Locked In with Ian Bick - Grand Theft Auto, Decades Behind Bars & Life as a Current Inmate | Jeremy Holt

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Jeremy Holt, also known as 'Rooster,' shares his story of a life impacted by grand theft auto, serving decades behind bars, and what it’s like to be a current inmate. From his early experiences with the criminal justice system to navigating life in prison, Rooster opens up about the challenges, lessons learned, and realities of long-term incarceration #GrandTheftAuto #PrisonLife #InmateStory #LifeBehindBars #CriminalJustice #LongTermIncarceration #TrueCrime #SurvivingPrison 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://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 Introduction to Jeremy "Rooster" Holt 00:02:53 Incarceration and Family Dynamics 00:06:06 Influence of Childhood Environment on Life Choices 00:09:33 Reflecting on 20 Years in Prison 00:12:45 The Gear Collecting Habit: An Unusual Addiction 00:16:11 Navigating Early Prison Life in Kentucky 00:19:41 The Impact of the Court System on Rehabilitation 00:23:00 Navigating Life's Path: Choices and Consequences 00:26:20 Life with a Label: Navigating Police Stigmas 00:29:47 Life in a Halfway House and the Road to Parole 00:32:58 The Ethics of Snitching and Inmate Rules 00:36:15 Insights into Inmate Relations with Correctional Officers 00:39:44 Navigating Job Dynamics and Pay in Custody 00:42:54 Inside Look at Parole Board Experiences 00:46:04 The Possibility of Redemption After Crime 00:49:30 Life Lessons: The Importance of Listening to Loved Ones 00:52:53 Interview with Currently Incarcerated Guest 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

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like fine wine. Discover the collection at age jeans.com and enjoy 15% off with code summer 15. even if you've shopped with us before. Mr. Rooster, welcome to the show. Well, thank you. Thank you for having me. Why did they call you Rooster? Well, I fought, my papo fought me like a chicken when I was little. And I played with a lot of chickens and stuff like that.

I don't know, I guess because I'm red-headed. Well, we can't really see it. You got the hat on. I know, because half of it's gone. That's why I keep my hat on. So what's your full name for the audience? Jeremy Matthew Holt. Did you ever think you'd be doing a podcast while you're actually in the jail right now?

Never. It's not telling what this guy will have you doing over there. He was on the show. He was in the hot seat. I asked him the tough questions. I know. He comes down there crying about it. Should it just got done with mine, you. Is there ever a question that you want to ask to a jailer before? Like that you want the world to ask? To a jailer? Yeah, to a jailer. Just when do I get out? That's funny. You know, he said that you were the right man to do this interview because you are a great talker. And you have a great nickname.

Thank you. So a little bit about the show that you're on. It's called Locked in. Want to, am I going to make any money off of it? No, there's no, there's nobody involved. What did he promise you? I ain't going to tell you that.

Okay. I heard he gets you guys good food on Fridays or every other Friday. He's still bragging about that stuff. What, they cut it? Once a week, I'm telling you. Once every other week, ain't it? Wait, what's the best meal you've gotten on a Friday here? Baconators.

From Wendy, is right? Yeah, we're kind of strung out on them down here. It is really cool Because you know in the feds we didn't have that And in the feds you got a lot of stuff Okay, let's compare misconceptions What do you think that we have that you don't Well, in the feds

You all got a lot better food A lot better facilities I mean unless you're in a USP Or a medium or something like that You was in a camp, right? I was at a low first That's where they all thought I was a trauma

Did you go to Atlanta or anywhere like that Or? I went through No, I didn't go through there. I was in New Jersey, Fort Dix, and then I got a, I was in Oklahoma City. That's a little bit kind of near here, right? And then I was in Chicago, and then I was in Oxford, Wisconsin. Why don't they bounce around so much? Variety reasons, not because of paperwork. It's straight. I didn't sport no favors or nothing. No, I actually went to trial, but the first place.

And the feds? Yeah, how much time you get? Three years. I got less time going to trial than I did the plea deal that they were offering. They offered like almost five. Yeah, but they go, well, I got. I guidelines, severity of crime and past offenses. Yeah, but when you go to trial and lose, they up the ante on you. By the guidelines, they can't, because I've been locked up with a lot of people doing Fed time, and if you ain't had no priors or nothing like that,

you can rob a bank and get hardly nothing. I'm doing 10 years right now for a truck with the keys in it. A truck with the keys? Yes, sir. You stole the keys? No, I stole the truck. It just had the keys in it. All right, we'll get to that part.

But yeah, I got caught with a cell phone. the feds and then I dated a guard's cousin and that was a conflict of interest at the next prison I was at. Right. And then they kind of shipped me all over, diesel therapy. Yeah, I've heard of that. You don't even get to stay or catch your mail or nothing, do you? Yeah. Well, so you're the first person I've sat down with that actually gave me a little bit of credit. I said, what do you think I was in prison? You said a fraud guy, but most of the time they do say I'm a chomo. That's a bad label right there. It's the glasses and the cheeks, the red cheeks and the young look. You look like you're about 18 anyways.

Oh, 29. How old are you? Me too. Oh, you're 29? No, I'm, I got 20 on you. So you're 49? Yeah. You look good for 49 rooster, minus the hair.

