. I'm like, oh, man, those are adolescent gels. Everybody that was on white because I was as an adolescent is there. I don't want to go there because I already know I'm losing my good time. Once I step in there, it's over. Something's going to happen. So I tell them that

I said, yo, please don't send me to green Oh, send me to Washington, man Where it's less chaotic You know what I'm saying? I get to Washington Everybody's dead Mind you, it's only That's an adolescent jail

16, 17, 18 There's a few adults in there But the rest is straight adolescent Everybody in there's a big homie Everybody caught trying to cause shots Everybody is this, everybody's that I'm like, oh man, what the hell I'm used to being around the older niggins,

and I'm saying, the grown folks, you know what I mean, in prison. And, you know, they move way different than the younger generation. So I'm in Washington, everything going smoothly until the YGs. I don't know if you ever heard of that, but that's a gang from the Blunks, young gunners. They start pulling up over there from green, certain ones. Something happened. I don't know what. but it happened with a YG in the blood

and that shit sparked like outrage, riots everywhere, bro. So we in there, they popped off or cut somebody on the walkway. I think both happened from both sets. YG got popped on and I think her blood got cut. So when you're on the walkway, you're walking in groups, you're saying, like five or more, six or more, you know what I mean?

And we end up, after that first situation happened, we end up catching the YG on the walkway, and we washed him up, something crazy, you heard? He went back, told his people they came out on the next child run. It was lit. We get to the mess hall. I'm in line. You know, we all in line.

Like six of us in line back to back. You see the YG dudes come in. You see the YG dudes come in. You see the YG dudes come in. They all skipping the line. Skipping the line. They come straight up to us. One of them grab a tray, smack one of the whole.

in the face. Boom. Smacked him in the face with the tray from there. It was a full blown out riot. Everything. Everybody was fighting. Everybody. It was, bro. It was crazy. Garbage cans getting tossed.

Trades is flying like frisbee's hitting people in the face. Bro, it was crazy. So I try to get up out this situation and I make it to the vestibule part of the mess hall before you get out the last door to get on the walkway. Right when I get to the vest of view, the CEO grabs me. And he's like, he's like, Sarge, what do you want me to do? Look, he got, because they had like soup that day for lunch. And when somebody threw a tray, the shit splashed all over me.

Like, it didn't hit me. It just splashed all over me. So I'm wet. He's like, what do you want me to do? He looked like he was involved. What do you want me to do? So he's like, cuff him. Cuff me.

I get to the motherfucking, I go to the box, bro. Straight to the box. They take you straight to the box. I'm like, I did what I did. But I ain't really do too much because I was. trying to get up out of there. And they didn't see me do anything. So I'll get to the small box,

SHU, which is the shoe, special housing unit, and I'm thinking, I'm going to get 30, 60 days. You know what I'm saying? This is 09 summer, like August of 2009, Washington Correction Facility. I'm thinking I'm going to get 60 days,

maybe 120, four months the most. These niggas gave me two years in the box and one year lost a good time. I was like, what? Two years? Bro, two years, bro. I almost cried, but I'm like, I'm going home from here. I'm going home from here.

I'm like, what? I'm like, bro. I lost my good time. So it was no summer of 2010. That was out the window. Now it was October 2010 was my release date. So I'm in the shoe 200. I mean, shoe SHU and Washington for like 30 days.

From there, they ship you to the big shoe, shoe 200. two men sell. So I go to Midstate S block, back to midstate. But the, but the S block, which is basically a max, a max A for, you know, for the people that's in the box. So I'm in the box, bro. Fucked up, bro. I don't know how I did it, bro.

A whole, what, 13, 14 months, bro, straight, bro. I don't know how I did it, bro. Like, that was one of the most hardest times of my life ever, bro. Like, it was times in there, bro, where I would be. Because mind you, I'm getting, the whole time I was in the box, I had about 21 different cellmates because they was coming in with 90 days, 60 days, you know what I'm saying, 120 days?

They was leaving, you know what I'm going back to population. I'm going home from here the next year, the end of the year. So I'm like stressed out, bro. You should see when I first came home, bro, my whole face was, bro, like, spots everywhere, bro. I looked at Cray. I was mad skinny. Bro.

The only thing that kept me. saying in the box, bro, for that long period of time was weed. That was it. You were able to get a hold of weed in there? Hell, yeah. Every day, bro. Every single day, bro. That's what made the days go by so fast.

I kid you not, bro. I made my own calendar. I had it on the wall. You know how people mark day by day. I was marking month by month. That's how fast the shit was going. And I still to this day, I don't believe it. But I'm like, how, bro?

