Locked In with Ian Bick - I Was a California Prison Guard — This Is How Gangs Really Operate | Hector Bravo

Episode Date: December 21, 2023

Hector Bravo spent over sixteen years as a Correctional Lieutenant and Tactical Commander within the California State prison system. Hector is not only an authority in his field but also a combat veteran and a distinguished best-selling author. In this unfiltered and emotionally charged interview, Hector provides an unvarnished account of his experiences in the Iraq war and the gripping realities of working alongside violent convicted felons. Follow Ian Bick on Instagram: @ian_bick & Snapchat: ianbick Connect with Hector Bravo: IG: https://www.instagram.com/hector__bravo?utm_source=qr YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thatprisonguard?si=T6mXCEi19kLXKC2b Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:03:03 - Hustling 00:05:56 - Growing up in Brawley, California 00:09:00 - Overcoming Fear and Insecurity 00:15:00 - Detainees and MakeShift Jails 00:18:09 - Cultural Differences in Afghanistan 00:21:01 - Loss of a friend 00:24:21 - Carrying the Burden of Survivor's Guilt 00:31:24 - Dark Times 00:34:37 - Struggling with Triggers in the Middle East 00:37:58 - Unexpected Situation in County Jail 00:41:02 - Fought for Freedom, but Freedom Taken Away 00:44:05 - Lowering of Standards in Law Enforcement 00:47:03 - Benefits and Preparation in the Military 00:50:05 - A Day in the Life of a Prison Guard 00:53:15 - Thriving in Chaos 00:56:31 - Transportation and Contraband in Prison 01:02:26 - Confrontation with Inmates 01:05:11 - Tensions in the Prison 01:11:24 - Heartbreaking Notifications 01:14:28 - Rules and Structure in Prison 01:17:33 - Strange Prison Rules and Phone Conversations 01:20:39 - Gang Activity and Surveillance 01:23:45 - The Thrill of Chasing the Biggest and Baddest 01:26:56 - Life after Resignation 01:30:06 - Life Lessons and Helping Others 01:33:11 - Pursuing a Career on Social Media Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Connect with Ian Bick: https://www.ianbick.com Powered by Creative Evolution Studios https://creativeevolutionstudios.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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36-month lease, 4,499 to its signing. Tax title license and dock fees extra. Plus government fees and taxes. 7,500 miles per year, expire 6126. Who available at this payment? PH71529. PH7-1-465-9. They go and sit down next to you know, bro, we get surrounded.

Oh, my God. 40 dudes in a U-shape. So I instantly jump up, right? And I had pepper spray. I had baton. I always thought I'm going to use my hands, right? I'm not, you know, inmates will take your, but your own baton away from you and smat and beat you to half to death. I've seen it over. It's happened over and over again.

So I'm like, I'm not going to take this shit out. Or they'll take your own pepper spray and pepper spray you and hit you over the head with a can, right? Pair for an electrifying episode today as we welcome Hector Bravo, whose remarkable career spans over 16 years as a former correctional lieutenant and tactical commander within the California state prison system. Hector is not only an authority in his field, but also a combat veteran and a distinguished bestselling author. In this unfiltered and emotionally charged interview, Hector provides an unvarnished account of his experiences in the Iraq War and the gripping realities of working alongside violent,

convicted felons. I want to wish everyone in their families a very happy and healthy holiday season. I am so grateful for all of you guys and all the love and support you give me, day after day and week after weekend, month after month this year, means the absolute world. Also, exciting news. We will now be uploading behind the scenes interviews with our podcast guests to our YouTube membership program. So if you are looking to see more content,

like the content that's going to be in this upcoming episode, subscribe to our YouTube membership for only $5 a month to get early access to interviews and additional guest interviews after each and every episode. Remember to leave us a review on Spotify. Spotify and Apple Podcast, and I hope you guys sit back, relax, and get ready to lock in with the one and only, Hector Bravo. Hector, man, welcome to Lockton, man.

You know, I saw you on YouTube on my friend Johnny Mitchell's podcast, and I watched that, and that was really interesting. And I think we connected at some point, maybe months ago on, like, email or something. We did. Because you have your YouTube channel, and then AJ hit me up randomly, like a couple A couple weeks ago and I was like hey Hector will be in here at this time you want to do it. I'm like hell yeah. Right.

Yeah, you've been on like our list to have you on the show. All the stars aligned, man. Worked out. And then he was like, can you get him a hotel? Because he's going to sleep in his car if you can. I'm like, of course we can. I'm grateful for that, man. I'm glad he even asked.

It's not about, I was going to sleep in the car. You know what I mean? I'm not going to bother. I would never ask for anything. You know what I mean? I respect that a lot. For sure, dude. I was sleeping the car.

But no, I thank you for that. That shit was a good-ass room yesterday. Yeah, yeah. Danbury's not a bad spot, and it's not a far ride from New York. So we're in a good location, you know. I like it. It's right off the highway and stuff, so it works out. I like.

What do you think of Danbury? A lot of green, bro. A lot of green, man, because San Diego, Southern California is desert. I like green. It makes it feel like I can breathe better, you know, oxygenated, and then less populated for sure, dude. Wait, is your last name actually Bravo? My middle name is actually Bravo. My last name is Farrell, like in Will Ferrell.

Both great names. Really? Yeah, I mean, the fact that the last name is, I mean, the middle name is Bravo. That's so cool. So I actually went with Bravo because I started this while still employed with the California Department of Corrections. And it's not a good idea to go against the grain while you're still in, right? So I was able to remain undetected for about four months. And once I got discovered, you know, it's like, okay, time to go, guys.

It's hard. You know, it's social media and stuff like that a lot of people you read that. they get, you know, fired or let go when they start doing social media. But it's at that point, it's like, fuck that because you can make more on social media than in your job. Facts. Without the BS, you know? I don't know if I could cuss, man. No, yeah, of course, man.

Of course. That's like, you see all the time the OnlyFans girls, like, get found out at work and then they get fired. Yeah, man. Like, OnlyFand is a good gig for chicks, man. We were just discussing that out there. Yeah. It's a good way to make money. I'll tell you that much.

No, I actually, I had an only fan. You did? Yeah, in the beginning of this year, when I was starting the podcast, and I was, I think I made like three or four grand. Like, like, nude only fans? Yeah, pretty much. It was just like, you know, it was like, it was a lot of men subscribing to me. Really?