Thank you. So did you grow up in Kentucky? Yeah, I was born in Dayton, Ohio, and all my family's from here, and I would come down here when I was about eight and been in prison ever since. Why did you guys move from Ohio to here? to here? I just come down here because I loved it. I mean, I've always been, it's all everyone do, stay in the woods and stuff like that.

Ohio, I was born up there, and I get up there, and I can't stand it. I left $30 an hour to come down here and fish and go back to prison. And I'm happier right now and I was up there. But it's a little bit warmer here than Ohio, too, right? Yeah. Did you have a big family, like mom, dad, siblings?

Yeah, I had a big family. and when my pap all sort of run it and when he died they just all went crazy or no i can cuss on here kind of of course you can't as long as security's okay with that daddy ain't going to say nothing what did your parents do for work sold dope and they were addicts as well not really my mom was this crazy or ill she didn't do much dope and my dad he just smoked a lot of weed and what about your siblings were you close with them? One of them. One of them, I was. And I got two sisters.

And I ain't too close with them no more. I had a stepdad that raised me was my dad's best friend. And he got with my mom when I was about eight. And he worked his whole life and stuff. He was a functioning alcoholic. He worked every day and drank every day. And when he died, it just went bad with me and her. But I ain't losing no sleep over it or nothing.

like that. Do you think that looking back on it now, you know, having time to reflect, do you think that that caused a big impact on your life? Absolutely. Absolutely. If they'd have busted my ass when I was a kid, I'd have never been in here. So do you wish that they were a little bit stricter with you? Yeah.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But you might not have learned the same things you're currently learning had that not happened either on the flip side of it. Well, I've learned a lot, but I'd rather have been, I'm not ashamed of nothing I'm I've ever done or I'm not, you know, down in my family. They was all, but I wish I'd have been made mind a little bit, you know, not let run, roll out wild, and I'd have been something.

I wish I'd went to the military. Was that your childhood dream growing up that you wanted to go to the military? No, I wasn't sell dope. From an early... This took me until I was about 48 to grow up. So why at that age did you want to get into that? Is that strictly... That's all I ever seen.

Okay. That's all I ever know, you know. I was just raised. raised around not bad people, you know, they was all loving and stuff like that. They was just criminals, what you call a criminal. I don't know, just hustling. How important do you think it is the childhood on your later years looking back on it now? It's very important what a child sees, I think.

It's very important what they, you know, what they're around, what their environment is and stuff. Children are everything, you know. you should go through the future. So, you know, what a child sees, it's very, on me it was, it was very, that's what I wanted. If I, what I've seen and what I grew up around, you know, that's always what I wanted to be. But until I got older, you know, then I realized that wasn't, wasn't a smart move, I'd say. When you were a kid, did you look at other kids and say, like, I wish I had that family. I wish I was more like that.

Absolutely. Was that hard on you? Yeah, yeah, sure was. But I'm like, I don't know, I cling to people that I don't like too many people, you know what I mean? It's like a certain type of people, but I cling on to them when I do, you know. And just sometimes, you don't always get what you put into people back, and it took me a long time to realize that. How would people describe you back then when you were a young kid? Just mean.

not mean I mean I thought my name was don't son until I was 12 year old that's all I ever heard was don't son don't you know my pap ball was a little red-headed bastard or something like that but yeah so did you ever try drugs

at it early or you just got right into selling? I was about 16 I started smoking weed and it there is nothing I've always been for weed you know what I mean but if you do if you start with one thing It's just going to lead to other things, you know. You just get curious, and I did.

But it took me a long time before I got on the hardest stuff, like the pain pills and stuff like that. And that stuff really gets a hold of people. It's ruined this whole state. The pain pills did. You never heard of people telling on nobody or nothing like that until them pain pills come around. And now it's terrible.

I mean, you got this shit they call meth now. and it's bad on people, which really is. It really is. Do you think if you could go back in time and not smoke that weed, you would? Probably not. I'd probably smoke the weeds still. But you maybe would have wished that it didn't bring you down the path that it did? Yeah, for sure.

But, I mean, we can't change our lives. I wouldn't go back to change it if I could. but there's just a lot of things in this life of the drugs and the jail and stuff when I get done with this one I'll have 20 years almost flat in and I wasted my whole life doing nothing except laying in these places and I'm not a bad person next question Thank you. But you still, you know, that's something to touch on right there, you know, and this is something that they were saying earlier at the pretrial thing,

or the pre-release program that they run here is that, you know, you might have spent all of those years before you in prison, but you still have so much ahead of you as well. And you can do something with that. Yeah, they ought to build statues of them people right there, for real, because I've known Jessica and I know her husband, and then people are really doing good things. And it makes people like me,

because they come from the same environment, you know, and stuff that I've done. And they really do make a difference. They really do. And you can see it in them that they really do enjoy doing what they do. What prison has done to me, it's made me a perfect judge of character, I think. And you can see that it just makes these people happy. I mean, it really makes them happy. And they do real good things.

