Locked In with Ian Bick - How I Survived A Kentucky Federal Prison In The 90s | Anthony Page

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

Anthony Page grew up in West Virginia and was raised by his grandparents before getting involved in selling drugs, a path that eventually led to federal charges. In this episode, Anthony breaks down how the feds caught him, what it was like being sentenced, and serving five years in a Kentucky federal prison camp. He shares real insight into federal prison life in the 1990s, the mental shift that prison forced on him, and how that experience changed his outlook for good. After completing his sentence, Anthony rebuilt his life, stayed out of trouble, and today runs a merchandise company created to support and represent formerly incarcerated people, proving that you don’t have to go back to prison to move forward. _____________________________________________ #FederalPrison #PrisonStories #TrueCrime #PrisonLife #LifeAfterPrison #RedemptionStory #KentuckyPrison #90sPrison _____________________________________________ Connect with Anthony Page: Buy his merch: https://www.8at208.com/ AirBnB: https://thepalaceoncharles.com/ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 Arrested: The Bust That Changed Everything 07:45 Raised by Grandparents & Meeting My Father 14:10 Teen Years, High School & Bad Decisions 18:10 Drugs, Crime & the 1990s Street Life 23:00 On the Run: Getting Caught & Arrested 29:00 Facing Trial & Federal Prison Sentencing 32:40 Inside Federal Prison: First Days & Survival 36:00 Prison Camp Life: Sports, Hustles & Commissary 44:20 Prison Food, Jobs & Contraband Culture 50:00 Getting Released: Halfway House & Reentry 53:40 Life After Prison: Kids, Stigma & Reality 57:00 Turning My Life Around: Building Felony Certified 01:03:00 Lessons Learned & Advice for the Next Generation 01:04:50 Final Thoughts, Gratitude & Redemption Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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so we all stand around and they want to search the vehicle. Well, I got everything in my crotch here. Why did you turn to drugs that first time? And got caught in the craziest way. I'm ashamed to even tell this. What about the general prison food menu? What was that like in the 90s? People just running over the mountain, going out, meeting their women, or getting alcohol

and stuff like that. Anthony Page was raised by his grandparents in West Virginia, and a few bad decisions later, he was standing in federal court facing prison. This is how the feds caught him. What five years in a federal prison camp really did to his mind? and how he rebuilt his life after release. Anthony, welcome to Lockton. Thanks so much for coming out here.

And happy new year. This is January 2nd. Is this my first episode of the... I think this is my first episode. Yeah, I'm recording in 2006. Yeah, and this is also the anniversary of the day I was released from Manchester, Kentucky Prison. So in 97.

So what's that 29 years? Something like that? Different perspective. You were just showing me all these old photos. You all had chains. You had different clothes. You had everything. It was rocking pajamas.

Yeah, we kind of went in at a time when it was pretty laid back where we could get food from the streets and stuff like that. And it was pretty laid back time back in 93. Yeah, that's incredible. I'm not bragging on it, making it seem like it was fun. But when you look back on it, it was okay. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Logan, West Virginia, a little small town,

a little south of Charleston, about 45 minutes south of Charleston. Who are you raised by? My grandparents. My grandmother raised me, my grandfather, and they raised me, yeah. Where were your parents? My mom lived right next door, but the story behind that is I'm one of five siblings, and I had a different father from my brothers and sisters. So for that reason, I was kind of mistreated by him, and then my grandmother and grandfather got fed up with that, so they took me from my mom, adopted me. and they raised me. They ended up raising all of us eventually, but they adopted me and raised me, yeah. Were all your siblings living next door? Right next door, yeah, right next door. And then

my baby sister and my two baby brothers, they ended up moving on to, my mom moved to Detroit with them. Me and my older sister, we stayed with our grandparents and they raised us all through high school. So how'd that make you feel that you were kind of the only one with your grandparents at first and they were all next door? It was cool. It was a relief. Like I said, I was going through some pretty traumatic beatings, nothing sexual or nothing like that, but just, you know, because I wasn't his, he took the time to, you know, kind of do me pretty bad. But when I got my grandparents, it was a totally different world. I was raised extremely well. Still made some mistakes, but yeah. Were your grandparents retired at the time, or were they working? Yeah, my grandfather was

retired from 30 years in the coal mines, 24 years at the hospital. It might be vice versa, but it was wanted to two. He worked two jobs. My grandma was just a stay-at-home mom. Yeah, so. And what was your relationship with your mom, even though you were living next door? It was always good. It was always good. My mom understood, and she, she done that because she, you know, for my better half to give me to my grandparents. And the crazy thing about it, I went 50 years not knowing who my dad was, and I finally met him at the age 50. 50. I met my dad at the age of 50. How old are you now? I'm 55. You look good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I thought you were in your 40s or late 40s. No, I'm 55. My dad is around 82 years old, and we've had a five-year relationship. We speak often, but up until the age of 50, I had no idea who my dad was and I finally found that out, too. Was it weird meeting your dad, or did it help explain things, put pieces together, like how you were a certain way? Big time. Big time. And I'm glad you mentioned that.

You know, I had a friend tell me that DNA matters, and I have two other brothers and a sister. on my dad's side, and I'm so much like them. You know, my two brothers, they work together. They're all close-knit. My sister is with my dad as well. And we shared a lot of the same characteristics. I was a single father raised two kids. He was a single father raised his kids, you know what I mean?

And that's just one of the things. But a lot of, and then when I saw him for the first time, it was crazy because we looked like twins. I mean, literally looked like twins. And we met, and, and, you know, and went and took a DNA test. After that, we went to the Waffle House of my treat. And we talked and talked and talking.

It's just been great. It's been great ever since. What's the first thing a father says to his son after 50 years of, you know, not saying anything? That's like that first word. He, his explanation was he's never been to West Virginia. My conception happened in Ohio. And his whole thing was it was a party.

Things got out of hand. and, you know, he didn't know. Over the years he had heard, but he still didn't know. And the crazy thing is a friend of mine from Logan, West Virginia. Her dad and my dad was friends, so she kind of grew up around my dad. And she called me one day and just, I had heard it over the years, but she's like, I know who your dad is. You look just like him. So she sent me a picture of him, and I was like, whoa.

You know, so I took a picture of myself when I was 19 and the picture of him and put him together. and it was no doubt. It was no doubt. Did you tell them about how you were treated by your first thing I told it. What I done was I put the two pictures together, screenshot them, sent them back to her. She sent it to him and he said, give me his phone number. So he called me and first thing I did was start telling him about my life, you know, and stuff like that. And again, he was just like, man, I didn't know, you know. But it's all good because like I said, my grandfather was the truth. My grandparents were the truth. I didn't miss out on him. anything. I hold no grudges toward anybody, him or my mom, either one. But it was just one of those things. It happens all the time. Did your mom ever explain it to you in your childhood? No. She just told me that it was a guy that it wasn't. And it was kind of the running joke of the town because this guy looked like Pinky from Next Friday. He had the Jerry Curl, you know, if you know if you know what I'm talking about. I don't, but you ever watched Friday after Next? Pinky was the

chauffeur on there. And he wore this jury career. He looked like a, basically like a gorilla. You know what I mean? So that was who my dad was supposed to be all these years, but we all knew better. And then when I finally saw my dad, it made sense. How would you have described yourself in your teenage years? What was young Anthony like?