Yeah, it was just like they would ask for requests and this, dude, you're out, you're on the grind, you got to do what you got to do. And I did that in Uber while I was starting the podcast. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I thought about OnlyFans, but only showing my feet or something, right? Yeah, guys were into that. But the problem is this.

it's not sustainable. Like as a guy, I think it's more sustainable as a woman. But as a guy, it's a lot harder because there's only so much you can do. You know, like women can like bring out other guys. They can do other girls.

Like the men, I wasn't going to bring another guy on, you know? So I was like, you know what, fuck this. I'm done. Start rubbing shit on your body, bro.

Yeah, I was not doing that. Like I did some mirror selfies, whatever at that like message with guys. I'm like, you know what? This is just weird, man. Like I'm not doing this.

anymore. I can attribute it to part of the story of the grind and, you know, doing what you got to do. I respect it, bro. I respect the hustle. Yeah, man. People, like, I was put on social media and people are like, what is this kid doing? I'm making money. Who cares? You know? But yeah, Hector, let's jump into it. Man, you have a crazy story, you know, and again, very grateful that you're here today. It's not every day that you have a prison guard on the show. I think we've had, we've had like two total. We actually had a guy here yesterday who was a comedian now that he got

fired as a prison guard after six months because he let a fight like happen. He just froze up and sat there. He got fired for that? Yeah, he got fired for that. I don't think he was really a good fit for the gig.

But where are you from? Where'd you grow up? What's like early childhood life like for you? So I grew up in Brawley, California. That's, man, spell B-R-A-D. W-L-E-Y. The only reason I spelled it out is because I'm here in Connecticut,

people are probably wondering, like, what the hell? It borders Mexico on the bottom, and it borders Arizona to the east. Desert, bro, glamorous sand dunes. And it's small town, dude. Everybody knows everybody, which has its perks and, you know, pros and cons. A lot of drugs, man. A lot of drugs in that area, because, like I said, it borders Mexico. So not too many gangs, not really gangs, a lot of dope, a lot of cartel business.

So if you don't get out of that town, you're stuck there. Which isn't a bad thing. I mean, my parents are still there. My wife's parents are still there. But it's just not for me, dude. I got to get out and about. And you went to high school, college, everything like that? I went to high school there.

And then I had actually enlisted in the United States Army in 2001. Twin Towers happened. you hear you feel the calling you hear the war drums beating and then right after i graduated high school one month later off to fort bending georgia for basic training did you ever want to go to college or was that absolutely not okay so to you this was your calling my ticket out my dad tried to persuade me to go to college he's like hey heck i'll pay for your college don't go to the military i'm like dad i hate high school why would i go to college you know and yeah i hated that school what did your parents do for work. My pops with a CEO, a prison guard. He was a prison guard too. He joined in

1993 back when it was a good old days in the early 90s. You know, violence in Los Angeles and everywhere else was off the hook. My mother worked for like the welfare department of the social worker. And what about siblings do you have any? A younger sister, she's three years younger than me. And we grew up together like like kind of like best friends type of relationship. What about you in high school? Did you have a lot of friends where you popular, where you bully? What would people describe you like? So my personality, dude, I was funny. The class clown?

And I could get along with everybody. I'm talking about from the jocks to like everybody, bro. I was a skater. Had long hair, skinny, tall, lanky. I can't picture you with long hair. Yeah, bro. I had long hair. And I was just able to get along with literally everybody.

Were you afraid when you joined the military? You know, reflecting back, a lot of people asked me, like, what drove you? Why, why? And this is what I reflect back. I was a bitch, bro. Prior, I was a bitch. Like, I remember I let my doubt down three different times. One, we were at Knott's Berry Farms, which is the amusement park. And I had been like in sixth grade. And I was afraid to get on the roller coaster. And he called me a pussy. And I remember it, like hit me right. It sunk in. I'm like, damn. Another time is when he drove me to pop Warner football and I refused to get off the car because I was afraid, right? I was probably like fucking 12 years old. And I remember thinking like, damn, my dad probably thinks I'm a bitch. You know, as a father, you want your son to be masculine. And then another time I was talking shit to some kid and I ran when he chased me and he challenged me to fight. And my dad told me to go outside and fight him in the empty lot next door.

And I was like, no. And he's like, that's why you don't talk shit. if you can't back it up. By that point, you know, I let my dad down completely. I fucked this. I'm joining the Army infantry during a time of war. I'll show you. How do your mom feel about you joining the Army?

My mom in general and mothers in generals are like stress cases when it comes to their kids, there's their children. She was not. They were not ecstatic that I was joining the Army. They did have to sign the permission slip, the waiver. That was 17 years old. Oh, you joined at 17. 17.

Oh, wow. And you're allowed to fully enlist at 17? Fully enlist. As long as your parents sign off on it. As long as they sign off and as long as you graduate high school. That was a requirement. That's the only reason why I graduated high school. It was an incentive.

It was a motivating factor. So what was training like? Did they like expedite it because it was a time of war? How did that work out? They didn't expedite it. What I did kind of see back then, too, is maybe they lowered the standards as far as maybe particular people

that wouldn't be able to get in were getting in just because they wanted numbers and there was no doubt that the mindset of the drill sergeants that had previously previously seen combat were definitely gearing us up

to go to war by telling us stories there was one drill sergeant Furbish staff sergeant E6 he was in the Gulf War and he always kept saying you guys think this is

fucking funny you guys think this is fucking funny wait to your fucking buddy your brother's bleeding out in your arms and he dies in your arms and he would always say that but we didn't grasp the full concept right because to us it was just another guy saying something then you go overseas you deploy

and then it's like oh man I get it I get it what was training like for someone that was I guess in a way you were kind of afraid of your own shadow in like high school right so how is that adjustment To tell you the truth, touching down, they knock it into your head. You're a killer.

You're a killer. You're going to be a trained killer. You're a killer. You fucking kill, kill, kill. This was 2002, bro, before political correctness, before the gender equality, before people kept the real back in the day. You're a fucking killer. And it didn't sit well with me, dude.

Initially, it was kind of like putting the heels in, right? Digging in the hills. Like, well, wait a minute. But then I also immediately. remember thinking, Hector, if you don't fucking pretend to like this, if you don't go along with this, it's going to suck for you. You're not going to make it. So I had to trick my mind into thinking I liked it. And then the rest is history. I guess you would call that brainwashing. So do you actually end up going overseas? Yeah, I was stationed in Germany. So after basic

training, I went straight to Germany. And I trained for a year and a half and then I deployed for 13 months to Iraq. You had deployed to Iraq for 13 months? In the year 2004. So the invasion was in 2003. That's when they pushed into Baghdad. They captured Saddam Hussein in 2003.