They really do. And I ain't just saying that because they're sitting there because I'm straightforward. and I'd say bullshit if it wasn't, but them people really do good things. Do you trust them more because they were in your shoes before? Absolutely. Absolutely. I'd done sap, and that's one of my big, if you ever heard of sap, it's terrible. And I've done it at the rotor farm. And there's people coming there all the time and they tell me about my drug addiction. And the first thing I would ask them would be, have you ever been strung out on heroin or oxy, you know, no. And I said, well, how the hell can you sit there and tell me about what I'm going to be?

going through what I'm doing, you know what I mean, how I'm supposed to get over this. And you don't want to hear it. I don't care what anybody says. 90% of the people, you know, will tell you the same thing that's in that shit. I don't want to hear somebody that's read it from a book. I want to hear it for somebody that's lived it. And I know they've lived it. And I see what it's done for them.

And it really does, it really does motivate me to want to do something like that. You know, it's how you use that big word motivate like Koolet Manage. But thank you. Did you make it through high school? Did you graduate? No. I didn't know how to spell my middle name until I got married. My middle name is Matthew.

You know how I spelled it? How did you spell it? M-A-T-H-Y-O-U. M-A-T-H-Y-O-U? Yeah, Matthew. It was close. You were off by a couple letters. So no high school, no college, I'm assuming, unless there was anything in prison.

When was the first time you ever got a rock? trusted. 18. I got, I had 28 counts of Grand Theft Auto when I was a chop when I was young, 14 year old, and juvenile. And then I turned 18 in the drunk tank down here. In this very building. So why cars? What was it about cars for you? It was just, I don't know, being young can drive. And it was kind of an addiction too. I would collect the gears out of the, when you tore a column out, I'd collect the gears out of the, I'd collect the gears out of of them and I'd hang them on coat hangers in my closet. I had closets full of them. I'd steal one and drive it so I could see another one that I could steal and I'd park

and steal it and steal it. And this was after you would steal the car and drive it to wherever you would pull out the gear as like a souvenir? I just, since it comes out, I'd put it in my pocket. And now I got called out of 28 in my pocket. Where do you think you developed that habit from? Like what was the first instant? Because I don't think video games were around back then, like Grand Theft Auto or anything? Well, no, this is what? They're, they're 30 something years ago, right? Yeah. Maybe not.

Was there Grand Theft Auto back then? No. Nintendo. So where, I mean, unless you got it from Mario Kart, but. It was just, I don't know. It's hard to say. Just being a kid and can drive and new cars, you know. We'd get them and play crash up derby.

We hardly sold any of them. We just done it to do it. What was something that could have changed that first time you got arrested that could have, you know, not got you sent to prison? Was there someone or someone or someone? or something that could have helped you at that point. Yeah, they beat my ass when I got on. I hadn't been all right.

I wouldn't have done it no more. But I didn't have bad parents. They just wasn't much on discipline. Do you think moving out here affected it? No. Moving out here, help me. Ryan Reynolds here from MintMobil. I don't know if you knew this,

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See full terms at mintmobile.com. Down here. Down, sorry. I'm bad with my locations, my geography, you could say. So you get arrested that first time, then what happens? go to prison? I go juvenile. Okay. And then I go back a couple more times for assaults or something like that.

And I come down here and I just, when I got down here, I went to high school. And I wasn't in high school probably a couple months. And the principal called me to the office, Mr. Cash. And he told me that he received a call that I was a known auto theft, you know, that they had to, you know, watch me. And I've always had like a, I don't know, a button. I called a fuck it button, you know. And they don't, fuck it.

I just go all over, you know. So I don't know. Once I got down here, I dressed a little different, you know, talked a little different. And I just, I don't know. I moved up the food chain pretty quick, I'd say. And down here it was just easy. I love it. I love Kentucky. Livingston's my home, and that's where, you know, I don't feel nowhere else.

I don't feel no homeward than right there, but I just love Kentucky, all except the prison parts. Have you been in a lot of prisons in Kentucky? Yeah, all of them except two. All the main ones, like the state ones? What was the first one you went to? LaGrange. He got through LaGrains when you get sent to prison, and then they, they send you.

if you stay at LaGrange, you're usually a really terrible person on some bad charges. But they send you out to other prisons, North Point, Little Sandy, Eastern, Eddieville, Green River, all that stuff. Prisons in Kentucky ain't that bad. Was it tough to navigate them at that young age in your 20s? It wasn't for me. I've seen it for people that it was, and I ain't saying that I'm nothing special or nothing, but it wasn't ever a problem for me.

prison one just go along don't get no trouble you know just got to be kind of i guess smart you know know what to stay away from and you see them in there and i've seen people go in with five years and end up with 35 years on this bullshit but yeah do you think going to prison that first time and the first few times contributed to, you know, continuing a criminal type lifestyle? What, like learning shit in prison and no. You said something earlier about how, like, people in the feds, you know, like, they can get a few years, like, their first time. And I'd seen guys that would commit bank robberies with guns and then they'd learn from the guys that just did it by passing a

Yeah, you hear all kinds of that, you know, you pick up pointers and stuff like that, but it's just if it's your thing, you know. But you're in a whole different class of criminal with feds and state, and you know that because you was at a federal prison, right? Yeah, it's a whole different. You got a bunch of lower-end criminals, you know, you see a lot of people that's, in the feds it's a higher class, a higher class criminal than it is in the state. In Kentucky state time ain't too bad.