Like, I went from level one to level two in the box. You know, you start off on level one, level two, they give you the headphones, you're able to get more magazines and books. You can plug the headphones into the wall and, you know, hear the news, certain TV channels, upstate, and music. Then I go to level three, which is on the second floor. That's where all the homies is that everybody's at. Everybody that was in my riot from the jail, we was all in the same box on the same tier,

even the enemies, certain enemies, you know what I'm saying? So it was crazy, bro. It was like, it was crazy. So, you know, you got to. the fishing do all of that shit. I was like the fishing master. You know what I'm saying? It was crazy, bro.

It was a real, like, crazy experience, bro. Like, I never went through nothing like that ever, being locked in a bathroom, basically. There's no 23 hours. It's 24 hours. Your wreck pin, they call it a wreck pin. It's in your cell behind your bunk. You open the door when they pop it.

You step into a concrete fucking box with, metal bar gates so you don't leave that cell your showers in there your little there's a table that comes out the wall with two swinging stoos

your toilet your sink in your mirror and the two bunks yeah it's torture it's literally it's hell bro if you ain't got drugs in there you're done

like you're done I'm telling you so yeah I was in that shit from August 09 to October 2010 I went home from there maxed out Wow.

And I was going crazy in there too at points, bro. Because, you know, when you fuck, I was getting a lot of dirty urins. They end up giving me an extra five years on top of the two. So I got seven years in the box with one year lost a good time. Because they couldn't do nothing else with me. Like, they couldn't give me more time. I'm on the max hours. Nothing you could do to me no more.

I'm about to be done with this shit in the next year. You know what I'm saying? So I was giving them hell. I was giving them hell in there. Once I got down to my last little, few months, I was giving them hell. You were still on parole, even though you maxed out? Yeah.

Hell yeah. Hell yeah. You got to do that. When you want to max out in New York State, you got to do that whole, whatever. I had three in my case, three years. I did the whole three, and I still had to do the five years parole. Wow. When I came out.

That's because you got into trouble. Yeah. Not even. That's just how it is. Once you finish your bid, unless you got a split bid, if you got like a one to three, two to four, six to eight. On a one or three, for instance, if you got a one and three and you come out in two years, then you got a year left. If you do the whole three years, you're free man when you get out.

You know what I'm saying? But out of that one and three, you're only supposed to do 18 months and the rest is on parole. Was it hard to readjust to like everyday life coming out of the box for that long? Um, nah, bro. Honestly, I was just happy to be out that shit, bro. one time, bro, I was, I gave them so many dirty urins that they put me on some shit called the loaf. Oh, I heard about this for someone in Boston. Bro.

Almost died, bro. Oh, the loaf. My man. Management loaf. My homie used to have to send me food under the door. Like, literally under the door. We used to have to fish food under the door from his tray. He was saved shit throughout the days.

And we used to fish food because, bro, it was so, bro, the loaf is a, for, Those that don't know, and New York's, they banned it now. I heard they don't do that no more. They must have got that ass sued. But it's a loaf of bread with, like, nuts, carrots, celery, all type of miscellaneous shit inside of it. Sometimes it might be hot if the COs cool enough to, you know what I mean, bring it hot. Most of the time that shit is hard and cold.

And when you want that, they don't give you nothing to drink. No water, no nothing. That's word to my mother, bro. They didn't give me no water, no nothing. I had to drink out the sink. So they gave me that because they couldn't give me nothing else So they gave me that for seven days Breakfast, lunch and dinner

But I was in the box for so long that You know, it was too old white females C-O females there They used to slid me regular trades here and there Like, I mean But yeah, I was on that shit, bro And that shit is torture, bro I was starving, bro

Like starving, bro Like, it was not even a girl That shit was crazy, bro It was crazy in there But like I said, the only thing that kept me saying in that box was the weed, bro. Every day smoking weed. The hotel used to be high. Everybody was high.

You know what I'm saying? And that's just what it was. It was something to pass the time. Like, you know what I mean? And that's what we did. Was that experience in state prison a wake-up call for you at all? Hell no. It still wasn't.

Honestly, bro, when I came out, bro, I already had plans on, before I even got out, bro, I already sent the kite from jail to the plug. Like, listen, I'm going to need this when I get out to get on my feet. And that's just what it was. Like, that's the mentality I still had. Like, I didn't care about trying to do good and, you know what I'm saying, changed my life and all of that. I was still into the streets, still, I'm saying, doing stuff.