I was sort of mischievous, always athletic, but I was a good kid, you know what I mean? Did just enough in school to pass, you know, didn't want to ever go to college or anything like that. That was never my goal. I was one of those kids that always felt out of place and wondered like, why am I different? Why do I look different from my siblings? Why do I act different? But for the most part, I was just, I was a pretty good kid.

Manners, you know, the one thing that my stepdad that I told you about that mistreated me, the one thing he did do was teach me manners from the age two to five. and then after that, you know, I went to with my grandparents, but I don't want to give him credit for that, but he did do that part. Mostly out of fear, but he did that part, yeah. What were you thinking for the future? What did you want to do in life as a kid?

You know, growing up in a small town in West Virginia, you was just told graduate and get a job. And, you know, now I did have one family member that went on to school and played ball and stuff like that. but for the most part, I didn't know. We just didn't know. And that's part of the reason what led me to the situation that I got myself in. And was that before high school, after high school?

Oh, it was after high school. I didn't do anything wrong. Never got in trouble? No, nothing like that. Fights and stuff like that. But as far as like being in major trouble, no, it was strictly after high school. I was around 21 when I started calling myself, you know, selling drugs and stuff like that. Did you graduate high school?

Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah, graduate. And you go to college? Didn't go to college. I went to prison. Why no college? Like I said, I didn't ever have an ambition to go to college.

I was just, you know, instructed to get a job. We come from a small town that don't offer a lot to this day. But that was my instruction, get a job, that type of deal. So, I mean, don't get me wrong. There's kids that went to college, my peers, but I just didn't ever have their desire to go to college. Where'd you go for work right after high school? Well, right after high school, I worked at a couple, you know, grocery stores and things like that, a place called Save a lot. Not a lot of work, be honest with you.

I played a lot of independent basketball around the neighborhoods and stuff like that for church leagues and stuff like that. And then eventually start getting myself into trouble. Would you make money from those leagues? No, no. It was just something to do. And you were still at your grandparents' house after high school? Well, my grandparents' home burned down when I was. in the 12th grade. Oh, wow. So, and about two months later, my grandfather passed. My grandmother

rented me, because I was still in the 12th grade, so she rented me and a couple of my cousins at home, and she moved to Ohio and just kind of left us on her own. So they were already out of school, but yeah, so by the time I graduated, I was pretty much on my own already anyway. So would you say that was the turning point in your life? Um, I guess I could say that. I guess I could say. I don't know if it's the turning point, but it was the point where I was just out there. You know, you get out of high school and you're just like, what do you do? And then we started just doing dumb stuff and trying to sell drugs. Do you ever think about what would have happened if you still had that stability of their home and staying there and kind of their guidance? I think about if I would have known

who my actual father was and been told. those things that it might have made a difference. But again, I'm not complaining because I had a really good upbringing. But it does cross my mind to make me wonder how things would have been because I was so athletic. And I was so much of a good person to this day I am, I believe. So it could have been different. But I don't regret it. I don't regret any of it. Yeah, maybe who you are now. Don't regret any of it. Why do you turn to drugs that first time? boredom and really was no big heavy we you know we might make a couple thousand dollars to buy some pizzas and go to the club that type of deal it was never nothing major you know

back then we kind of resided in ohio a little bit so we would go to west virginia because back then the drugs in ohio would sell for twice three times the amount in west virginia so we'd take a little something down there and party for the weekend, that type of deal. It wasn't nothing major. And what kind of drugs? Crack cocaine. Was crack popular in this area? Very popular in the late or early 90s, late 80s. That was the thing before Fittinol and all and all this whole crazy stuff now.

Did you know much about drugs or laws or anything criminal justice related? Nothing at all. Nothing at all. Like I said, just fresh out of high school, bored, nothing to do. and just getting in the dumb stuff, you know. Was it hard to get into that business? Not really. Not really. It was back then, you know, it was a little bit different. They didn't make it.

You had to, you know, know, know, know somebody that knew somebody to get something like that. So just any Joe Blow couldn't just make crack. You know, you had to, you know, get several things to put it together and then know somebody that had it. So that type of deal, yeah. And what about the money to get started or do you get it fronted to you? Most time got it. front it. You know somebody and they trust you, you know, hey, this dude is a good dude. They, you know, throw you here three, four hundred dollars worth, five hundred dollars worth,

bring them back half of it or whatever, and then you could buy your own or get fronted again. Most time we was so stupid, we just take our money and blow it and then come back for another front, you know what I mean? Bonjour, compadre. It's the price line negotiator. How do I negotiate so many great travel deals? My greatest gadget. The price line app. It's got hotel deals. flight deals, rental car deals, all of those deals in a bundle, deals, game day deals, concert trip deals.

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That type of deal. Did you ever think about the ramifications? Like if I sell drugs, I can go to prison? I knew that. We knew there's a possibility. But again, that's a problem. You're talking 90s before cell phones, before all this technology, you know, that the guys don't think about to this day. Today, to be selling drugs, in my opinion, is, ooh, that's not smart, you know. What do you think is the biggest difference between back then and now? Technology, for one. And the, how do I say this?

And the culture of people telling and stuff like that was just totally different back. There was nothing like what these young guys do today as far as, you know, telling on each other and stuff. With no cell phones, how would someone, you know, arrange a meet, like, say someone needs more product from you or, yeah, how does that work? They're going to drive to where you're at, you know, wherever it's at. They're coming. You don't have to call them. You don't have to, in fact, you couldn't even have from them back then. You know, they're going to come.

We could be playing ball in the summer league and the people that got high, they're going to pull up with their $40 or $100 or whatever, yeah. So one word get out to law enforcement that, you know, this is a spot for drugs? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Quickly, too, because like I said, we're in a small town. So they would, yeah, they would definitely know. And then there's their job to catch you. How long did your drug operation run for before you got caught or gone to trouble?

It wasn't long at all. I think I started selling drugs in 90, late 90, early 90 or something like that by 92, summer 92, I was, I was busted. Like I said, and I never had no major drugs. It was just, um, little, you know, tit-tat stuff and, you know, things like that. Tell us about the bust. Oh, the bus was crazy. Um, oh my gosh, how to start. I was, listen, I had a, a, uh, a, uh, a, uh, 1979 deuce in a quarter, Buick Electra. You too young to know what that is, but it's a big old car and it had a big, one of the big wheels on the back of it, you know. And, and And I got into it with some guys in another county,

and they busted my windshield out. So I'm got everything I own in the back of this car, and I'm getting ready to go back to Ohio. I'm like, you know what, I'm done with this. I'm going back to Columbus, blah, blah, blah. So I'm riding down the street, me and two of my cousins, we passed a state trooper, and we noticed that they hit the lights. So we go down and cut up a little dip on a hill,

and we hear them go flying by. They go past us whipping it. and we get out of the vehicle, take the stuff out, buried under a rock. And I was like, you know what? They went on down the road. Let's get it back and take it back where we stay at. And it had to be God. I don't know what happened.

But when I was on my way back to where we're supposed to go, something just told me to turn over in this place called the Alley. Cora Alley is what it's called. And that's where all the drugs and stuff went down at. So I turned right, went into Cora Alley for some. I don't know why I'd done that. But when I got over the tracks into the alley, the police was coming back out of the alley. So it was only one way and one way out to this day.