I mean, what are you doing the feds? How much time do you do on a year? I think you do less or no, more than a state charge. It's like 85%. They give you good time. So on a 36-month sentence, I did like 28 months with halfway house. That's pretty good. But some, they don't have parole in the feds anymore.

No. So in the state, there's parole. Yeah, I've made it twice. To parole? Yeah. What was that like going to parole the first time? I don't know. Only made it about a month before I was on the run.

Wait. on the run after. I've sconed. I can't do parole. It's hard. If you don't, if you ain't got no kind of support system when you get out of prison

and you live like places I do, are they sending these halfway houses in Louisville, which I will not do. It's just hard for me it was because I don't like to ask nobody for help and getting from point A to point B and all that stuff. it just gets, to me it gets aggravating, and I just weigh it out.

I can't just go back and do this much and be done with it. Or I can't. I mean, when I've absconded this time, I had it made. I was at a halfway house. My buddy was running it and everything else, and I just couldn't do it. Do you feel like if there was better resources from the system? But there is now. I mean, you got a lot of, they're a lot better.

When I first start doing time in Kentucky, like you get a dirty urine now and you get what they call a sanction and stuff like that you'll see them coming out five or six times they'll leave rehab and stuff like that when I start doing this if you've got a dirty piss test you was smoked

he was going back to prison I was just had my son and I got a dirty urine on a three-year sentence here and I went back up in front of the judge for it and I asked for rehab and that's been 20 some year ago and they told me

me that we're going to give you the best rehab we can give you, Mr. Holt. They sent me back to prison. And that's not what you needed. No. Do you think if you were placed in a facility like this 20 years ago, it would have been a different outcome? You might not be here right now. I was in this facility 20 years.

Oh, so it's not like how it is now. It's better now. I mean, just the facility has changed a lot too, but it's the court system. It's always, you know, back then there was a lot more, harder on it. And now you got, like I said, you got these sanctions 10 days, 20 days, and they send you these rehabs and stuff. And yeah, it'd been a lot better on me if they'd had that back then. So here's a question, though, if 20 years ago they did give you that second chance and

sent you to rehab, do you think you would have genuinely gotten clean? Probably not. You know, I ain't a lie. But I've thought about it a lot harder, maybe. And what about now? Are you clean now? Absolutely. What did it finally take for you to get clean? You get tired of it after. Look, I don't care what anybody says. When people tell you that this is what I always hated, and this is from SAP, everybody. Once, don't ever believe, to me, I hate to hear when you've been an addict.

Once an addict, always an addict. That's not what somebody wants to hear. It's not what I want to hear. I want to get rid of that title. You know what I mean? You just get tired of it after you've been on the shit that I've been on. And I robbed pharmacies, allegedly. So if once you've been, and I've been on it all,

oxy cotton, morphine, methadone, heroin, all that shit at once, stupid habits. Once you get to a point in your life to where you've done, you can't even enjoy the buzz no more because you've done robbed everybody. You can rob, or bummed all the money off of your family that you can bum that you only think about for me. was when I'd get high, I couldn't even enjoy it because I was thinking, damn, what am I going to do tomorrow? You know what I mean? How am I going to come back

and I'm going to be sick? And the best thing, and I've been to re, no, I ain't never been to rehab. I'll take that back. But I think the best rehab, the best way of getting off dope, for me it was, was they put me down there in themselves and just let me go through it, you know, because in your mind, in my mind, I know it I couldn't get back out to get it, you know, and just let them get us sick. I mean, coming off Suboxins was the sickest I've ever been in my life. And it ruined me from, I'll never do that shit like that. Never, never be that sick again.

So how do you feel about the individuals that do continue to try to bring drugs into prison and try to, you know, kind of, you know, put blackness really onto people that are out of clean? You make your own choices. I ain't going to knock nobody for what they do. You know, they got to learn their lessons too, you know. You can make your own choices. I believe your life's just laid out in a path. And if you, you know, everybody's got their own path.

And they got to learn from it. So, you know, people bringing dope in prison. It's just going to happen no matter what, you know. That's never going to get them out of it. Do you ever look at the decisions you made as an addict and say, like, I'm glad I'm not that person anymore? I've never really a bad person. And the attic thing, to me, there's certain people got a line in their life,

you know, a line that I would never cross the things I wouldn't do. You know what I mean? I wouldn't, to me, it'd make myself look bad if I was to do this. Like I never stole from my family. I never robbed friends. I never went out and done shit that I would think, damn, that was terrible to do. You know, I kind of had a little bit of a hustle and a little bit of connect that I could. but now I've seen people do some pretty silly shit for nothing, you know, their whole life gone.

For nothing. To me it was nothing. Do you feel like you did something for nothing looking at it? Something for nothing. Everything, I've been guilty of everything I've ever done except once. Except for the pharmacies. What? Allegedly.

Yeah. Not the pharmacy. Not the pharmacies. But I would just, like on that subject right there, you know, I'd rather, if I was going to allegedly do something like that, to me, it would be better to do the pharmacy than it would go out here and hurt somebody, you know, so I don't, I just would always weigh it out. What I'd tell people to do, before you start thinking about doing any stupid shit, is just take a couple minutes to think about it. You know what I mean before you go out here and you want to rob something or you're going to get high, just sit back and think like this fentanyl shit, that's just terrible, man. I can't sit here and count to people that I've known people that were as close to that's died off that fentanyl shit. It seems like to me now that I got older, that if I just sat back, I think of what, you know,

what could happen or what I've been through from a previous experience, But you'll not do it. You know, I mean, you'll think a lot harder about doing it for sure. If you're not, you're eat up with the dumbass. I mean, you're just going to, you're destined for that life. What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about you? Hey, me. Yeah.