I started selling drugs again, you know what I'm saying? Because I'm like, yeah, this robbery shit ain't going to work. I already did three bids for this. This is not it. Excuse me. So once I realize that, I'm like, I'm gonna go back to selling crack. Came home October 21st, 2010.

It was a Friday. Yeah, my release day was on a Saturday or something like that, but they couldn't do it because obviously they don't do that. So they got to let you out early Friday. So I'm like, all right, I ain't got to go to parole to Monday because by the time I get to the city, it's parole's closed. It's 5.30, 60 o'clock.

They closed. So that's exactly what I did. I went to the city. First day, hires a motherfucker. So I actually met up with one of my best friends. Man, he rest in peace. He ended up getting killed. But he was in Green at the time that I was in the box.

You feel me? The same situation that happened in Washington happened in Green with the YGs and the Pothiotea, niggas. They went to war over there. So he ends up in the box under me, in the cell under me. Like, we ain't see each other in like two years since Rikers Island. He ends up in the cell under me, right? So long story short, not to go back,

we end up being on the same tier in the box, like three cells down from each other, you feel me? So, and he goes home what? He was going home two weeks before me, and he's right up the block for me. So we're from basically the same area. So he goes home October 8th, 2010. I go home October 21st.

So he's waiting for me basically to come home. I get home, meet up with him the first day. He already back in the streets, hustling selling crack he just did three years too i'm saying he's from and he's from jackson um projects by mailroads and courtland have million dollar block when it comes to drugs even to this day for real um and um he comes home you'm saying i'm chilling with him smoking doing whatever the case may be we regular shit back to back to the streets you know i'm saying whatever the case may be and we start i start hustling again immediately first few days out i think even if

The first day, actually, that same dude I told you about that I wrote and sent the Kaitu, seeing him the first day, he hit me off. Boom. I was back in the street selling crack again, you know what I'm saying? Doing my thing. Yeah, just making money trying to stay low off the radar, you know what I'm saying? I'm on parole, so I got to see them people every week, every two weeks or whatever case might be. I did two violations on parole.

What I got violated for? I got violated because I got arrested and I copped out to a misdemeanor. So if you're on parole and you cop out to a misdemeanor, it's an automatic violation. So that's what happened. What was the other one for? The first one, I forgot. But the second one was 2011, I think. No, yeah, 2011.

And I went to Willard. I heard somebody talk about that. That's the boot camp, 97 days. They said he hit the boot camp. Yeah. That was one of the worst experiences too, bro. 97 days, Willard. But in the midst of all of that, too, you know what's crazy,

I end up getting locked up for another robbery. I got locked up, bro. I got locked up so many times. It's so crazy, bro. And like I said, it's never to glorify, man, because I don't want nobody to think getting locked up is cool when they take your freedom from me, bro. That shit is the worst feeling ever.

Like, for real. People don't understand that until it's too late until it's done. But in the midst of all of that, after I came home in October of 2010, I got arrested for selling crack December. So right before Christmas, I spent Christmas 2010 on the boat on Rikers Island. I mean, in the Bronx, there's some shit called the boat. VCBC is a holding spot. I stood there for eight days.

They let me out on my next court date, which was surprising to me, violation, not even a misdemeanor. So I get out the court, I run straight to my man's crib. It's snowing. I don't got no coat, no nothing. I run from the courthouse straight to my man's crib. It was probably like a five-minute run. He gave me a coat hoodie, all that.

Get right back to it. Start selling crack again. Yeah. I didn't care. I was just trying to make money. You know what I'm saying? And these niggas raid my sister crib, the police. January 24th, 2011 for a robbery.

Mind you, I ain't do no robbery. I can stop doing that. I'm into selling drugs now. So long story short, they leave their card. I call them like, yo, what's up? Why y'all looking for me? I ain't do nothing. And they're like, yeah, you know,

they play that role. We can't talk about it over the phone. You got to come in. So I'm really thinking, like, should I go in? or what. So I'm like, fucker, I ain't do nothing. So there's nothing to really hide from like, if they really had something,

they will already have me. So I go in to the lineup place, which is in the Bronx. It's a place in the Bronx where they take you for the lineups. They ask random people that's just walking by, hey, you want to make $50, you want to make $100? Get in this lineup. Put on the hat and whatever the case may be.

So they put some people in the lineup with me. I don't know what's going on behind that glass because I can't see, obviously. Somebody said that I robbed them, pointing me out and all that. The whole time I'm in the precinct, they got me in the 40th precinct. I'm handcuffed to the fucking table.