So apparently they had went down and went back before I even got back off the hill. And it was a state trooper and an unmarked. I guess he wasn't on duty, but he had plain clothes on. And that was a crazy scene because they pulled me over. And, of course, they wanted to search us and this and that because, you know, we've known for this and that. So we get out of the vehicle, they tell me, well, your license are suspended. So they're going to take me to jail for a suspended license. And it's okay.

So I put my hands behind my back. Now, I got about $1,700 in cash and maybe three or four, just a little bit. It wasn't even nothing, like three or four grams of crack in a pill bottle. And they cuff me in the front. The state troops, like, we'll cuff you in the front. I'm like, okay, cool. So when they go to cuff me, they cuff me up. And my cousins, they tell them to get out of the vehicle and everything.

So we all stand around and they want to search the vehicle. Well, I got everything in my crotch here, you know. So I'm trying to get it off of me while the state trooper is searching my car. But the other, my cop is like, I don't know, 10, 15 feet behind me. So I come up with this scenario that I told my, I asked the state trooper, said, can my cousin take my chain off my neck? He's like, yeah, he can take it off. So I said, man, come take my chain off.

So he comes around to take the chain off my neck. So he's reaching up, you know, fumbling with my neck. And I'm, I wish I needed to stand up to show you this. But I'm reaching down trying to get a hold of this sock. But the cop that's behind me, he can see my elbows. You know, he's like, you know, what are they doing? So he, and I get it all the way up. And I'm getting ready to hand it to my,

and I'm trying to give it to my cousin. I'm like, take this, take it. And he's kind of spooked. He's like, you know, didn't know what to do. Like I said, we're young. So the cops saw my elbow. So he runs up and reaches around and grabs the handcuffs. And I got the sock in my hand.

That's completely in my hand now. So we go to wrestling around, and I literally sling this guy probably about 10, 15 feet. And he let go to cuffs and went flying that way. The drugs went flying up in the air and landed come right down on the top of the car. Like, boom. So I run. And all you hear is people going, go, aunt, go.

They call me aunt where I was from. Go, aunt, go, go. So I'm out running two cops. with cuffs on. I jumped a fence, vert just leaped it. And I went around this house, and they jumped the fence

and went around the house and thought I went over the back fence. So they jumped over the back door. I came back around the house and jumped in a truck. Guy, rest of his soul, his name was Jenkins. I jumped in his truck.

And I heard him say, get the F out of my truck. Get out of my truck with that man. So now that's how much of a lead I took on these guys. I had jumped in this man's truck. He told me to get out of it, get back out of the truck,

run around another little building, and I hide up against a fence, had a piece of plywood laying against it. And I climbed up under there and just laid there for probably two, three hours. And basically went to sleep. And I heard the dog searching, and they was looking for me.

They told my car. Everything I had was in the back of that car, I told you. And they told my car. And when everything went quiet, this kid came out to take his trash out, and I said his name, I hollowed at him. He came and said, where are you at? I said, I'm under this board.

So he, what's going on? I said, man, go out and see if the alley's clear. He said, yeah, it's clear. And so I crawl out. And I still got the cups on them, you know what I mean? And but they were gone. They took my car and everything. And then a guy named, rest of his soul, his name was James Clemmas.

He happened to have a handcuff key. And he took the cuffs off of me. And then one of my friends gave me a ride back to Ohio. So they caught me about, they put a warrant out from arrest. They caught me about six months later. Six months? About six months later, they caught me in Ohio. So what were you doing for those six months?

On the run. And let me tell you something, Ian. That's the worst feeling in the world. Because you don't have, you know, I don't have nothing. I'm at my grandmother's house. They probably could have just came right there and got me. But I'm just on the run. And it's everywhere you go, you're looking over your shoulder.

When they finally caught me, I was so relieved because I was just like, man, this is over with, you know. Did your grandmother have any idea that you don't want it? She knew what it happened. Was she cool about her? I told you a hard-headed till, you know, you won't listen. You're hard-headed, you know. So, and got caught in the craziest way. I'm ashamed to even tell this.

But we went to a J.C. Penny, and I'm doing really bad. I don't have nothing. I took my grandmother, J.C. Penny for some reason, me and another cousin. And I don't, I don't have nothing. So I go in there, and I decide I'm going to, you know, steal me a pair of tennis shoes. So I'll put these shoes on my feet, put my old shoes in the box. and they caught me on camera and you know what I mean and then they was like took me in this little office handcuffed

and then they ran my name and West Virginia had put a warrant in the state of Pennsylvania instead of West Virginia they done that for a specific reason that's because I had a cousin that worked actually in the Sheriff's Department so I guess they were trying to not let him tip me off so they put a warrant in Pennsylvania and the next state over so they handcuffed me to the chair and they was like you got a warrant and blah blah

and then they came and got me and I was like Thank God it's over with, you know. Why didn't you think about taking out the drugs while you were in the back of the cop car or anything like that? Or saying you had to pee? I never made to the cup car. No, but like not even going about it that way. Instead of like trying to pass it off, you could have just while you're in the cop car, take it out or even say, hey, I have to pee and throw in the bushes or something. When you in a situation like that, you don't, you know, you don't think like that.

You just like I told you, I should have left it where it was at. I just, for some reason, I thought they went on about their business, and we was going to go back up, you know, on the hill. Instead of going back up on the hill where I suppose to go, I turned, went right in, ran right into him. What happened to your friend? Did he get busted at all charged with anything? No, no, no. They didn't do nothing to them. Did you get charged with assault on an officer, too, or no? No. Okay. Nothing like that.

All right, so it's not like today where if you, like, push someone, you're getting hit with assault or anything? No, none of that. They just charged me with the drugs. What was the total amount that they charged you with? it was like 3.5 grams, something that would get you probation barely right now. And it was like three grams or something, just a little bit. And it's like $1,700 in cash. But back then it was way different. Yeah, the war on drugs.

And it was trying to make an example. I was the first person in that area to go to, you know, pretty much go to prison from that. Do you still have a record now or did it get? Oh, yeah. You can't, you can, I don't think you squashed your federal record. No, no, no, I would have to get a pardon for that. But it really doesn't, you know, like, affect me at this point. You know, housing's fine because it's just based off of your credit, essentially. Right.

If you rent, I found, like, if you rent from the corporate places, then they're not necessarily background checking you and they're just, it goes off a credit. And you know what that is? Because there's too many felons now. There's so many felons, male and female, that there's, what do you do? You know, what are you going to do? You also have all these celebrities that are felons. to you know they're rented to them you know right what are you going to do honestly it's a it's the

not felon you got to worry about i just read an article earlier on TMZ that the island boys or whatever got a or they just got evicted from one of their apartments and something for own like eight nine thousand dollars and then there was another uh famous celebrity i think it was denise richards or something her and her husband oh like 80 thousand dollars and um i i don't know if it was denise or not don't quote me on that but it was someone some celebrity in l a didn't pay rent and stuff. So, you know, the felons are the ones paying the rents on time. Exactly. And, you know, it never really, at first, when I first got out in, I let it affect me because I would put yes down and couldn't get certain jobs. And then I ran into a guy that I was

incarcerated with. And he said, Paige, quit putting that down, man. Put down no. And every since he told me that I've never had, never been turned down for a job. And I think now they make it every, They only go back seven years. Back then, it was just period. So you would just lie and say no? I would just say no. What are you going to do? You're going to fire me anyway or not hire me anyway.