We were in Germany when they captured Saddam Hussein. We were upset. Me, my best man, my people from my platoon, because we're like, we missed the fucking war. The war's over. We signed up for the for war. We missed it. We've been training hard. We didn't get our chance.

But boy, were we wrong, dude. We were fucking wrong because when we touched down in 2004, that was the beginning of the insurgency. The insurgency basically is guerrilla warfare. Now what does that mean for the viewer that doesn't know what that is? So if you think about a war, you think about an offensive. An offensive is an invasion. That's what that was initially.

But now when you have already invaded and now you're occupying, you're on the defense now now of the enemy whoever the enemy are local local civilians taking up arms wearing regular civilian clothes ambushing you

hit and run attacks roadside bombs car bombs I don't know if I already said ambushes but indirect mortar fire or rocket fire like they're rarely standing and fighting you straight up

they're hitting and running What was your role while you were there? Everything. Everything. Everything, man. We were tasked to do combat patrols every day. We had an area of operation, our sector, Balad, Iraq, which is 50 miles north of Baghdad, right in the middle of the Sunni triangle. And route clearance, this was old school, bro.

We didn't have up-armored Humvees. roadside bombs were there and it's just kind of like rolling the dice it wasn't a matter of if you were going to get hit it was when you were going to get hit and raiding houses in the middle of the night like at two in the morning three in the morning we would get intelligence

oftentimes wrong kicking a door snatch people up hog time put a blindfold them separate the men from the women the children from the men and then search the entire place for weapons, intelligence, and then transport those detainees back to our camp where we had a makeshift jail.

And then once in a while, some people in a black suburban will pull up in the middle of the night and take them. So that really happens? Yeah. And these are, what is that, like, CIA? I have no idea. I was fucking 18, 19 years old and we just weren't asking questions. What are these like makeshift jails like? and how are these inmates treated that are, you know, prisoners at war?

It's a good question, man. Nobody's ever asked me that question. But I want you to think of like an old Western jail movie where you got the bars. This was in our fob, FOB, Poloata. And it was like two main big jail cells. This was all makeshift with the bars. And we would just throw them in there. And they would be military-aged males.

So anything between like 14, 15 and up. So yeah, you would see some 15-year-old kids and they're 14. Dark, dungy looking, limited, limited visibility. The only instructions they gave us were to, don't let them sleep. Again, we were young. We just hit their house. We just raided their house. We'd bring them back.

We're being told, don't let them sleep. So basically that sleep deprivation gave us a little wooden billy club, not to hit them with it, but you hit the bars to keep them awake. Like ding, ding, ding, ding. Me, personally, my personality, I didn't care. Right? So if they wanted, they were, they were crashing out. They were like falling asleep, sitting down or standing up because they were exhausted, but I wasn't the type to wake them up.

It meant nothing to me. Were you guys feeding them? Are they well fed? I got a story about that. I wasn't feeding them. They were eating. Wherever or however they were eating, they were definitely eating, and they were drinking water. But since I'm new to that country, I don't know their cultures.

I don't know their, you know, how they get down. I had to escort them to the bathroom one time. There was about probably six of them. I had my M-16, so you're armed for sure. And I escort them out outside. We have port-a-jones. We have our port-a-jones, you know, the porta-potties. And on the way, there's water bottles like this, right?

There's water bottles. And then all these Iraqis are grabbing water bottles on the way. And I get them and I snatch them out of their hand. Like, give me this shit. And I fucking knock it on the ground. I'm like, this is our water. Like, don't be taking our water, right? And like, slap it out of their hand.

And then they go and I look and they go to the port of John. They take a poop. And then they come out. And I see little sandal prints on the fucking. So instead of sitting your ass like your normal human being on this port of John, what they do is they squat over the shitter, which is how they poop at their house. And that just upset me because I see all the sandal dirty sandal prints. I'm like, God, can't you guys even take a shit correctly around here, right?

I'm just like, it's hot, angry. Well, come to find out. The reason they got those water bottles is because their culture, they wipe their ass with their hand after they're done taking dump. Yeah, it's their left hand, I believe. So that's why you never shake. They don't shake in left hands. They shake in their right hand.

But they use their hand to wipe their butt. Like, you could probably Google it. For sure, that's a thing. And I didn't realize that. Once I realized that, I gave them all back their water bottles. I didn't want to deal with that. And then they just clean their hand out? They just clean their hand out.

Man, it's just, it's a different world. I want you to think like, you know, not to be disrespectful, like prehistorical times, like, Neanderthals type, like chickens, lanterns, fire, mud huts, old school, right? They don't want Starbucks. They don't want Walmart. They don't want this kind of stuff. They literally don't want it. I mean, you try to build them something.

They'll blow it up on you. That's what was happening. Really? We were building a water treatment plant. I'm getting worked up thinking about it. Because we were kind of there to make a difference. So they tell us. Oh, no, dude.

Fucking propaganda war machine, man. We would build them brand new paved roads. They would blow them up on us. IEDs, roadside bombs. We would build them schools for their children. they would blow up the schools. And when I say they, I'm talking about the insurgents, they were fucking adamantly

trying to prevent democracy. But do you think it was less about, you know, what if they actually wanted it or not, and more just about because you guys were the enemy that they were doing that? As I get older and I agree with a lot of what people say, yeah, they didn't want to say her. Everybody would do the same, trust me.

Somebody comes and invades your country and tries to occupy and change your ways, you're going to fucking rebel, however any which way you can. That's what I think they were doing. When you were watching those inmates in that, you know, makeshift jail, did you ever think that you would, you know, later come home and be a CEO yourself? And that would be your full-time gig? Career Day junior year is when the Marine Corps recruiter came in. I would eventually join the Army. That was a whole other story about the recruiter station. but the goal was to join the military

after the military become a CEO, a correctional officer like my dad and do 30 years of that. So you always had that plan? From the gate, from the jump, from junior year. So you weren't planning on serving in the military long? No, and people ask me like,

hey, Hector, why didn't you go Ranger, you know, Special Forces Green Beret? And I think, yeah, why didn't I do that? That wasn't ever my goal. My goal was to do my contract and get out. What's something you experienced in Iraq, that you'll never forget. My friend getting killed.