I'm really not this good looking. Okay. What about, you know, law enforcement, judges, probation officers? What about my opinion of them? No, what do you think that they? Oh, man. Look. I've got, you ever seen the movie wrote out?

I swear on this. I had a cop beating my head off the back of the trunk one time. And he asked me what my name was, and I told him. And I swear he said, I thought you'd be bigger. And I got arrested this time, and the cop that got me this time told me I didn't live up to all the hype. But you didn't live up to the hype? I got a bad rap. So if you run into a law enforcement officer on the street and we asked about Rooster, what would they say about you?

Oh, Lord. What's the elevator pitch? That, I used to fight a lot, but I've been accused of everything, you know, except really bad stuff. And I, but they just tell you I was probably wild, and I'm not. I treat people how I want to be treated, and how people treat me is how I treat them. So, you know, down here, a lot of problems with the police down here. It's like on Friday. You remember when Day Day got top flight, everybody's suspect.

As soon as they pull you over, you're guilty for something, you know what I mean? They're on you for something. And if you get this stigmatism, ain't that? Is that something to do with a, you get this type to where you've been labeled something, you know what I mean? So when they pull you over, you're instantly labeled and they don't get off that. So, but the world needs law. If we didn't have police and shit like that, it would be truly a bad place. It would be.

I don't got no problems with all enforcement and stuff like that. I just try to stay away from them because I'm labeled. Do you envision an world where you won't be labeled like that once you get out? No, not here. I'll always be labeled here. But you want to stay here. I'll stay here, yeah. I'll die here.

What do you think that will, you'll run into more problems, or do you think that it's going to be different? No. Why do you think that? Because I learned to keep my mouth shut and not talk bad to them or try to fight with them. All you get out of fighting with the police is beat up and put in prison. That's a very fair answer, rooster. I've been there. So this sentence you're serving now, when did you get sentenced?

I got sentenced in 2019, August, 2019. To 10 years in prison? Yeah. And you're serving the whole sentence? sentence here? No, I've been from, I've been, I got it in Paduca. I was at a halfway house when I called it. I left the halfway house over there and got 10 years for a truck with keys in it and promoting contraband and tampering physical evidence and they never took no drugs off of me. Promoting contraband where in prison? Yeah. At that different facility.

So they hit you with multiple charges after you got caught with the truck? Yeah. So why truck. I had to get back here. And I was in Paducah and look, if I could have found a sign that said Lexington or Richmond, I'd probably come on back. But they all fucking said Missouri and Mississippi and shit like that. I drove it seven miles and parked it. What about a bus or a tray and nothing?

I just kind of wasn't thinking. Zanexas. So how did you pick this truck out? Was it just parked on the side of the road? Yeah, it was the only one had keys in it. And it was unlocked? Yeah. And you just hopped in and took a drive.

Yeah. So how did they catch you? Well, I parked the truck. I was working for a guy at this halfway house. I went and seen him. And I had the truck with me. And then I kind of sobered up a little bit. And I thought, well, I don't want to try.

I got to thinking I didn't want to, you know, high-speed chase or nothing like that. And that's for real. So I just parked the truck and left. and I got caught later on that diet. And the detectives are really thorough down there in Paduca, but he ended up telling all me and shit. If you're moving all your precious possessions, here's something no one tells you.

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Oh, so you're not doing the full 10 years if you get parole. I'll probably be done with it when I go back up for parole anyway. He's only got a year left. Now, you said that you're against Pearl. You don't think you could do it. Do you think you could do it this time? Yeah, if I got, if that button don't jump up, you know what I mean? But yeah, I can do it just.

How do you control the button? Because I'm sure there's people. It's hard. It's hard. It really is. I got a, it just, it's kind of hard. But I'm working on it. I'm working on it.

Trying to. But I don't want to be back in these places. I don't. I don't want to die in these places. because I know that I ain't got no family left, and I ain't singing old sad song shit, that if I was to die in one of these places, they would take me back to La Grange

and bury me on a fucking hill we call chicken hill with a bunch of child molesters and shit, and I don't want to be that. Yeah. That's very powerful. Thank you. Now, people are fascinated with individuals that are incarcerated, the prison life,

criminal justice system. You know, that's what creates shows like 60 days in and all that. I can't watch that shit. That's so... Do you... So when I was in the Fed's guys loved watching prison shows about people in prison, do you guys do that here? Not myself.

Like the Shawshank Redemption, I'll fight before we put that shit back on TV. Do you have you come across individuals that do watch that? A lot of them watch all the murder, all that shit. I just, I don't like it. I've lived it for so long. I don't want to watch the shit. Plus, once you're in it and you see this shit on TV and you know it's fake, you know.