They're not telling me nothing. I'm in there for like six, seven, eight hours. The whole time I'm in there, I hear somebody in another room screaming, I ain't do no damn robbery. What's wrong with you? I'm a grown-ass man. I was home babysitting my daughter.

She's two years old and Yaka Axe. This is what I'm hearing. from another guy coming out of a different room. So when it's time for you to go to the bookings from the precinct, they got to stop at the front desk at the precinct and check you out with the commanding officer. So I'm at the front desk, bro. I'm hands behind my back.

Son told me turn around. I turn around, bro. And I actually do, there's another cop with another prisoner or whatever, inmate. I turn around and I ask the dude that they got locked. I said, yo, fan, what you here for? A robbery? He said, yeah.

I said, y'all, I think we here for the same shit. And I don't even know you, bro. I never seen you. And we was there. We was cold ease, bro. Never seen this dude, the day in my life, bro. And I had to fight this case for two and a half years, bro, for my life, bro. They were trying to give me 15 years, bro.

And I fought, I bailed out. I was able to bail out. My wife bailed me out. Feel me? And, bro, I was scared, bro, because it was like, I really didn't do this shit. I don't even know the dude that they said I did it with. I never seen him before.

He lives from where I live at, it's like a 40 block radius from where he, you know what I'm saying? But where the crime happened at, I live five minutes from. So I don't know what happened, how that happened, bro. They was trying to set me up, trying to frame me. And they fell, thank God, bro, because I would have been in jail for that time, bro. Like, that shit was scary, bro. So I get locked up for that shit I set up for like two weeks

My wife bails me out I come out from that I get violated Then I go to Willet So I'm out on bail But going to Willet So I get to Willett Man Willett is like a whole different

This is some military shit Waking up in the morning 5 o'clock Scream man Jumping off your bed You gotta have a 45 degree angle When your bed Your socks got to be

Fuller's certain way Boots got to be shiny pins, crease, uniform, everything, bro. No hair on your face. Nothing. You have hair on your face. They take a marker and draw a fake mustache on your face. You got to walk around like that,

L everywhere. Bro, it was crazy in there. It was crazy in there. You can't even, you could smoke in there, but if you get caught smoking a rolled-up cigarette, they make you make a rolled-up cigarette about this big, and you have to walk around with it. Wow.

All day on the compound. And they call it like an LE, which is called Learning Experience. They have you toss some shit on your neck, and you had a right L-E learning experience. Like, bro, it was crazy, bro. They make you one person fuck up, everybody pay. We outside and in the rain on hard metal chairs on our knees, eating breakfast, 6 o'clock in the morning.

Like, feel me? People having to take their whole cubicle outside, bro, and make their cubicle outside in the rain, in the snow. And it didn't matter, bro. It was just crazy in here. The drill instructors, all in your face screen. and spent flying, all type of shit, bro. It was like, and then you got to tell on people in here.

You have to tell on people in here, bro. Anybody that I ever been to Willett and they see this, bro, they're going to know what I'm talking about, bro. I forgot exactly what they call it. It's called a pull-up, actually. You have to pull somebody up, basically. So what people would do was, if you cool with somebody, they'll be like, yo, I'm going to pull you up this week.

You pull me up this week. Just say some bullshit. I'm going to say some bullshit about you. It was crazy. in there, bro. It was crazy in there. So I'm in there. That case that I was out on bail for, I'm like, I hope they don't call me down the court because then this is going to fuck up my Willett time. If I leave Willett, your time stop. When you come back, your time start, that 97 days. So right when I was about to leave, two months left or something like that or a month

and a half left, they call me back down the court. So now I got to go all the way from Upstate to Rikers Island, from downstate, from downstate to Rikers Island back to court for the robbery case. And now it looks even bad because now I'm locked up. But I'm on the violation though. So the judge that I had, Judge Darcell Clark, who is now the Bronx DA, and she fucked with my YouTube. That's the crazy shit. But I'm going to get into that. Hopefully you got some time.

But, um, so, um, yeah, she, tried to slay me. My daughter, my oldest daughter was born, 2012. She used to be like, oh, you think because your baby's hair and this and your girl's hair, you know, basically like, that don't mean nothing to me, basically. You know what I'm saying? And I don't know what she was thinking. She must have really thought I committed that robbery, but I really didn't. So, everybody that I go back up to Willard, everybody that I was originally there with went home. So it was a whole new group. And I'm like, oh, man, I got to go through this shit. all over again.