So I just put down no. And they didn't actually run a background trip. No, I got jobs and just went to work. Yeah. People were a lot more quieter about their history back then too. I feel like now more people are open about it because it's more accepting. Exactly. Exactly.

And that's my whole concept. That's what I'm trying to tell you. It's so much, I mean, not to bring politics in it, but we got people in the highest position you can get in with 34 of when I got one of or you got one of. And we still can't work in post offices or jails. We can't get those type of jobs because we have that felony on our record. So now they made changes federally for inmates that were charged with certain drug crimes. They didn't do that on the state level where you're from?

Well, I was federal. Oh, you were a federal case. That little bit was federal. It went federal. Oh, so you can't get any. thing tossed or off your record or anything? No. Ah, so it was only applied to sentences, people that got long sentences, like commutations and whatnot?

I don't know. I just know if you're federal, they don't expunge your record if you got a federal crime. Okay, so how does this turn federal? Because the marshals got you, or? I just think they wanted to, I don't know why it went federal. Because there was state troopers that pulled you over. Yeah. Okay.

And it was such a small amount, but they made it federal. How do you find out that? turned federal. Well, I was incarcerated. I didn't get no bond because I was a flight risk. And I didn't know the difference between state and federal anyway.

You know what I mean? They just told me you, the marshals came and picked me up. They turned it federal. And if you actually read my letter, I actually went to trial. Where do they keep you? In the county jail,

in Cabo County in Huntington and then eventually in Conalla County in Charleston. But that was in Kentucky? I was in West Virginia. Oh, West Virginia. Okay. So they transfer you from Ohio to West Virginia. Right.

Okay. Back to West Virginia to stand trial, yeah. And you had never been in a prison cell before or anything like that. No. Been to jail for fighting and stuff like that a couple of times, but nothing. I never, I had no record. And to this day, that's the only things ever been done. So what was that like?

And you're how old, like 21, 22 at the time? No, 21, yeah. Okay. So what was that experience like for you there? The jail, the county jail? Yeah, when you first got there. It's like, you know, you have to adapt. you know, you get in there around people that's older and younger and, you know, people just

facing this and facing that. And then you go to playing cards and learn how to play solitary and dominoes. And before you know it, it's like, well, I'm here. You ain't nothing I can do any sense of me sitting around crying. So kind of adapted to it that way. You know how to play spades? Oh, yeah. You know how to play spades, wait for all that before, yeah.

Okay. Do you know how to play one-man spades or no? No, I never heard of that. I think I forgot the rule. I need to get refresh on the rules for one man spades. I've never heard of that. Now, do they give you a lawyer? Can you afford an attorney?

No, I had a court-appointed lawyer. She was awesome, awesome lady. She is the one that wrote the letter on my behalf when I was fighting for my children. I don't want to get ahead of myself. But when I was fighting for custody of my children in 2009, she's the one that wrote that letter to the judge for me. So we've stayed in contact to this day. I can call her right now if I needed to.

And she's still practicing now? I don't think so. I think she's retired. She might be living in Colorado, but I still got her own. If I need any kind of legal advice, anything, like, even with this, with my concept here, I called her because I was trying to figure out how to take the, I told you earlier, take the word, the sting out of the word. And she said, Anthony, you're smart. You know what to do. She said, just go back.

and look at that letter, get a couple words out of it, blah, blah, and I couldn't toss. Ian, I mean, I couldn't sleep. I was tossing and turning all night about it, and I came up with God Forgiven. So that's why I put that on there. Now, tell us about that conversation with your lawyer about deciding to go to trial versus not going to trial. Okay, she basically was like, you know, if you go to trial, you can get between 63 and 78 months. There's no, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or you can plead out and get 33 months. And I was, you know, kind of hard-headed.

And also, it was like, you know, you got to tell them something. You got to give them this and give them that. And I was like, I ain't getting to do that. You know what I mean? That was the difference from back then and that today. So, and she, to this day, she's like, I never understood why you didn't do that. I was like, I'm not, I'm not getting ready to, you know, snitch on nobody, not like that.

So I just, I went to trial. And we lost and they found me guilty. But they still undergame me the 63 months instead of the 78. Where do you think that value or principal and not snitching came from? Was that something your parents taught you? Or was that something you just picked up in the streets along the way? It was just, that was just way it was back then, man. It was just, again, it wasn't all this social media and it wasn't all this.

It was just, you just, you was raised by the older guys. And that was their kind of street code. So that's what you kind of went. But not everybody went by it. But that's kind of my grandfather raised me to take responsibility for my actions. So I kind of just was like, you know what? I did it. But I'm not getting ready to give up, you know,

go out and wear no wire on nobody or nothing like that. Do you still believe in that today? Yeah, I think people should take responsibility for their actions. But, you know, sometimes these guys looking at life in 60, 70 years, what I tell you what I do believe in is not doing it no more. That's what I believe in. I guess that's easier than even having to think about what you would do. So don't do it, you know, if you can't do the time because it's going to happen.

You're going to get caught, you know. Looking back on it now, do you regret going to trial? No. No. And I tell you why. Even more so than the not snitching part of it. And I tell people this all the time, where I was sent to and what I went through in Manchester, Kentucky, was so helpful and so needed.

And I tell you why, because the first person that ever told me I was somebody and made me believe in myself was that attorney that I'm telling you about that. You know, she would, she came and she would come to the jail to see me, to interview me, and I was so mannerable, I pulled her chair out, yes, ma'am, and this and that. And she looked at me one day, she said, how in the,

if did you get in here? You know? And I'm like, what do you mean? She said, you don't belong here. You don't belong here. And here, you're different. I said, what you mean? I'm different?

She's like, you're not the typical, you know. So she told me that. And then when I got to the prison in Manchester, and I started, you know, playing ball and being myself, and I had judges that were locked up and ex-state troopers and we even had a blind guy in there, guys in wheelchairs and stuff like that. And I was sitting out in front of the gym one day

in this judge named Judge Mosley. He looked at me, he said, Paige, how in the F did you get in here? you know, cussed at me. I was like, so what you mean, Mr. Moley? He said, dude, get you a out of here. Don't you ever come back here, man. You don't belong here.

You don't belong here. And then I started realizing like, wow, you know, I'm not just a, you know, just like everybody else. Not that I'm better, definitely not better than anybody else, but I was different. And so to answer your question, things like that, being taken away from that environment that I was in, it was more helpful than her. And it was, I don't think I needed five years, but it helped. It helped me too.

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Did you have one? I just said, I didn't have it. It wasn't mine, you know what I mean? Pretty much, you know, they found it on the car. You know, it wasn't mine. But it was dumb when I think back on it. I should have just said, yeah, I did it. And, but I, like I said, I didn't want to go through coming back home and people saying,

but, you know, he told on me or he wore a wire on. I wasn't doing that. I feel like you got to roll the dice in a situation like that because maybe you get lucky, you know, maybe one juror's sympathetic. to your story or something? You just don't know. I don't know if I was just dumb. Young and dumb.

I was just going to be honest with you. It was stupid. But I'm glad I did it. Like to answer your question, I'm glad I did it because, like, again, I learned so much about myself. I learned so much about how I needed

to be taken away from that. It was God. It's as simple as that. And he took me away from that environment. And I got in there. And like I said, I started playing against these colleges. And Ian, I had got so good in there.