I mean, so it's just, or maybe it's just me, but a lot of them live for it. I mean, like, oh, we want to watch 60 Days In. How do you feel about 60 Days In? I think it's a joke. I think it's a joke. What are the biggest things about it that you think are fake? It's how much the camera's on them. And they're supposed to be in their secret, you know.

anywhere I've ever been if you're in there talk to cameras and shit like that whether you're gonna stomp you out or something but you know what I mean

you're telling on somebody would you ever go on a show like 60 days in never would I what if they offered you like 60 grand to do it for 60 days 60 grand for 60 days

that's what they offer I'm in I'm in yeah so if they tell you to say snitch around and it never would I know then you don't get the 60 grand I just

I'll still bat myself. That telling shit's bad because if you do something, and I'm not just saying that to be, that's just how I am and how I was raised. If you do something, know that there's consequences that come along with breaking the law, what you're going to do if you get caught. You don't need to bring another person down

and tell on somebody to get out of your trouble. That's just, that's bottom feeder shit. And I'm just, it's not good, man. I mean, but now they say it's, there's a lot of people doing it. Now, in a place, a facility like this, is there like paperwork, politics and stuff like that or no? Not like there is in the feds, but you get, you know, they get people that's labeled and you got sales where people can't go in other sales and shit like that. What are some rules that, you know, are enforced among the inmates that are common? Here?

Yeah, that's not necessarily a facility rule, but that you guys make amongst yourselves. Well, that you just don't get nobody else's business. It varies, you know what I mean? It's just, if you're locked up a bunch of these younger kids and shit, it just varies. It's just kind of like however you hold yourself. You know, you know not to fuck with nobody's shit or get nobody else's business or don't tell on nobody or nothing, you know. And it's just common sense to me, you know, but you see them, you can't do it.

But you'll see them, they'll come in and I'll say, That's something I've told on me. And then two months later, they'll be living with them, sharing noodles with them and shit. So, I mean. On the topic of noodles, how is the food here? What do you think about that? It's great. I asked him the same question.

It's great. He told me the truth. The food has really went downhill. I mean, it has. Not that we, I mean, but you got to figure I was used to this jail when we got biscuits and gravy. I mean, really good food. I mean, home-cooked food. Now we get this shit.

What is it called? Cadwell? And you hear I said, yeah, look at me, Rose. I'm not sure he's on whoop me when we get back downstairs. No, something I found interesting, Nate was telling me that he comes in and eats with you guys. He does. Have you ever seen that anywhere else? Because I haven't.

Yeah, in a lot of these littler jails, yeah. What do you think about that from an inmate's perspective? What? You know, the jailer, the warden coming in to eat with you? it ain't like he sets down at the table with us or nothing like that, you know, man, he eats the same food. Yeah. And these littler jails, you know, you see, everybody, we all know, Nathan, I growed up with, you know.

And these littler counties like this, it's great, you know what I mean? It's a lot laid back. But yeah, he walks through, he used to walk to the jail lot. I believe he's got a little spoof now. What's something you want, you know, correctional officers, prison guards, wardens, jailers to know, about inmates that they don't necessarily know. Quit treating us like shit. You know what I mean?

You see a lot of, you'll see some of them come in, and they're just always on some super cop shit, always going out of their way trying to get you knocked off and want to talk bad to you or something like that. And I'm big on not being, you know, trying to belittle me. I get in trouble all the time. How many jobs have I been fired from already?

So, but I just treat us like we're something. You know, I mean, don't. It's that super cop shit, you know what I mean? They just always looking for something, you know? If you're one of it, my suggestion to these people that's wanting to work in corrections is just, you know what I mean? Just go along and get along, you know? If people do something in front of you to get in trouble, then you got to expect you get in trouble. But you see people coming in like searching them just for mats and just, it's good.

crazy. Do you think there needs to be a fair balance, so, like, they do have to do their job at the same time. I understand. Well, there ain't no fair when you're doing it. It's their rules, you know what I mean? And it took me a long time to live with that. But you're not out on the street, so you're locked up. So you know that if more people would see that, I've done a lot better time just realizing what fuck you're not at home.

You know what I mean? And this is what comes along with it. It took me a long time to figure that one out. What's a rule that you find unfair about the prison system? Or it could be multiple rules. I don't know. It just depends on like where you, like in the jail down here. We got it pretty good down there.

I ain't a lot. We got it pretty good. But in other jails, you get, you know, the lights on all the time. You know, when you're in jail, everybody wants to sleep. You try to sleep your time away. And the lights on and shit like that. And just, hell, you're in jail. Clothes, you know, shoes, stuff like that.

What's a day in the life for you, like, now, when you're not doing a podcast? What's a typical day? It's been alive for me. I watch a lot of fishing shows. What time do you wake up in the morning? And are you forced to wake up at a certain time? Well, when I work, I usually get up about 4.30. But now since I've been fired from these other jobs, I work third shifts.

Where did you work? and why did you get fired? On the first time, you want me tell that whole story? No. The first time I got fired was because we'd come in early because they made us walk about three miles for nothing. And I got kind of mad. They found some cigarettes in the van.