So I end up going back down the court again. I told him, listen, man, I am in a violation program for parole that I am trying to finish. I keep bringing me back down here. I cannot complete the program. And then my time is going to start over and it's going to keep getting pushed back. So they finally pushed the court day back so I could finish the, will it, I finished in April. I'm thinking I'm going home from there.

These niggas talk about you going to downstate. They revoked my bell for that case. And I'm like, what? So I'll go back to downstate, back to Rikers Island. Now I'm sitting on Rikers Island again for another two weeks. No, I'm calling my wife. Yo, what's going on? They revoked the bell, then they gave it back.

So I bailed out again, got out. And, you know, I got a daughter now. But that shit didn't even change shit either at the time, 2012, June. My daughter was born June 2012. And I'm still back in the streets. I'm still on parole. You know what I'm saying? Those are the only two violations I did after five years parole.

I'm right back into the streets. I'm selling more crack than ever now. You know what I'm saying? I'm making money. And I'm doing other shit too. But I'm back running the streets, selling cracks, still getting locked up. Because, you know, we wasn't legal back then. You know what I'm saying?

So I was still getting locked up for stupid shit. that we fighting with the cops stupid shit like that arguing with the cops um shit like that uh this is all through like 2012 13 14 15 I finished pro of 2015 I was so happy mad happy uh 16 17 17 you know I was I was working this shit too I was doing you know construction but I was still selling crack though I will I will go to work get out of work 2.30, you know, take my crack with me to work, because I worked right down the block for my projects at the time. And I walk right up the block to my hood,

still in construction uniforms, making sales, doing what I do, on the corner with the homies, you know what I'm saying, making sales, making money. And all that shit came to a stop March 1st, 2018. That's what made me. me changed my life. Like I said, I was hustling, selling crack, you know, doing all type of shit.

March 1st and that shit gave me goosebumps and bring tears to my eyes, like, because that shit was like the scariest shit in my life that ever happened. Like, March 1st, 2018, they raided my crib. All I know is I was sleep. You know, my wife, me and my daughter, we sleep in the bed.

And I hear, I'm living in a house at the time on the second floor so I had knock on the window. No, my wife had knock on the window and I'm knocked out and she wakes me up. Like, yo, somebody knocking at the door. I'm like, ain't nobody knocking at the door. You bugging. She's like, yes, somebody's knocking.

I'm like, so go see who it is then? Like, the fuck, you can wake me up out, you know what I mean? So she ain't want to get up. So I'm like, fuck it. I go up. I go to the curtains and I move the curtain a little bit and I see mad police there. I'm like, and they pointed.

Once I moved it, they pointed like basically saying, yeah, somebody's there, somebody's there. So I'm like, shit, what the fuck? I tell my wife, I'm like, yo, babe, it's the police. Like, she's like, what the fuck you did? I'm like, I ain't do shit. I don't know what I did. I ain't do nothing. I'm working.

I'm doing, I'm a working construction man, but like I said, I'm still hustling. So I'm like, yo, go open the door, see what they want. So I'm, I'll go back to the room. I'm in my boxes, mind you. Nothing on, sleeping good. So I go back to the room with my daughter, and she's like, it's the police. I mean, she goes to the door, and I hear her in the room. She's like, oh, yes.

They're like, ma'am, who's home with you? And she's like, oh, my kid and my husband. They're like, who's your husband? What's your husband's name? She said my name. They're like, yeah, that's who we're here for. Wait, tell them to come out, please. Bro, they just rushed the crib, open the door.

Boom. Mind you, I got cracked everywhere on top of my refrigerator, on top of the mic. wave residue the razor blade destroy everything got a couple of pounds sitting on to i mean couple of ounces sitting on top of my refrigerator everything so they cuff me up i'm asking yo what the what is this for they like oh you just got a warrant they don't want to tell me what it's for i'm like damn man can i smoke a cigarette before i leave they let me smoke a cigarette they let me get dressed and i'm saying they walk me outside and I see

from the beginning of my block all the way down past the middle towards the end nothing but double car double parked cars cop cars and I'm like all these cop cars for me what I did like I don't know what's going on so as I'm walking to the car

you know I'm looking I see DEA FBI HSI jackets I'm like what the fuck I'm like, nah, bro. And my mom, but mine, I'm still halfway sleep. So I don't know. Still, like, nothing's registering. So we get an event.