Edgar Dachlan, Edgar Doc Dachlan, because he was our medic, September 10th, 2004, which is my mom's birthday. You know, I've told this story before, and I honestly feel every day after that is that I almost feel like I'm here on earth to just tell his story. to live in his honor. I can never fill those boots, but he was Filipino. He was from Torrance, California.

The dude was yoke, stocky, buff. He used to work at GNC prior. And that morning we got mortared. Our camp, our little fob, our little camp got mortared every single day and every single night. So we weren't safe out there. We weren't safe in the wire,

outside of the wire. It's always you getting attacked. one of our jobs as a grunts were to go out QRF quick reaction force and try to go find the location the pooh the point of origin of where they mortared us from because we had a satellite that tracked the trajectory and give us the exact coordinates well it was only a matter of time before the insurgents ambushed us and set us up and on this particular morning it's exactly what they did they had an iED set up buried it wasn't even buried it was surface level so normally Normally, because they learned they would bury an IED underground.

Well, when that happened, the blast would normally go up and save us from the shrapnel because you drive by and they detonate it with a 9-volt battery and copper wire. This one was surface level, so it was under a mound of dirt. Once they showed up to the location, they parked right next to the IED, closer than to me and you. soon as doc stepped out he was a medic he didn't have to be doing any of this but in his heart he was like a grunt and he was just a leader in general as soon as he stepped in front of the um humvee boom detonates it

he flies across the road killed instantly I showed up immediately after that I look over and I see a body in the road I run over there like something you just say go fucking run over there go check it out right go look at him verify and I looked down and dude I didn't um I didn't recognize him right and the reason I didn't recognize him I was talking to somebody else recently and they're like do you know why you

didn't recognize them I'm like oh it's like because something happens to the body when it dies you know you the soul leaves the the the pressure in your body changes and I'm like damn this is me rare barely realizing holy Fuck, that all makes sense now. Because I've seen a lot of dead people in my life. I've seen a shitload of dead people in my life. But the thing is, I never knew what they looked like beforehand. So it wouldn't look different to me.

They would just look dead. This one, it didn't look like my friend. We would eventually have to call a medevac, load him onto the plane, his body, his helicopter, and then two of my friends got wounded, O'Neill, and then our lieutenant, Torres. So we had one KIA and two. wounded in action.

And that day changed my fucking life for the rest of my life. My innocence left me. How often do you think you think about and replay that image in your mind? Every day, dude. And I don't understand, like, I don't get it. I don't know. It's going to continuously talk about it on these interviews. I don't.

It's every day, though. Because even before I came out and started doing this, it's every day, dude. Because September 10th comes around every year. And even the days leading up to September 10th, I know September 10th is coming up. So it's just replaying. Then you have Memorial Day. It's there. But even the days leading up to Memorial Day.

For so me, every day is Memorial Day. It's every day, bro. It doesn't like, it doesn't have the same overbearing power that it once had because of all the treatment I've received in therapy and my sobriety. I just hit 13 years of sobriety. dude. Congrats, man. Thank you. And that was fucking drastic.

Could you imagine having these thoughts and being under the influence of substances? It was bad. Do you think there's a part of you that doesn't want those memories to go away, though? So that way you can be reminded of him? Yes. Unfortunately, yes. He wasn't the only friend that I lost. I lost eight killed in action.

They're tattooed on my back. A couple years ago, one committed suicide. So I added the ninth name to my back. I had Survivor's guilt for a long time, bro. The crazy thing is I never even knew what Survivor's guilt was. So I was just enduring all of this stuff thinking I was going crazy and losing my mind when survivor guilt's a real thing. It's in essence I felt guilty that I had survived and that they had all got killed.

So like a part of me, a massive part of me, wants me to keep their honor alive, their name alive. And I've had different people tell me, like, hey, let it go, like, let them rest or, like, you need to relax. But I feel like I'm obligated to carry their honor. That's probably got to be a huge burden on you every day. It's a big burden. That's why I got their names tattooed on my back because I do carry their names.

I carry him on my chest I carry the heavy load you know I'm a civilian I've been a civilian for years bro but I don't like the way the civilians conduct themselves out in the public no honor no loyalty no morals no values no integrity

right and I'm not speaking for everyone but the values that my brothers displayed were the top the top of the the food chain man These guys were the fucking definition of like warriors gentlemen. Do you think the military supported you mentally after that? Those incidents happened?

No, bro. This was 2005 when I got out, man. On FOB Polowata, February 2005, a couple days before we left country after being there for 13 months. They sent some type of nurse or psychiatrist lady, mental health lady there. She had a clipboard. And right before we went, you know, the kind of the troops are talking amongst themselves. They're like, hey, they're going to ask you a bunch of questions. If you guys don't say no, they're going to fucking keep your ass here longer.

Right. So if you guys don't say the right answer, you're going to be stuck here longer. So your best best best you get the fuck out of here, right? And I'm like, yeah, Roger, that's arch. They're like, do you ever kill anybody? No. You ever watch any of your American troops die? No.

You ever watch any Iraqi civilians die? No. You ever watch enemy KIA killed in action? No. Bro, all those answers were actually yeses. And we just said no to get the fuck out of there. We touched down in Germany. We're in a hangar and like an airplane hangar.

There's a colonel or a lieutenant colonel on the front. There's like rows of chairs and all the troops. This is what he says, man. Don't drink and drive. Don't beat your wife. And if you hear loud noises, you might get startled. Have a good day. Right?

So that's when the heavy, heavy, heavy drinking kicked into. I've been an alcoholic, bro. I feel like I'm an alcoholic from birth, hereditary for my grandfather. He was an alcoholic. Skip my dad and it got me for sure. Oh, bro, self-medication, man. You got to understand something. Nobody talked about PTSD.

Nobody, it wasn't, it was, what do they call it taboo? Yeah. You would be weak. You would be fucking ostracized. You would look less than. But that's the opposite from the truth. You know what I mean? It's just that that was a culture back then.

Do you think if they provided you some help, you never would have turned to alcohol? No. That answer right off the jump is no, because I'm an alcoholic. I had to go through what I had to go through. You know, it almost killed me numerous times. Like, I should. bro I should have I should be dead dude but everything that has transpired

in my life all the near death experiences like it wasn't close it was like fucking right on the line bro like teetering that line I had to get it all out of my system I had to I almost died numerous times so I hit my bottom with the drinking you've almost died

or just in your career I've had roadside bombs go off next to me I've literally had rockets fucking rain down all around us. I've crashed cars drunk. I don't know how I never overdosed, right? Like, for some reason in my head, I always thought you can't overdose off of an upper, right, uppers, but they're like, yeah, you can have a fucking heart attack.