I'll be honest with you. I would watch the NCAA tournament on TV in the TV room, and I would literally hold back tears because I felt like, and I might have been wrong, but I felt like I should have been, I was good enough to be out there. And that just came from playing every day. You know, I'm not drinking, I'm not running around, doing dumb stuff.

I'm in here, and I'm playing, and they're bringing these colleges in, and I'm killing it. So in my mind, I was good, you know what I mean? But probably wouldn't, but I thought it was. I was kind of a late bloomer. And so, you know, it just turned me, it just turned me around. So I don't regret not one day of it.

What federal prison do they send you to? Manchester, Kentucky. It's in Clay County off of 75, off of Interstate 75 in Clay County. The interesting thing about that was, you know, how you go in transit. When they took me from the county jail, it was probably, I don't know, 30, 40 inmates on this bus and when they got they were all going to Atlanta and they stopped in Manchester and let me off the bus specifically and took everybody else on to Atlanta and I really think Ms. Newburgh has something. The attorney has something to do with that but that's how that's how

influential I think I was on not only her but the courts as well that they dropped me off only me at the camp, and then they took everybody else on their transit. So it was a minimum security prison? Yeah, camp. Straight camp, no fence. Describe it for us. What did it look like? Oh, my God.

The camp was, it was just, you know, I think I've heard you talk about it. You know, people just running over the mountain going out, meeting their women or getting alcohol and stuff like that. My first day in there, Ian, when I went into R&D receiving in whatever it's called, there was nobody in there. So I get off this bus. I got on an orange jumpsuit in my blue shoes. And I just walked straight through the R&D

and walk onto the compound. There was nobody who's there to receive me or nothing. And when I went in, you're supposed to go to the right where the units in the kitchen and everything is I went to the left and went straight out of bounds and just sat on this little, it looked like an air-conditioning unit. I just sat there for 20, 30 minutes just contemplating.

But I was out of bounds. I actually didn't even know it. But nobody ever came. So I walked up the unit and I went past the multi-purpose room and then I saw the gym. And I was like, man, because, you know, when you're in County Jail, you're here, man, they got they got gyms, they got this and that. And I'm like, okay. So I go in the gym and I start shooting ball a little bit. I don't want to get ahead of myself.

You might want to question me about something. But I go in the gym and I start shooting around and I take my jumpsuit down and I tie it around my waist. And I got on these bus shoes. you know, so I'm shooting a few buckets, and then I go up and dunk it. And I start seeing people looking at each other like, you know, and they hunched, man, look. So a couple guys leave. Next thing you know, here comes three or four more guys through the door, and they're standing in the wait room because you had to pass the weight room to get to the inside weight room to get to the gym.

So they're standing there watching, I'm just in there dunking and doing all kind of stuff. And that's when they come to. They said, man, what unit you in? I'm like, I ain't in no unit. I just got here. Like, come with me. So they took me down. to, man, put him in our unit, you know.

So I didn't know that there was basketball, you know, competitions and softball and stuff like that, yeah. How many guys were at this prison? Wow, I'd say probably, it was new. I'd say probably 400, like 100 guys in each unit. Which is a little bit bigger for a camp. Yeah, it was probably 400 or 500 people because it was at least 100 guys in each unit.

And what would you say was the average charge that people had? Back then, I don't know what the average charge was, but the time was anywhere from one year to seven years, maybe 10. You know, some people come from the FCI, have their last 10 years or something like that, but it was never anybody in there really over 10 years. How do you feel the staff were at that time, like the case managers, counselors, do you think they cared about you? What was the rehabilitation like back then?

Because we know how it is now. It's very minimal, but I'm curious what it was like back then in the 90s. Back then, man. And it was just like, I tell people it was just like the streets. If you were a good dude on the streets and, you know, you were a good dude in there, you was respected. It wasn't no, no. Every now and then you get a guard that was, you know, want to come in and be hardcore. But for me personally, because of who I was and the way I carried myself, I don't want to call it a breeze,

but I was respected from the, from the case managers, the warden, the everybody. In fact, my last two years, I did my last two years out in the community. You know what I mean? Just getting up every day, going out, working in the community. Did they, did you make it there before they ended parole? There is no parole in the... All right, so that parole ended before you. I think, I guess it was the late 80s. Yeah, there's no parole. I mean, you got the halfway house if you want to call that parole. No, before the Fed, you actually used to have parole.

No, there's no parole. I think it was in the 80, either late 80s or late 70s. Yeah, it wasn't no parole. You did 85%? Your last six months you done. And they had halfway house back then? Mm-hmm. They sent me back to Ohio for the halfway house, yeah. And what do they give you for halfway house time back then? Six months. Oh, so it's still the same six months.

I was in there about 30 days because I started dating the case manager of the halfway house. I started dating her and, yeah, and so I was in there about 30 days and I was at home. All right, so tell us about your basketball journey there. To me, it's so interesting. It sounds like the movie, The Longest You Are. Did you watch that with Adam Sandler? I haven't seen. I think I've seen some of it, but I haven't watched the whole thing.

So basically he's on a football team there and they play against the guards. Right. You did basketball. Did basketball. And again, I got pretty good. So they would bring these teams in, Sue Bennett College, Berea College, Georgetown, Kentucky. There's another school I'm missing. But they would send in their, most time their JV.

And then you had local basketball independent leagues that from, from, from, from, from, Clay County that would come in. And I'm telling you, and I would, I would, man, I was just, I was a beast, man. I was a beast. And, uh, these coaches would come up to me, be like, man, how much time you got? Like, man, I'll be here to 97. They're like, for real, dude. Come on, man, you got, you, you're in here with all this talent.

I'm like, man, I'm just, how'd you get that same question? How'd you get in here, man? And, you know, we'd be warming up and I see them down to other ends. That's him. That's him. So I was pretty good, I think. Now, are these college kids afraid to play against inmates? Oh, no.

No, they come in there. They did their thing. And is security beefed up more? No. It's a camp. I don't think they do that now, though. I don't think they're letting in people to play basketball and stuff, other teams. Back then, man, it was one or two wreck guards.

Even though we got so good, our varsity team got so good in there, and we started beating these cars that the actual warden would come and watch our games, sit in the stands. Is it inside or outside or both? Indoor courts. Okay.

Indoor courts. Did you guys have outdoor courts? Had outdoor courts too. Wow, this is really interesting how they brought in people. That's a good way to pass time. Is it all year round or just seasons? That was all year round.

Okay. All you around. Indoor courts, weight rooms, indoor weight room, outdoor weight room. Softball. That was pretty good at softball as well. I played softball too. Yeah.

That was the first time I ever played softball. And I was on the prison basketball, too. Like, we split it up by different teams because our camp was small. We had like 120 inmates. Right. So I'd play basketball and softball. We had volleyball. Yeah, all that.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Federal prison system is very competitive with sports. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Did they do prizes or giveaways back then? You win a six pack of pop for tournaments, you know, like holidays, Thanksgiving tournaments and stuff like that. You win a six-pack or 12-pack, whatever.

What was a commissary like in the 90s? It was the same thing. Roman noodles, cakes, Swiss roll cakes. I had a cousin that was in there with me, and he became really good at making dips or breaks or whatever you want to call him with the beef sausage and the Doritos. He was really good.