I'm thinking we're going to the local precinct 40th, which covers my area in PSA 7, which covered my area. Once we got on the highway, I'm like, oh, shit. I'm asking, yo, where are we going? Where are we going? They're not telling me nothing. So we pulls up to another precinct. In my mind, I'm like, yo, this precinct look mad.

familiar. Where do I know this precinct from? I've never been here before, but it just looks mad familiar. And then I walk in the precinct, bro. I'm still, I'm so mad because they're not telling me nothing. I walk in with my head down, like, you know, they walk in me holding my arm. Next thing you know, all you hear is nothing but clapping. Yeah. I look up and I'm like, oh shit.

All the cops that was on my block that used to harass us, all of that, lock us up, they've been gone for like a year and some change. We haven't seen them. It was been nothing but new cops. They was investigating us that whole year and some change, bro. And niggas didn't even know it. So when they see me, they were like, oh, yeah, what's up, J.O? I'm like, J.O.

I'm like, bro, I don't even go by that name. I'm with some jail shit fucking 10 years ago, damn there. Or whatever the case may be. And they just clap and clapping. I'm like, I still don't know. what I'm being charged with, nothing. So we start walking to the back where they're holding pins is.

And as I'm walking back there, you know, I wear glasses. So I can't really see. I just see a figure, a female figure in the cell. And I'm looking, I'm thinking it's a crackhead. But as I get closer, I see it some chick named Ebony from my block. I'm like, oh, shit, Ed?

The fuck? Next thing you know, at the time, he was my right-hand man. I seen him. He's like, yo, bro, you already know what this is. bro, indictment. I'm like, what?

I see my other man poe. He's like, oh shit, they got you too, bro. He's like, nah,

bro, you be working, bro. I'm like, bro, I got an ex-sail dope paid, I'm like, bro.

Then my man tell me, yo, they got the Spanish niggas the whales niggas on the other side too.

I'm like, what? And it was a, it was a... Ready or not, summer is coming. And Wayfair's Memorial Day

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Shot Wayfair's Memorial Day clearance now through May 25th. Wayfair, every style, every home. Indictment, crack indictment. For selling crack, cocaine. Wow. And the projects. So what ends up happening? So we all get locked up.

We all trying to figure out if it's the feds or it's the state. I'm saying? Nobody's trying to go to the feds, you know what I mean? Or the state. So the undercover cop, he's like, we don't know yet.

We'll let you know in the minute and a few. So he came back a little while later. He's like, yeah, yeah, y'all lucky. It's the state. Y'all lucky. So I was like, yeah. We're locked up. We see the judge.

they didn't give none of us well they gave certain people bell i don't know why but they didn't give me no bell at the time um they went they locked us up that morning straight from the precinct and straight to the judge so you got to get out the van in front of everybody in the court looking bad and bad you know what i'm saying like on a chain gang that's what we called it the chain game and like i said i realized the precinct remember i said how i realized the precinct but i just then remember where. Every time there's an indictment in New York City, that's where they go to that precinct,

49th precinct. And you see them come out all together on the chain, all them gang niggas, and, you know what I'm saying, on the chain. That's where I remembered it. From seeing it on the news so many times of people getting indicted. So we get to Rikers Island, you know what I'm saying?

Everybody go, they separate ways and shit. We sat up on Rikers Island for like four and a half months, five months fighting it. It was a weak-ass kid. bro i wish i had the paperwork you could google it actually and read that shit they had 32 32 bars bro that ain't shit that's we was we wasn't selling weight you know i'm saying probably certain people in in the indictment but even so the indictment itself everybody that was on the indictment on that indictment was not working with each other like in a sense of getting work from

somebody and you know i'm saying everybody had their own connect and was doing whatever they was doing It's just that we all used to chill together and make sales around each other, you know what I'm saying, shit like that. And they had his 32 cells, which is dimes. That's $320. You know what I'm saying? That's 32 dimes. That ain't shit. So the case was weak from the beginning.

That's why it wasn't fed. Never went fed. And it wasn't no murders involved. You know what I'm saying? Well, actually, it was one murder. It was, but it, like I said, it wasn't like we was all together. as a group. Everybody was individually doing their own thing. Like my side was the people, the black side, you feel me? And then the Wells Ave side was the Spanish niggas. Those was

the Spanish, the Spanish side. They had a murder and they circle. Like one of them got locked up for a murder. You know what I'm saying? And all that. So it was a murder and the indictment, but it wasn't like it was a gang murder or anything to do with selling drugs. It was some stupid shit, honestly, whatever happened with them. But yeah, so I end up coming home. We all end up coming home on programs and shit. So I think a few people got probation. We all got programs and we finished them shit and now is it. Wait, what's a program?