And I claimed the cigarettes. They told me I couldn't go back out with that crew. So the next one, the guy I worked for he's he was the next he'd been in here too and been in prison

so and I'm not he just wanted to talk to me bad you know I mean want to try to belittle me and I know that he ain't that caliber of guy

to be it's not that I'm not nothing special but I'm a lot more special than that motherfucker and he ain't going to talk to me like that for real and uh i just talked bad back to him and right now i really wished i had him but what kind of jobs are these i just use a chainsaw mow mow a lot of grass had it made really had the best job there was this is out of the grounds yeah okay like working for the city and whatnot

oh yeah we work for the county okay i'm community custody i'm about as violent as a box of birthday cards. At least you're honest. Yeah, I mean. And I know. So now it's third shift. You said you still have a job, though. Do a lot of laundry and pick up a lot of trays. And that's in the facility. How much you got paid for these jobs? I could get, what, 63 cents a day or so? I always yell a bunch of money from way back, so I don't ever even see it anyway. So they take it away from you? So how do you make money to support yourself by commissary, anything like that? I got good family. I got a good brother. A lot of people like me. I don't know why, but... You're a likable guy, Rooster. Yeah.

But I'm all right. Now, what's your favorite commissary? What do you like to get from there? Pops. I like Pops, Mountain Dews. Oh, soda? Soda Mountain Dew? Yeah. Soda. See, why do you call it that? We call it soda in Connecticut. Is that where you're from? Is Connecticut? Yeah, I live in Connecticut. I came all the way just to meet you, Rooster. I don't believe all that, but... That's the only reason why I came out here.

I came for you. You know I interviewed all of them on the show yesterday. I heard Nathan, he was crying about it earlier. Yep, I interviewed everyone. Was he nervous up here? I don't know who was more nervous. You were him, you know? I ain't nervous.

I'm going to talk more than me. I'm froze to death. I'm telling you. It is a little chilly in here. How do you feel about the air conditioning inside? That's not been working that much downstairs. Oh, here it hasn't been working? What about in some prisons, like it's freezing in like the shoe or solitary or anything like that?

Have you ever been in there? Yeah, I was in KSR's hole down there and the windows was busted out. And in the wintertime, the toilets would freeze up. It'd be so cold in there. Did you ever like take the toothpaste on the toilet paper and put it over the vents or anything like that? Yeah. We used to do that all the time, like the little spitballs and plug it all in. Yeah.

Then they'd come in and raid the cell. and they weren't happy with it. Yeah. Once you're in there, they really can't take nothing from you. But, yeah, always just, like I got out of long johns and stuff to come up here. He'd come down there at 2 o'clock and told me I'll be down there. I'll be back to get you in 15 minutes.

So I done went back to bed. You know what they say. You got nothing but time. I know. According to him, I'm getting short. You're getting short, yeah. What is it? Six months to the gate?

To the parole board then, yeah. Yeah. I got a year left. Are you nervous for the parole board? No. I told them to serve me out and they only flop me a year. Do you plan on speaking? What I mean? At the parole board? Can you say something?

No, no, no. Do you have an attorney present during that? So who goes with you? Nobody. Oh, you don't, it's not like in the movie. I've never been to parole. I don't even see them. They'll just send, if you ain't in class B felony now, you don't even see the parole board.

Okay. They do a review. I'll see I'll have seen them if I'd have come back and when I come back on PV I think no I didn't even go see them them they just sent it through the mail now what about hustles have you ever had a hustle in prison no you've never done anything though I was the cheesecake man you don't have to give any secrets that's what I'm talking about I'm sure you could make cheesecakes here no do you have coffee creamer on commissary see that's all that culinary arts shit Another big word. You see I use that one. Culinary arts is not a big word. To me it is. You've never had a hustle all the years you've been in.

No. Nothing. That I want to talk about, you know. We're saying a legal hustle, you know. Doing some laundry for someone, doing cleaning. I ain't done nobody's laundry. I don't know why. How does laundry work here?

Well, I do their laundry now. Oh, yeah. You are the laundry. Did you just say you won't do anyone's laundry? Laundry now, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the line here that's just back there we get khakis and shit like this. But the other ones, they get either blue or reds, and we just throw it in the washer.

What about haircuts? Oh, God, I don't know. I don't know into that. It's whoever can cut hair in the cell. And trust me, everybody down there can say they can cut hair and they can cut hair for shit. Do you get, like, buzzer? Like, how does it work? Clippers, we got some clippers.

Been in here for about 15 years. So no razor, just the clippers? We get some razors at night, but yeah. So you got the clippers and you're just a free-for-all? That's it, right there. You said it. Looks like they cut it with a match when you get done with it. Is that why you're wearing the hat right now? No, I'm ball-headed.

That's not one of that. Yeah, the roosters losing as mean. Yeah, it's going. What are some, like, creative things you guys have, like, made in prison? I've seen all... Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. Oh, no. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity,

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stopover on your way to Australia with roundtrip fairs starting from 839. As a one world alliance member and American Airlines Advantage program partner, your miles go further across the South Pacific. Book now at Fiji Airways.com or contact your local travel agent. Conditions apply. What's the most creative you've made? I've seen gun cabinets made with guns in them. and the bolts work, the slides, everything out of popsicle sticks, motorcicles, I mean, some of the shit I've seen people make in prison amazes me. There's a lot of wasted talent in prison.