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slash safety. I was doing a lot dope, bro. Like, alcohol is my drug of choice, but I would do coke and meth to stay up longer, to drink more. I remember one time I woke up from a blackout And I was you know I told you I have no problem sleeping in my car

Because you know I'm used to sleeping on the ground And I remember I woke up with a hoodie Drenched in fucking blood bro Soaked the hoodie was soaked in blood from doing coke all night long And that was during not my bottom Like on my way down to my bottom During that period of time

Was this after you got out of the service 2005. So you... Before I became a CEO, after I got out of the service. It was when you were in your... There was a year break. And that year was hell, bro, for me. That year was dark.

Why do you think it became so dark just because of what you experienced overseas? Because of what I experienced overseas. I went right back to Brawley, my hometown that I tried to evade so much. The dope was there. The drugs were there. The alcohol.

was definitely there. I was surrounded by all my friends that didn't leave and continued to just drink. And I just dove right back into that. But I went extra hard because when I was in Iraq, I had to trick my mind. And again, it's all about for me tricking my mind into accepting things. I had to trick my mind that I was already dead so that I can continue to function in combat. Because you cannot be in combat like, oh, am I going to die today?

Oh, I'm fucking scared. Like, oh, like, you can't do that, right? Imagine that. But if you fucking trick your mind or accept the fact, oh, I'm already dead, what difference do they make? You can go through anything. I don't give a fuck if I come through this fucking door and there's a dude with the AK-47, right? What difference do they make?

Hopefully I'm going to shoot this dude before he shoots me in the fucking face. And then it's going to be a rap. When I came back home, my mindset was still turned on like that. Everything was still turned on. There was no off switch. Nobody told me how to turn it off. Nobody teaches you how to turn it off or lower it or put the dial back. So you can imagine a dude turned up fueled with PTSD drugs, alcohol.

It was out of fucking control, bro. Were your parents trying to help you at all? They kicked me out at the house. So that just enabled even more in a way? I was living in my truck, sleeping in my truck, living in tweaker pads, crashing on the fucking mattresses, hooking up with chicks solely so I can have a place to shower. And you weren't married yet at this time. I was not married, bro.

How old were you at this time? At that time, I was 21. I got out of the army at the age of 20. Did you feel like neglected that your parents kicked you out? Neglected is not the word that I was used. I felt... Maybe abandoned? Alienated.

The truth is, I felt like an alien. The thought process at my mind then was like, I feel like an alien. I don't belong here. Right. I don't belong here. People don't understand what I just went through because, dude,

it was fucking frustrating to see people going about their daily lives. And I knew, well, what was happening in Iraq because that war was still raging on. 2005, 2006, they had the surge in 2007.

My friends were, my friends, my brothers were still getting killed over there. And everybody's over here just like, excuse me, miss, my macchiato is not done. I'm just like,

ah, you fucking bitch. right but that's that rage that's like anger management or not anger management anger issues um triggers triggers i didn't know what triggers were seeing miserable is eastern people in their attire their garb was a huge massive fucking trigger to me it was instant like and i know what triggers are now and i've done plenty of therapy and i am no longer in the that position that I was, bro, and it feels good, because that's poison going through your fucking veins. Yeah.

It's poison, dude. What advice would you give to someone that was in your position back then that is kind of struggling to find a way out of it? I would say this. You're not alone, first and foremost, because I thought I was alone. And that's a horrible feeling because you think like, man, I'm screwed up. I meant I'm crazy. I'm fucking crazy.

And I'm by myself. So you're not alone. You're not crazy. Your mind, the mind, the brain is a fucking powerful, interesting thing, bro. It actually gets rewired and sends new like neurons and like signals when you encounter life and death situations, fight or flight situations. So it's all normal. It's all scientific.

And reach out for help. Definitely reach out for help. That was the most courageous thing I've ever done in my life. but it damn near killed me numerous times to get to that point. Absolutely. So how do you become a CEO then? How do you go from the military to rock bottom and then all of a sudden you're now a CEO

in one of the toughest prison systems? So I wasn't, I still had goals, right? I still had goals. I still had ambitions. I still had drive. Unfortunately, all that shit was clouded and distorted by my experiences. Oh, I landed in. jail, bro. I landed in jail during my shenanigans in 2005. It was a beer run drinking with my

friends. We ran out of beer and it's like, hey, let's go get some more. Let's go do a beer run. Cool. Let's go. We go. The first one we did was successful. Go back to the house, drink some more. And it's like, all right, well, let's go get some more beer. Let's go get some more beer. We did it right in front of a California Highway Patrol officer, bro. You turned around, pulled us over, takes us to jail. I'm thinking they're going to let us go. At that point, I had not been to jail yet. I've been to jail a total of three times in my life.

That was the first time. All alcohol related. They take us to the county jail, Imperial County Jail. They start, I didn't know how to bail myself out. Had I known, I would have bailed myself out. And they dress us out in jumpsuits inmate. And I'm like, what the hell is this? Oh, no, bro.

Oh, no. We go to camp, which is a dormant. And me and my one of my friends, there was a total of three of us. The other dude was smart enough to bail himself out. We didn't know. So it was me and my homie, Jaime. Well, the good news is that as soon as the doors open to the dorm with general population inmates, GP, the shock caller, and said, Jaime, I'm like the fuck.

It's his cousin. His cousin was the shock collar of the dorm. So I'm fucking standing there with my bed roll, my mattress, right? And then Hyman was like, oh, he's with me too. So they're like, I fucking take my shit, show us the bunk, set it all up, give us the rules, right? Because with general population, they have rules. But I'm not a gang member. And neither is my friend.

This is like a county jail, right? With real gang members. With dudes that are heading to prison. My motherfucker that have tattoos on their faces. I'm so like, I'm like, man, this ain't me. Right? Yeah, I did commit a crime. We stole some fucking beer.

But, man, I'm in here with the big dogs. As ridiculous as that sounds, first thing I did was drop down and start doing pushups, bro. Because that's what I seen in the movies. Oh, man. My friend's like, Hector, get up. Get up, you idiot. I'm like, fuck, don't. I know what I'm doing, bro.