Like a drug program. Wait, so even with your criminal record in the state of New York, they still give you the drug program? Yeah. Wow. Mind you, I haven't really been in, like, I got arrested, you know, bullshit like I said, but really getting in trouble for actual crime. I haven't.

With the robberies. Yeah, but that last robbery that I caught, I beat that. Yeah, but the one before, that's still a felony now. I was five less than, though. I was 16, 17, 17. I was young. Now I'm 24, 25. You know what I'm saying?

20, probably older than that, 28, actually. Witness and Dyne happened. And that, that changed you. Changed me completely, bro. Because you realized how Rela could get, or? Not only that. It's just I didn't want that for my life no more, but I was tired of going in and out of jail, bro. Like, you know, I spent so many births.

stays in jail, bro, or prison, whatever you want to call it. I spend so many Thanksgiving, so many Christmases, family members' birthday. I just don't, I hate being told what to do, bro. I don't like to be searched, bro. I don't like to show my private areas to another man. Sometimes that other man might be, you know what I'm saying? There's COs like that. That's, they're gay.

And they get a kickoff of that shit. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, bro, it's just too much to deal with. going in and out of that and then leaving your family. For me, like I said, I had a daughter at, you know, my oldest. She's 12 now. And I just, I couldn't stand the thought of another man raising my child. Like, because that's what's going to eventually end up happening.

If you keep going in and out of jail or go to jail for a long period of time and you got kids, your woman's going to end up finding somebody else. And that's what's going to end up happening. That's just what it is. And along with that, it's just, Just like I said, the environment is no place to be, bro. The food is garbage. The sanitary is filthy.

It's just hell, bro. It's hell, bro. It's really hell, bro. Like, when I went back that time, bro, I went back March 1st, 2018, bro. I cried every single day, bro. Every day, bro. Because it was just, I felt like I let myself down. I was like, damn, I'm back.

in here and it's not the same from like before like now i'm in the adults you know i'm saying it's a little different i'm not worried about nothing but you know what i'm saying i'm gonna still move how i'm but it's just like just to be in here walking the hallways with these angry ass men that and that's in gangs that want to kill each other like feeling walking around with the banger in their hand like right next to the c-o that's how crazy it was but i'm like and i used to sit in myself but i used to get high still had the weed, you know what I'm saying? Had everything,

all the commissary phone calls, clothes, under everything. The COs used to come in my cell like, yo, how long have you been locked up? I'm like, oh, why you got all this stuff?

It's just, I mean, I'm in this environment. I got to get comfortable. Even if I'm not going to be here for long, I just can't just be walking around or sluggish. You got to make the best of it. It's not the place to be,

but when you're in there, you got to try to make time go by because that's all you got. There's nothing else to do. You know what I'm saying? So that shit opened my eyes, bro. It's like, you know, I started taking a life way more serious after that. I was like, bro, I'm not fucking around with these streets no more.

I ain't selling no more drugs. Like, you know what I'm saying? It's over for this. You know what I mean? And since then, bro, it's just like I've been trying to work my ass off then, man. Any type of job, you know what I'm saying? I could do because it's like, it's easy to go back to the streets, bro. I could go get work right now, bro.

go get back to doing what I was doing. But for what? In the end, that shit do not pay off, bro. It do not pay off. It don't matter how much money you made, making. It don't pay off. But I'm not ready to give up 30 of my ears to go sit in the bathroom. What?

You got to be crazy to think like that. Like the money could be good and all that. I am good. I rather be, like I tell people all the time. I rather be poor, a bum, living on. the street than being somebody's jail being told what to do eating that nasty-ass food bro it's just it's not an option for me no more like and then you get sick of tired of it like i said you get for me it's it was a lot of shit you know what i'm saying family my kid my wife my wife was

always there for me bro since the since we were 16 bro it's good to have someone like that because those are hard to find you have to have someone like that bro for all the young niggas that come across your channel, bro, and watch this interview, bro. They need a good female by your side, bro, because 95% of the niggas that don't have a good female is dead or in jail. The other five, that female is the reason why they're out of jail, bro. Believe it or not, bro, I'm telling you, a female would save you from a lot of bullshit, bro.

Like, you don't understand, bro. Like, I don't even, bro, I don't got no friends, bro. All my friends I have, bro, did me dirty. Rirty, ran off with money, when I was in the street, all type of shit, bro. Like, so it's like nowadays, but I trust nobody, bro. Like, I, bro, I don't even like people, really, bro. Honestly, bro, for real. I don't like to go out, bro, like that, bro.