And some of the best people I've ever met in my life has been in prison, never getting out. What do you want the world to know about those individuals that you meet and that you say are the best people in your life? Well, not the best people in my life, but some of the best people I've met. Of course. is that just because somebody, to me, as long as you ain't out here molesting kids and raping women and just killing people hideously, they shouldn't put them away for the rest of the earth.

You know what I mean? People can get better, and I think, but I ain't nobody, but they just shouldn't, they should take a look at them, you know what I mean? Because, just because somebody's fucked up once in their life, you know, and you might have fucked up bad, you might kill somebody or something like that. But there's always a reason, you know, the circumstances of shit happening. And a lot of people that, they don't see that in it, you know what I mean? I just think that they should look at it a whole lot of different, a whole lot of things.

But if you rape children and stuff like that, I think they ought to shoot you in the face. Do you feel like you've gotten better as you near the end of your sentence? Got better at what? In life, as a person, as an individual. Yeah. It took me 48 years grow up. And do you feel like you're officially grown up now? Almost.

What's missing? I don't know. I still like to fish a lot and shit like that. Do you have kids? Yeah, I got one. How hard has it been raising a kid from prison? I ain't raised him at all. I've been a terrible father.

I went to prison when he was nine months old. He's 23 now. Great kid. A Marine. perfect he don't fuck with me and I love him more than anything in this world

and the biggest regret in my life and the best thing that ever happened to me was that kid and best kid in the world and I ain't seen him since his 15th birthday and he's embarrassed of me and I can't blame him

you know what I mean and I'll die for him in a minute if I just like to be part of his life, but I can understand where he's coming from. And, uh, but he's, he's perfect in every way. Do you have a plan to make amends with him when you get out? I'd like to, but what can I, 23 years, what can I say, you know, shit, I've been a terrible father. And that's one thing I always did not want to be labeled.

All my worst fears have come true while I've been in prison. Why I've done? I'm having a relationship with my kid. shit like that. And I know I'm an embarrassment to him because he's real straight-laced, the Marine, and all that shit. I don't want to embarrass him. You know what I mean?

What advice would you give to an individual who, you know, is just having a kid and is making wrong choices in their life and are finding themselves incarcerated? What would you say to them? You don't want to be this guy. You don't want to be down the road, and you don't want to be because it's terrible. It's the worst hurts you can never feel.

I mean, you should always be there for your kid, always. You don't want to feel the way the things I know the way I feel about it because it makes me, I always thought I could never be beat, there would never be nothing beat me at being a father, and I let it beat me. And it's terrible. Don't do it. Spend as much time with your kids.

Do everything you can for your kids. Stay in their life. What are the biggest life lessons you've learned throughout your journey? My biggest life lessons is I've wasted mine. Just think before you do shit, man. You know what I mean? I always like my pap all, if I'd have listened to my pap all and my dad, I'd have never been in trouble.

And everything they ever told me that I would regret, I regret. Just listen to people that love you and don't be hard-headed. And this ain't no life to be. I mean, for me, all my years of getting in trouble, when I'd kind of sat down and I'd weigh it out, I would say, well, what's what are they going to do to me? Send me back there and let me go out every day, you know, and work. What's that? That ain't nothing. I ain't learning no kind of lesson. But once you see people in your life that you really love and you start losing them while you're in these places and you ain't got no, you know, and as you get older and you realize you ain't got nobody, you don't want to be that person, you don't want to feel that shit. So just think before you do it. And jail ain't no place to be, even though we get bacon eaters every other Friday. What's your plan for when you get out? Me.

I'd like to try to help people. I swear I would. I mean, I just don't want to come. I'm not going to come back. I'm not going to come back. And I'm almost 50. It ain't like I'm ever, no matter what I do, and I know. know this in life, no matter what I do from here on out.

Shit, as hard as I've been on myself, I ain't got much longer left, you know what I mean? It ain't ever like I'm going to be rich. I'm my most famous right now, though, but... You know you're already helping people today just by sharing your story. There's a power in that. I really do. I hope so. Because I ain't lying a very bit.

If people just think before they do this shit and stay away from that fucking fentanyl and shit, it'll be drugs ain't... I mean, you're going to do what you're going to do and you're going to learn. but if you just see what it's done to people, it's not cool, not one bit. And like I said before, I try to set back and I try to think about having fun. And I got to think way back to when I was a little bitty kid to think of any time that I had fun, the fun that I call fun, you know, and shit that I was done, that I wasn't high, you know. But there ain't no future in it.

Like I said, you don't want to be this guy doing a, podcast with Nathan Carter standing over my show. Best security in town, man. That's it. But you get a baconator out of it. Next week. Oh, that's not this Friday? No.

Oh, man. Well, I know you have a small bladder, so I'll let you go. All right. It was a pleasure talking to you, man. You too. I'll get your information from Jessica, and we'll put that in the description of the episode. If anyone wants to reach out and...

I hope I lived up to all the hype. Yeah, you definitely did, man. I really appreciate it. I'm glad we got to talk to you today. You are our first, you know, currently incarcerated person ever on the show. Damn, I am famous now. Yeah, yeah. All 42 people watching.

Well, that's just alive, but the actual episode when it comes out will reach a lot of people. And I appreciate it, man. Thank you. And we appreciate Nate for making this happen, man. Thank you. All right. Awesome. Appreciate you, man.