At least you didn't go and try to fight anyone like some guys do. Go and punch someone or something. I was scared. I would have got mopped up. Right? It goes back to being scared again, right? It's like, I don't like environments where I'm like really, the odds are highly. against me, bro.

Fucking. At that's the point when I was kicked out of my house. That's the point when I was living at a tweaker pad. So I was not

in contact with my parents. So I'm like, fuck, man, do I call my parents? Do I not? Very stubborn. My ego, right? I'm calm.

Do I not? Somehow, some way, I think they caught win that I was in jail because even though they kicked me out, they were always calling

the hospitals and they were always calling the jails just to ensure where I was at and my safety, you know? Sure is shit. Like,

oh, yeah. He's here. Yeah. I did a week in there, bro. You spent a week in there? A week, dude. Why do you spend a week over a petty robbery? Tarded, bro.

So they actually charged it with commercial burglary. Is that a felony or a... I don't know what that was. I think the cop... You see, my small town, you have to understand cops. They don't get real action. So they try to puff shit up. You know what I mean?

They try to... Commercial burglary, bro, for a fucking 12 bag of beer. But you have to understand. we did the beer run on a Thursday night Friday was a holiday Saturday Sunday is a weekend Monday was a holiday and then they let us out like on the Wednesday

or Thursday it was like Labor Day weekend or one of those type of weekends that carried on or holidays that carried on and it fuck dude I didn't like it one bit I didn't like it at all and I remember thinking to myself too like man I fought for freedom

I fought for freedom and now my freedom has been taken away. Like, I don't, I felt like a cage fucking lying, dude. And I called my dad from the pay phone on the wall inside the dorm. To say he was disappointed would be putting it extremely lightly, dude. And he's like, hey, Hector, you just received your letter for CDCR to go test. And I don't even think you can get in now with what you have going on. I kid you not, bro.

I got out of jail. That following day, I went to go take the written examination at Rancho Kukumanga. And I passed. That's for, to be going to be a question. She'd become a CEO. How hard is the written exam? Like, what do you... Easy.

Basic English, basic math, basic spelling. Is anything law related at all or not? Not in the initial. So what kind of questions? Like, what are a couple questions? Sally dies her hair red. Sally red dies hair. You know what I mean?

It's kind of like you got to put shit like fucking basic. Basic literature, bro. Like basic fucking... And with your pending charges, that didn't affect anything? So since it's a process to become a CEO, bro. It's a written examination, a physical fitness test, and a background investigation where all this comes out. So I passed the written exam.

I passed the physical fitness. And of course, dude, fucking three, four months later, I put it down on the piece of paper. You ever been to jail? I put it down. If you omit something or you lie, you're disqualified. Right off the top, dude. Yeah, county jail.

fucking one from this date to this date one week charges commercial burglary the final verdict was I believe dismissed because it dropped like nope I never went to court I never had a pay a fine I think what they gave me was time served

I think the DA just didn't pick it up yeah because I don't think you would have been able to become a corrections officer if you had a record well technically that is a record me going to jail I mean no if it fits off like if you were not convicted or whatever I wasn't convicted. Yeah, so I think that's how you got in. Well, the background investigator here, the sergeant, he's like,

whoa, man, the hell says you were in jail a couple months ago. I go, hey, sir, I could explain everything. He's like, yeah, please do. It's like, hey, man, I got out of the army. I was hanging out with some, I kind of sold them a lie. In a way, I was like, hey, I was hung out with some friends that I thought were my friends. They were up to no good and they stole some alcohol and I was with them. Like, I'm never going to do that shit again.

And he's like, I believe you, man, you're a good kid. Yeah, that is true. You know, I was hanging with the wrong crowd. but I definitely got to accept accountability that I was in the mix. So how hard was the physical fitness test? Because what I'm trying to figure out is how do some of these guys and even women become COs? Because I've seen some very out of shape COs. So just so you know right now, current time, November 16, 2023, they have eliminated the physical fitness portion of the test.

Yeah, you know, you're not the only one that said that. I've talked to someone else before. And the lie detector, stress, voice analysis. Really? It wasn't a polygraph, but it was a voice stress analysis. Why would they eliminate the physical fitness? To fast track motherfuckers. Because they don't, they don't have enough people, right?

Correct. Is that federal and state or just state? For sure, state. I don't know about every other agency. I know other agencies, police agencies, have drastically lowered their standards and taken away. We had a former cop on, and that's what he was saying, too. That's expected, though. Look at the world.

Yeah, I mean, I know the feds are hurting really bad right now to get prison. prison staff. Like you see all the ads on Indeed and like when I was an inmate, you know, they would always do the mandated overtime making the prison staff work like a, sometimes it would be a six, three shifts. It's crazy. So not only is a higher up administration corrupt and we'll get into that right. They're also not the brightest because it's an easy problem to solve fix. You just treat your employees like human decent decent human beings and you will retain. them, right? They will want to come to work. They won't abuse their sick time. Go out workman's comp. And I resign, bro. I personally resign. I quit.

People are now quitting. But I think there's two parts to it too, because you could be the best boss and if you have the world shittiest customers, which in this case is the inmates, that makes a person not want to go to work too. There's just something to be said about

your boss having your back, though. And I'm not talking about like, A, if I want to come to work and I want to beat up inmate to what I'm not supposed to. And I want my boss to cover my back. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm definitely talking about is I don't want my boss using me as a stepping stool in their career and throwing me under the bus and sabotaging me with false information. That happens a lot, dude. Frivolous. Fribiless BS. They're out to burn staff members to promote hire.

So you get in. What was like your starting rate as a prison? CEO. Money wise? Yeah. And what year was this? 2006. So yeah, so what are they paying back then? Oh bro, we're coming up. November 27, 2006. Happy anniversary. Thanks, bro. I didn't make it. I didn't make it. 16 years. Fucking four grand a month, five grand a month. I mean, that was a terrible back then.

So when you initially become a CEO, that's not when you're seeing the green. You after seven years, oh man. That's when you're seeing. That's when you top out. Every year you get a raise and you're making bank in comparison, right, to anybody, any other working, any other job for what you do. Did you have military benefits too? Not at that time. No, they didn't give you any type of benefits.

GI Bill. Like GI Bill, like not no monetary compensation, but like GI Bill, the VA loan, I was able to buy, use my VA loan twice. you could buy a home with no money down. The rates are extremely well. Plenty of those type of benefits. But also the military don't, bro, they don't prepare you to get out. They just kick your ass out. They didn't tell us anything about benefits, man.