You put it in a big plastic bag, and I don't know if y'all did that. Yeah, of course, yeah. My first ever prison meal was a mofungo, and they put it all in the bag, and they used, like, the Doritos or the corn chips for the tortilla and stuff. We called it a dip. Okay. And so we'd all get together, and everybody pitch in something, cheese, you got a cheese,

you got a soup, and we pitch it all in. And the commissary was, you know, the thing about the commissary, I don't know how it is now, but back then, you, I don't care how much money you had. You really couldn't buy it no more than what. So they had a spending limit back then, too. Not only a spending limit, but they also had a, you could, like, You can only get gray sweatsuits. You couldn't get nothing.

You know, you couldn't kind of floss in there too much because you can only buy what's in the commissary. No, in the pictures you were showing me, you guys are wearing things that would never be in a prison now. That's because I told you I worked out in the community. So you would smuggle the stuff back in? Yeah, I would, you know, I worked out in it. So we'd have stuff, I knew a female there. We'd have stuff shipped down and put it on up under our clothes and Jordans and the whole nine. And all the other inmates are like, how in the heck you get some Jordans in it?

You know, but I was well known. And even the staff, they knew it, but they're just like, eh, it's Paige. You know, they ain't let it go. It's so interesting how what guys we're doing in the 90s are still traditions carried to this day from inmates. Like, I wonder where it starts, you know? Right. I guess maybe going back to the first prison camp. Were there strict policies on mail from families?

Like, could people mail you and say food or anything back then? No. No, no. It was just basically made. I don't think you could probably get pictures in back then. But people, you know, they kind of even slowed that down. And it was a thing. When I got there in 93, it was wide open.

And we even had a thing called Family Day where once a year, your whole family could come and actually come on the compound. You know what I mean? And walk around them. You can show them the softball field, show them inside the units. It was crazy. And then over the time, it just kind of, you know, dissipated and went back to more strict. Why do you think that was?

I don't know. I think that, you know, people would mess it up, just like they do any other time. You know, get caught doing something. And slowly but shortly, they would just take things away. Then they talked about taking the weights out, which they never did that when I was there. Most persons have the weights out. I guess there was an incident with people dying. At Fort Dix, the low I was at, they had a weight pit.

But it's so politiced out, you can't even use it. Yeah, they started taking the, when I was there, they didn't take them out, but they start talking about it. They're going to take the weights out of the federal system and stuff like that. So, yeah. It just kind of got, by the time I was ready to go, it was totally different from when I first got there. And you did all your time there? Every bit of it, right in one spot. What about the general prison food menu?

What was that like in the 90s? Oh, my God. Walk us through like the week of meals. I quit eating pork. I tell you that much because it was just horrible, man. It was horrible for them. Didn't they get rid of pork altogether? I don't know.

Back then we had ham and pork chops and then on Christmas you would get a nice chicken breast or something like that. that. The holidays was pretty good. But other than that, it was just, yeah. But we ate it. We did we had to do. And most of time we'd all get together, put food together like I told you a minute ago, and just make our own food. Do they have chicken Thursdays back then? No. All right, so no chicken Thursdays. What about hamburger Wednesdays? They didn't call it that. Fish Fridays?

No. Wow. Wow. So it was all different back then. Right. A lot of kind of like slop type food? Well, you know, we had hamburgies. every now and then, stuff like that. And, you know, you got somebody work in the kitchen. They tell you what's coming up so you know. But it wasn't no beautiful menu.

I'll tell you that much. You know, but we did what we had to do. What was the delicacy, like the favorite item? For us, it was like the chicken Thursdays. Hamburgers. Hamburger's. Yeah, you got hamburgers. You were happy.

Were they good? It was good. Okay. It was good. Now, tell us about your job that you got there. I worked several jobs because I was there for five years, but my last year before I actually went out into the community, I was a unit orally.

So all we had to do was get up, clean the unit, and lay back down. You know what I mean? That was mainly my job. And then when I got to about 24 months, the staff moved me out into the park. They had two parks out there. And I go out there and cut the grass. We actually built a veterans memorial at the park.

I got to send you a picture of that. We built a veterans memorial, me in about five. other inmates will help build it. We wasn't the, you know, we helped build it. And then they put a thing out front. I forgot what it's called. But my name is actually engraved in those bricks from back in the 90s. It's still there to this day. And I've taken my kids there to show it to them. Like, here's my name. I was here, you know, before y'all were born. So yeah. So that was mainly my job my last two years, working out in the community. What was the pay back then for friendmates? I think he made

16 cents a day or an hour. I can't remember. I think it was like 16 cents a day or something. So it hasn't really changed too much. Nah. It was unless you had a, you know, job over making desk and stuff like that, I think they made better money.

So they had Unicorn back then? Something like that. I think it was called Unicorn. But it was behind the fence at the FCI because you got the camp here and then you go around a, you know, big loop and then there's the FCI here in Manchester. And did they have camp drivers

where like the inmates are the drivers too? Yep. They had that. Trust it or whatever. Yeah. What about contraband? What kind of contraband

were guys bringing in, aside from the clothes that you were bringing in? Man, the main thing everybody wanted back then was a Walkman. Oh, they didn't even have the radios on Commissary back then?

No. Yeah, we, you, everybody wanted a Walkman. If you get a Walkman in, you was doing it. Because about that time, Tupac was out, McAvelli. 94. So we'd have our family bring us tapes, you know, to the visit and leave them at the bottom of the hill or something like that. And then you go out there, send somebody out there at night and get them. So we got all these tapes and a walkman. If you had a walkman, you was doing it. You know what I mean?

So how would the TV rooms work? Whether it just blast music? I mean, blasts like the sound from the TVs? It went blasted. I mean, you know, the TV rooms was just, you know, you had three TV rooms in each unit. You had four units. So you had two downstairs. You go upstairs and had another one upstairs. And the TVs was pretty unwritten rule. Like on Sundays, NASCAR coming on. We was in Kentucky or Kentucky basketball. You already know, don't even go in there. It's full of, you know, the white dudes running it. They got the TVs.

It's their day. And then NBA and football was kind of mixed. NBA was kind of mixed. But NASCAR and Kentucky basketball, stuff like that, you know, not to even go in there. So was there only one TV in each room? Each room. Okay, because now they load the TVs, but they sell the radio to use as a receiver.

Oh, no. So you can hear it. None of that. You just had a TV on a stand, and you go over there and, you know, turn on what you want to see. And everybody pretty much agreed on what they wanted to watch. And you watched that one thing. It wasn't no several TVs. Okay, gotcha.

Yeah. So how long do you end up doing in there? I ended up doing 63 months, probably 58 months, in that one spot. And then I, like I said, went to the halfway house from there. And I've done about 30 days in the halfway house. Plus, you know, even when you go home, you still got to pay the halfway house. So I've basically done my six months, although I've done it from home. And I started getting odd jobs and working.

And every since then, it's been life. Did you have a relationship with your mom and grandmother while you're in prison? Oh, yeah, most definitely. They were supportive? Yeah. They both came to see me. My grandmother more so than my mom, but my mom came to see me a few times. But they lived almost four hours away.

You know what I mean? So it wasn't no, somebody had to bring them, you know. But they were supportive, sent me money and stuff. And you had no kids before prison? No. No, I didn't have no kids. I ended up getting out in 97. I met an Asian girl from Laos, a country called Laos.