Because I can't be around a lot of people, bro. It's just like, people make me sick to the stomach sometimes, bro. It's like, the ignorance that people have, like, people don't have common sense nowadays, bro, and that shit makes me so mad, bro. It's just like, oh, man. I just try to stay home, bro. Like, if I'm not working, I'm in the house, bro. Like, or if I'm not at a family function or gathering,

I'm in the house and even those I don't want to go to, bro. Like, fuck that. I don't want to see none of you niggas neither. Like, you know what I'm saying? I'm trying to focus on myself and, you know what I mean, build myself and become a better man, you know what I mean? What's something you wish your childhood self knew at that time? Everything I know today.

I wish I would have learned from the people that came before me, bro. Because if I did, I would have never went through the things that I went through as a, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? A lot of trauma, bro, just being in jail. You traumatized forever when you get out of jail. And for people that think or say that you not, they don't know what they talk about and they're lying. When I sat in that box for that time, bro, it was times where I used to count the screws on the wall. But I was in myself by myself, had a bunkie that only had 60 days.

He left. Now I'm waiting for a new one. but in the meantime, I'm counting screws on my wall, bro, losing my mind. I didn't did all the pushups in the world. I didn't read every damn book, you feel me? Every magazine is like, you go crazy, bro. You start to, like, think about suicide or that, bro. Like, this last time I went there, bro, I'm not the one to sit here and some people get

on these podcasts and lie, bro. I thought about suicide, bro. When I got locked up for that indictment, I was about to lose my family, bro. I ain't want that. feel me? So it's like, when you get sick or tired of being sick and tired, bro, you're going to do something different to make, you know what I'm saying, positive and better changes for your life.

You know what I'm saying? That's my case. I mean, now I'm a girl dad, bro. I got three girls now, bro. Two now. I got a 12-year-old, my 4-year-old, and I got one on the way. That's going to be born on Valentine's Day. So hopefully she is.

So, you know what I'm saying? I'm a girl dad. These are my two daughters right here. This is my oldest and the one is on the back. But, yeah, bro. So it's like I had to just make that change not only just for them but for myself. Like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, it was just, it was crazy, bro.

It was crazy, man. My life, it's a whole lot more, but, you know, that's going to take a whole lot time. But the main things that I spoke about, bro, that's like the highlights and all that. You know what I'm saying? After that last time, I said, fuck jail. Fuck the streets. Fuck all these niggas that think this shit is cool. You know what I'm saying?

I'm just going to be a family man and a lower body citizen because I ain't got time to be in jail. I used to see niggas 60 years old, bro. In there, bro. What are you doing? What crime are you committing that 60 years old, bro? It's crazy. Like, your old ass needs to be home in bed somewhere.

So it's like, you know what I'm saying? My right-hand man that I was telling you about that I met up with in the box. He died. He got killed. I'm saying? What, three months after he came home, that three years came home and got shot. You know what I'm saying?

By his own people, too. YGs. He was YG. YGs killed him for some dumb shit over dumb shit. You know what I'm saying? He died. My man got 50 right now. One of my men's got 50 to life.

He's never coming home. He got, he got, what, locked up for one murder and one attempt murder. My other man's got 25 to life. He fucking killed some young gang member. Um, my little brother's in the feds right now in PA somewhere. I forgot what spot. But he's in the feds. He got, what, eight years, I think.

He just came home. Before he got into that bullshit, he came home from doing six in Attica. It came home from Attica. You know what I'm saying? It's just, like I said, bro, when you get older, when you start to get older and realize that you really only got one life, my nigga. Why would you want to be wasting it going in and out of prisons? Like, you know what I'm saying?

or that shit is not cool, bro. That shit don't make you tough. That shit don't make you gangster. That shit makes you stupid, bro. Like, for real. And then the inside is just a whole bunch of politics. You know what I'm saying? Everybody trying to kill each other in there.

So it's like, why would you want to go there? Exactly. There's no point. Well, Josh, I appreciate you leaving the house to come and talk to me today. Thank you, man. This has been a very eye-opening interview, and it's pleasure to finally sit down with you and be able to do this.

I appreciate you for having me, man. It's been a long time coming, man. For any of the youth that come across, like I said, this is never to glorify. It's always the uplift. Go watch my YouTube channel, hell on Rikers Island, man. That's what I'm going to tell you out.

We're going to have that plugged in the description of this episode. Everyone, make sure you guys check that out.