The way you find out is by friends calling other friends. Like, hey, I heard about this program. Oh, shit, we get that? Yeah, dude, here's the link. Here's the paperwork. Yeah. So what prison do you get sent to to work at? Centinella State Prison in Imperial California.

What kind of prison is that? Level four general population, high security. So I say level four because you had one yard, there's four yards. The rest were level three GP. So there's four levels in California. Level one is your trustees, your minimum inmates. Level two is just one step above that. Level three, now you start, you know, now you start.

Violence can happen at every level. I've seen it. Murders can happen at every level. I've seen it. You get to the level three, you get to level four, GP? That's when they're using knives, shanks. Rarely do you see a fistfight. Did you have a choice of where you got put?

Yeah. They just sent you there. So with the California Department Corrections, it does iffy shit sometimes, man. There was a two-year free hiring freeze when I applied. That's why I took that year period. So I had to wait two years to join. Now the process is like six months, seven months. Because they're desperate now.

Because they're desperate. Ideally, they'll give you a wish list of three prisons that you want to work at. Ideally, they're not going to give you those three prisons. You're going to get sent to some shitty fucking prisons that nobody wants to work at in the middle of nowhere. Pelican Bay, which borders Oregon in Northern California. High Desert State Prison, which borders like Nevada up there in Northern California. Those are you going to be your first tour. What's that famous California prison that's not used anymore?

That's like in the movies. It's like on the island. Alcatraz. That's off like San Francisco Bay. Did you ever get to go out there just to see it at all or no? Yeah, yeah. It's family trips. Family trips. You could actually go on the island and explore the jail. Yeah. Have you never been there?

No, I want to do that. So dude, before you go, book the trip beforehand. There's no way they booked that shit out months prior. That's so cool. You don't want to get there and then not be able to go. Yeah. I got to check that out. Oh, yeah, you get a little fairy?

Yeah. Did you see that movie with Sean Connery, I think, isn't it? I think it's called Alcatraz. I've seen a few. Yeah, that word, like they take over the jail and whatnot. Great movie with Nicholas Cage is in it. Yeah, I know what you're talking about now. Yeah.

All right, so you're a prison CEO at this prison. The Rock is what it's called. The Rock, yeah. Walk me through your average day. Like, what time you're punching in. If you even have to punch in like the whole nine yards. So an average day in 2006, 2007. This is a different time frame, man.

Things have changed. You're wearing a brand new green shiny jumpsuit, man. You're still shitting Academy food. Everybody knows you're new. Your partners know you're new. The inmates know you're new. You have a fucking certain walking, rigged and scared and fucking lunch bag. you walk in through a staff entrance where they check your bag.

It's not as thorough as like an airport check security. It's kind of like looking. Show your ID. Verify you're an employee there and you walk through. You walk to your facility. You show another ID. I want to give up too many security measures, but there's a lot of security measures in place.

And depending on where you're working at, you'll get some equipment. You get chits and you chit out a baton, pepper spray, grenades at OC grenade that'll throw powder and just fucking contaminate you and it's not a it's not a punch in on the clock like a wall it's a falsa it's a sheet a sign-in sheet so you know federal laborers standard act a falsea you sign in it has your name your start time and we also use that as accountability so a case somebody gets taken hostage or there's a massive riot where now the prisoners is being overtaken you can do a

you know accountability check of your personnel usually in the time when i would show up which is the shift between 2 p.m and 10 p.m. yard was already full blown out there man so you just see all these killers literally killers out in the fucking yard in 120 degree weather doing burpees thousands of of burpees doing pull-ups doing squats playing basketball playing handball and you got to walk through the lions then bro you you got to walk through there with no equipment if if you're working the building you haven't checked out equipment yet you're looking at the gunner in the gun post like just hoping he's looking at you right or they're looking at you you get to your unit and you do a little debriefing like hey anything going on and stuff that can get past is like yeah they're acting uh

You know, there's tension. There's tension between the Mexicans and the blacks. Because at that time, there was a lot of racial wars, bro. A lot of racial riots. And, uh, or I should say race riots. They wasn't necessarily like a racial thing. I think people get that misconstrued if they're not from California. You know, it's not that they're racist.

It's that they run by race. So if one gets involved, they all get involved. And when it erupts, it erupts. on a good day nothing happens on a bad day it fucking erupts and a riot can look like a 200 man riot you can have 100 Mexicans southern mexicans suioreno's you could have 100 blacks fighting throughout the whole fucking facility in the buildings in the chow hall in the gym because at the time the gyms were packed with bunk beds as dorms on the yard and your job job as a CEO is to go over there in a controlled manner in a tactical manner and stop it.

Stop violence with violence. Did your military experience give you an advantage over other prison guards that maybe not have had the military experience? Because I would, as an inmate, I met a lot of guards that were out of the military. And they carried themselves a lot differently than some of the other guards that weren't in the military. I think a perk that I had was chaos, thriving in chaos, being calm in the chaos, excelling in the chaos. Like, that was my world. And it's crazy to think that's still my world. Like, I don't want it to be.

I want to be chill. I think you kind of learned how to make the chaos, like, give you motivation and use it as a driving force, you know? You know, the world slows down. Like, time slows down. And your sense is, you know, one thing, I've never felt more alive than when I was closer to death. Right. And that's the truth. That's maybe that's why I used to chase it all the time.

Because your senses are fucking turned on. Your smell, your hearing, your sigh. It's almost like, you know, the adrenaline rush. It's like the dopamine. It's like a fucking drug, bro. It's a rush. And you can get addicted to that. You know, I was recently asked yesterday, as a matter of fact, Hector, did you enjoy it?

Did you enjoy, like, hurting those inmates? Did you enjoy using force? And I'm like, fuck, dude, I got to be honest with you, bro. Like, there was a time where, and I told him, you got to be careful if you stare into the abyss because the abyss will stare back into you, right? You can become a product of your environment. You can fucking go too far to one side if you don't maintain your bearing. There was times where, and to clarify on that answer, I would never go out of my way to

purposely start a fight. But let me tell you, if a fight got started, then hey, it's game time. And I enjoyed that part of it. Having the green light to go all the way. And the higher-ups were giving you the green light to do this? Technically, the inmates were giving me the green light because they were participating in violence. Now, we were talking about like it's very racial, right?

How would the races treat you? Is it racial when it comes to go? Like, will a black inmate come up to you or is a black inmate going to another black guard? Okay, without any stereotypes or blanket statements, anything can vary and anything can happen, right? But there's a big misconception, particularly around me too. Because I'm from Southern California. This is a great example. I'll use myself as an example.