And we had a daughter and then a son. So I got two kids, yeah. Did she know when you met that you were in prison? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's over. What'd she think? She ain't cares. Damn to every dude, she mess with it been in some kind of trouble.

So she was ghetto, you know. I hope my kids don't get on me for that. But yeah, she knew. What was a stigma around people that? I went to prison at the time in the late 90s when you got out? You were kind of embarrassed, you know what I mean, and didn't want, I thought, you know, people didn't want to be around me because I got in trouble. But then when you get out, you realize, no reason why these people ain't in there because

they ain't been caught yet, you know, or they out here strung out, you know, and they in worse shape than you are when you get out. So it was a, it just depends on who you were and how you took it, you know. I was embarrassed. I felt like, you know, nobody wants to hire me. Nobody wants to be around a felon. But it wasn't really the case. It was just...

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I was riding with this case manager, and we put up a side of a BMW, silver BMW. I never forget this. And I was working a job And I looked over and I said Man, I wish I could have something like that And he looked at me He said, you got a job, don't you? I said, yes sir, he said, you can have it

He said anything you want You got a job, you can get it And he don't realize I don't think he realized the impact that that made When he said that to me, I was like, wow I never thought about it like that You know And then I started

Okay, I want this, I want that And now I'm pretty Doing pretty well for myself That's awesome. Yeah. So the years after prison, no run-ins with the law, no issues, nothing? Not really, not nothing to go to prison over. Might have got in a fight or two, you know what I mean?

Went to jail once, actually me and my kid's mom had got into it and went to jail for that, you know, time of it. But nothing like doing no criminal, no. How often what do you think about your prison sentence? because that was a big, I mean, five years is a chunk of your life, you know? I put it behind me and look forward, you know. But now at this day, I look back and I talked to some of the guys that I was incarcerated with and we laugh about some of the, man, it's the funniest stuff. And we just crack up laughing at some of the people.

Yeah, tell us about those bonds you make. Oh, my God, it's incredible. You know, I got so many people that I want to find that we had so much fun together. but it's probably about a core of us, about five guys, five or six of us, and we stay in contact with each other. And the beautiful thing is all of them are doing well. And we get on the phone and we get on three-way and we laugh about, you know, how we went through that. And man, that's like college, you know.

And this guy's a millionaire. This guy is a, you know, big-time truck guy, you know, owns his own trucks and stuff like that. And so the bonds was was unbreakable pretty much. Now tell us how you came to start your new mission now with the huddies and merchandise. Oh, wow. I'm so glad you asked that. I just feel like there's so many people that have been through adversity, and they never get the recognition of turning their life around.

You know what I mean? Because I know so many people to have, and they slap you with this number that you see here. That's my federal inmate number that is with me for life and through death. They slap you with this number and in my opinion to keep you from ever being anything again. As I mentioned earlier, we can't get certain jobs. We can't be a postmaster. We can't be working.

I would love to work with troubled youth in a federal facility. That's my dream job. I'd love to do that. But I sat in my kitchen one day, me and my lady, and we sat there and I said, man, I just thought of it. And I said, you know how many federal or felony felons there are in the world or in the United States alone? If you count the males and the females, there's so many people that have felonies. Old people, young people, you know, everybody has a felony just about. And so I just came up with this concept.

I said, I'm going to come up with this sweatshirt. and my lady and her daughter we all got on the phone and we came up with the I think it was her daughter that came up with the concept of felony certified and I said man that's it and then I said well I'm gonna put these numbers down the sleeve and then put the state of the you know where they've done their time met on it and put my certificate authenticity on it and then and we came up with these with these handcuffs and hands and put them on the back So some people would come in our,

we have a clothing story in Southbury, New Carolina, and some people will come in, they'd be like, eh, you know, I ain't really feeling to fill anything. And so, like I told you earlier, I just came up with a concept.

I said, you know, you know, God is on this. God is in this. And let's recognize God. So I came up with God Forgiven and put that on the other sleeve. So we make mistakes in life, Ian. I've done it.

You've done it. A whole lot of people have done it. but we're forgiven. And look at you, man. Look what you're doing. It's beautiful. You turn your life around. You ain't letting that,

this stigma hold you down forever. You know what I mean? And so I made these for people that, you know, want to say, hey, yeah, I made a mistake. My son made a mistake.

My daughter, she went to prison or she might even be passed on, but this number don't change. So I'm making this, I want to wear this for my daughter. So when people ask, you know, or my son.

What's these numbers mean? That's my boy. He's God forgiven. He's done some time, but he turned his life around. And I would love to see so many people across the world. Don't be afraid and ashamed of wearing this that they gave us to wear for life. Because you're going to have it regardless. When you die, it ain't going to.

And nobody else going to get it. It's yours. It's yours. It ain't going to go nowhere else. So you might as well turn that negative into a positive, in my opinion. And that's where I came up with this concept to make these swears. shirts and I hope you like yours. Yeah, no, it's great. He's got my number on me. I look at the pictures on social media. I'm going to have those posted up. He put my federal inmate number

on mine. It's really cool. Yeah, we're the only, we're the only people in the United States with this concept, and it's patent and trademarked. And like I said, I've made them for celebrities. Yeah, it's okay to say names. Tell the people that you're trying to get a hold of. I've been trying to get a hold of. Master P. Percy Miller, because I know he's a visionary and a business mine. T.I. I made one for T.I. I made one for the rapper B.G. I made one for P.D. Pablo, the rapper from North Carolina. Mike Tyson. Michael Vic. And the beautiful thing about this, Ian, even if you don't want to wear it, imagine you can put this in a shadow box. You know what the shadow box is? Put this in a shadow box and hang it in your wall as a reminder. Hey,

that's me, you know, and display it like that if you want to. Um, And I just hope people recognize the concept behind it because it's not about bragging about being locked up. It's not about saying I'm a felon. It's more so about, hey, yeah, I made a mistake. I'm one of those people. Look at me now. That's my whole concept behind it. Now, I've encountered quite a few people that they've done time and say the 70s, 80s or 90s like yourself.

That which feels like a lifetime ago and they're kind of hesitant to, you know, talk about the prison stuff now or, you know, wear that or put that out there. Was it hard for you to start doing that? Because, you know, this is almost 30 years later. Not at all. And you're making it your mission now. Not at all. And we've made these sweatshirts for people from that,

it passed away in the 80s at Dunn time. We've done one for a family in West Virginia, their grandfather done time in 1928. And they happened to have his state number on a letter. And they sent it to us and we made him a sweatshirt. So this goes back, man. And like I said, it don't change in life or death. It stays the same.

So I've made one for a cousin of mine. Her brother got killed back in the 80s, shipped it to her. And she called me and she was so excited. Like, what's this sweatshirt? What is this? I love these colors. These are my favorite colors. And then she asked me, she said, what's these numbers on there?

I said, that's your brother. And she lost it. She lost it, man. And that's what I want people to feel from it. I want people to know that, hey, man, let's turn this negative. into a positive. Let's, let's, and it's not, again, I'm not even worried about the monetary gain from it. I want to see this come to fruition and somebody walked past the TV screen.

I said, man, I made that, you know, I made that. And, and I want the, I want all the felons. If anybody's been in trouble before, don't be ashamed of it. Now, if you still out there committing crimes and stuff, this ain't for you. This is for people that have turned, turn their life around, and they know that God is forgiven them. and they want to wear something sporty. Yeah.

Now, you're someone that had kids after your prison sentence. What was it like? And what age did you explain that to them? Wow. I told my kids that very early. I ended up raising my kids myself. Me and their mom had a custody battle in 2007 to 2009. And I ended up winning custody of my kids, even with this felony.

And my daughter went on to graduate from WVU. West Virginia University. My son was a brain. He went to Ohio State for a little while. Now, they're both back in Ohio now where their mom is. But I raised them both in West Virginia. And once they got out of school, they kind of migrated back to where they come from.

How'd they react to you explaining prison to them? You know, my son used to give me a hard time. Remember, I told you that wall that showed him my name on? He said, Dad, you act like you brag like your sense. It's like, no, I'm just telling you, you know, where I was at. what happened to me? And he's just like, you act like you proud of it. I'm like, I'm not proud of it.

We call him Beanie. Like, Beanie, I'm not proud of it, but I'm just telling you, this is what happened to me. This is where I was at before you was born. And so many, I'm not going to use the word proud, but my name is etched in stone in that county from what, you know. And I'm like, okay, I'm okay with that, you know. I explained it to them. They didn't have no, because I was a dad, you know what I mean? So they didn't have no problem with it.

it didn't make me less of a dad, so I think they were okay with it. What advice would you give your teenage self if you could sit across from him today? If I could sit across from my teenage self, I would have said to myself, hey, man, you know, set some goals, try to do some positive, everything, you know, do some positive things. Don't get caught up in the hoop line get yourself because I took the long way around, you know. And right now I'm doing some things that not a lot of people are doing with my properties and things like that. But I took the long way around. And I would just tell myself, man, don't take the long way around.

Do it the right way. I try to tell guys that are my age that are still doing it the wrong way. If you do it the right way, you won't have to go through all that. And some people get offended by that. They think you're trying to tell them what to do or you think you better than them. but I would tell my teenage self, man, just, you was raised right, you know what to do. And I also want to shout that out to my grandparents

who have both passed. They taught me right. I just done the wrong thing, but I always had the foundation to know what to do. So when they released me, I'm like, I know what to do. I just got to do it. Yeah, just because you make a mistake doesn't mean you're a bad person.

Right, right. And that's what I've done. So, yeah. Well, Anthony, I appreciate you coming on the show, Thank you, man. I traveled all the way from North Carolina. I'm so glad that you reach back out to me because you know what I do at night? I sit on computer and I email Master P's Ali Sadiq. That's another person that I really want to get this out to. Imagine, you know what Ali Sadiq is? He's a, he did prison time and now he's a comedian, very famous comedian. And he talks about his prison life,

his prison stint. And it's hilarious. He makes it funny. But can you imagine him doing a, a Netflix special called felony certified, God Forgiven. I want to pitch that to him so bad to say, hey man, what's your number? Let me send you a sweatshirt. You know, and like I said, T.I. and all these guys

that have been through troubles, the guy you just... Max B. Max B. These guys, man, my name is Anthony Page. I just want to give you this concept, let you... Like I said, if you want it for free,

I don't care. I want to see the people that's turning their life around. I want to give you something to remind you that, hey, yeah, I am somebody. I made a mistake. I'm not ashamed of it. I'm felony certified, but I'm God forgiven. Simple as that. Simple as that.

Well, thanks again. And I hope you'll wear yours or at least put it in a shadow box in here somewhere. Yeah. So when you're doing your interviews, I can say, oh, he did it. No, it looks dope. I'm definitely going to wear it, man. I'm definitely going to wear it. I appreciate you, man.

Thank you. And I told you this earlier. I don't know if I should mention his name or not, but I tried to give one to one of the guys that you interviewed, and for some reason he took it. He said he's not interested in it, but I... Tomorrow morning is knocking. Stock your fridge now.

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up to 1 million points back per calendar year. American Express Business Platinum. There's nothing like it. Terms apply. Learn more at Americanexpress.com slash business dash platinum. I don't understand that, but maybe he's got his own thing going on. I don't know. Well, he's going to be jealous when he sees me rocking mine. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, man, it's been a pleasure. I couldn't wait for this day to happen. I'm so grateful. I'm so thankful. And to see you doing good and have all this stuff that you've created, man, don't tell me God ain't good. He'll turn it around, won't he? Yeah.

They'll turn it around. He'll, those people that look down on you when you got locked up and this and that, you come back out and bypass them all. And it's not a competition thing, but you know what I mean? It's because you believe in yourself. You got, I've seen your parents. I've seen your dad. And I just smile.

I look at them like, wow, he's cooking 80 years old, right? Yeah, 80 years old. I've been watching, I've been watching, man. He's good people. Yeah. And I'm grateful, man. I got a really good woman in my life that's helping me with everything and making sure that she keeps me on the right track.

Because some days I get down, you know, man, this ain't working. she said keep pushing keep pushing and i emailed you and when you email me back i'm laying on the couch and she's like i told you i'm like wow so we stayed in contact but now i got your actual number so yeah yeah you got consistency is everything yeah and you got to get on social media i'm trying yeah i'm trying i just can't have a merch business without social media right i got my uh i own air bnbs back in west virginia where i'm from actually on a whole block really and i'm going to send you a video of that And people come from all over the United States to stay in my places because they're really nice.

And we're opening a steak restaurant in Southbury, North Carolina, as well as a clothing store that we have open. So I'm going to send you the link to all that stuff. And I want you to please just open and look at it. And whatever you do with, that's fine. But yeah. Doesn't Airbnb have a strict no felon policy? Not for owners, for tenants. I don't.

You don't? But no, Airbnb, the company itself, I think. I've never heard of that. I've heard people that aren't allowed to run on Airbnb because of their tenants. felony. I never heard of that. I rent to anybody as long as they're respectful, they're going to pay a deposit. My place is close to $900 a night to rent. That's how nice it is. Wow. That's how nice it is. I'm telling you. I'm going to send you the link and let you see it. Got the hot tub or anything? It's got a jacuzzi. It's got a full weight room in it. It's got a bar in it. It's got a gym. It's

big. It's like three levels. It's got an arcade room. Matter of fact, over Christmas holiday, this lady, she's a young lady. She's a content. creator and I didn't know it. And she came to Logan to stay at my place and she made a TikTok and this got over 4,500 views in a few hours or something like that. And people are like, send me the link, send me the link. And you got to see it. I'm going to, I'm going to send it to you before I leave it. That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah, show it to me. So we're doing that. I've sent it to you. You just ain't looked at it. Hey, man. I know. I know you busy. I respond to as many people as I can. Yeah, I know you busy. But I thank you for at least return to, you know, respond to my email.

Yeah, we're here, you know. So I'm bringing. So I'm very. So I'm very busy. I'm grateful, man. I really am from bottom of heart, man. Thank you so much for allowing me to come on here and not being one of those people that say, man, you're going to pay me to say something. This is my brand. I want to get one of your sweatshirts before I leave if you don't mind. Yeah, of course. And support you as well. And I just thank you, man. I'm going to leave here, go back to New York and then drop off the stylist that we brought in. And then we're going to head back to North Carolina. Yeah, I'll give you the invoice at the door for plugging you in. Yeah. Thank you, man.

Much love, man. Appreciate you.