I'm from Southern California. I grew up around guys that have been in gangs or guys that have been to prison, right? It doesn't make me that. Does they make me over familiar with them? Right? There's a line. I know the law. I know my role.

I know their role. But there can be a misconception that I favored them more. That's fucking farther from the truth. Because green versus blue. That's what we say. That's what we used to say back then. Officers were green. Inmates were blue.

All we saw was blue. Right? We didn't see race. We didn't see that or the other. From black inmates would I hear like, oh, that's racist. That's some bullshit that you're doing. And yeah, they're going to say what they're going to say, but that doesn't make it true. Targeting specific rate.

The best thing I can say is being firm, fair, and consistent like they taught us in the academy. You cannot fucking favor one race over the other because it's going to create some damn problems for you, man. And vulnerability, they can, they can flip you. I mean, they can't fucking flip me, but you can get flipped, like turn into a dirty CEO. you can start bringing contraband in if they fucking get to you enough. Now, I want to talk on that for a second. When someone becomes a dirty cop, right? How do they actually get the stuff through security?

Like, what's the security system like for guards? Well, I told you that. It's not like, it's not as thorough as an airport. They just skim through your lunch bag. A way they can get dope in or have in the past is through burritos. Burritos. Put dope in the burritos. and I have pictures of that.

Wait, like the guard is bringing in burritos? The guard is bringing in burritos, but you open the tortilla and it's fucking bendels of marijuana, bendels of heroin, bendels of fucking meth, cell phones, chargers,

lighters. But now they must have scanners and stuff. No. You're telling me no. They must have it in like the feds and stuff. Maybe the feds. In the state prison, there's nothing.

The state prison is rampant with dope, bro. What about like, weapons aside for knives and shanks and stuff what about like a gun or is anyone trying to bring that in so check this out bro right now the latest thing in 2023 is drone drops yeah i've heard i've seen that is the latest and that is the greatest man in fucking middle of the night some dude with the drone like i don't know how they have like little claws or what they do and they'll drop a football in the middle of the yard technology and that's packed with with with dope cell phones and all the above right yeah they will get like let's say a manila envelope a yellow manila envelope a yellow manila

envelope they'll fucking load it with contraband put Elmer's glue all around it and roll it in the dirt so now when it drops from this guy it's out there in the middle of the yard of your CEO which you're not paying attention bro you're not fucking looking at rocks and see what's a rock and what's not then the yard crew worker an inmate or whoever knows that the package got dropped will go secure the package and take it back to the house their cell my biggest fear was that a gun was going to get introduced to a prison. Knock on wood. I didn't want to be anywhere around that when that happened.

Do I think it's going to happen? There is not a doubt in my mind that is going to happen. Well, it happened recently in the feds at a camp, which I'm shocked that this is like one of the first times that's ever happened. I was reading the news on that. But I'm talking about a level four, level three, GP. Because then they could take it over. California prison would be all bad.

and not necessarily because they can take it over. Because I want to be clear, man. Just to not leave any room for error. If an inmate has a gun in a prison, a lot of people are going to die. To include the person with a gun, if they don't comply with orders. But ain't nobody going to escape.

They're not going to take shit over. They might take over a little area of the prison, but you're just not going to win. The bad guys really never win. You know what I mean? But a lot of people are going to die. and I didn't want to deal with that or experience that.

What do you think was like the scariest most dangerous situation you were in as a prison guard? A lot, there's a few. Give me the top one. I've been surrounded. A sketch, one sketchy time. Well, fuck, there was a couple.

One sketchy time, right? Level three, GP, like I said, man, it varies. Just because you're level one doesn't mean you're not any fucking less violent. So at the time, though, the huge overcrowding problem in California where not only did you have the gyms filled with bunk beds with inmates housing there that were not supposed to be housed in there you had bunk beds on the housing units so like a regular

housing unit with the cells you had bunk beds so it was like 20 on this side 20 on this side so like 40 inmates total forgot in the common area the day room area with different races blacks whites whites Mexicans others those are the four groups I'm there was three florians officers normally there's two but because there was bunk beds you have the additional and the gunner in the control booth we were all new new were new and we were all non-regulars to the building meaning that wasn't none of our regular post so we just happened to land there that one day so it was day room recall meaning inmates are supposed to go back to their cells so we're like sitting

there at the podium you have an officer's podium and that may you have inmates on C-section, inmates on A-section. And it looks like a full-on day room, bro. You know, dude's playing cards. Dude's watching TV. We're like, looking around. We're like, hey, this shit don't look right. Right, the last thing we wanted a sergeant to walk in and be like,

what the hell the fuck you guys? Like, type of program you guys running here. That's a free-for-all. So a consensus amongst us three at the bottom were like, hey, let's call the building next door and see what type of program they run. And we'll just copy what they run. I'm like, well, yeah, that makes sense. So they fucking tell me, tell me,

we all had around the same time frame. We all knew. I call, I'm like, hey, bro, like, during your day room recall, what are the inmates supposed to be doing? They're like, oh, they're supposed to be in and around their bunks. I'm like, well, fuck, they're all over the place, bro. It's like, no, man, make them go in and around their bunk. I'm like, all right.

So I hang up, and I'm like, hey, guys, they said in and around your bunks. They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. They fucking started hyping me up. So I'm like, let's go tell him. So I get up and I start walking towards A section, bro. And I look back and those two partners are sitting at the fucking table at the desk. They didn't get up. One of them was buff and big.

What a waste. So these inmates are looking at me and I'm young, dude. And I tell them, like, A fellow is like, you know, I'm cool with it. You guys got to take it in and around your bunk. And they instantly start, who the fuck are you? We never fucking seen you before. You can't come over here and start changing shit. If it ain't fixed don't if it ain't broke don't fix it and I'm like hey felt now I'm holding my mud

Now I'm holding the line you know what I mean I've now committed by myself because they didn't go And I'm like eh that's it in and around your bunks and they did they were talking shit to me But they were complying that's a good thing you learn like I don't give a fuck if you talk shit as long as you're doing what you're supposed to be doing So now I got to go walk to the other side and my partner stayed sitting down that kind of look at them like the fuck like they're leaving me hanging you know like that was not cool by that time there was a lot of blacks on this side they had already saw the commotion

that happened over here they fucking start getting out of control with it I'm holding my mud I'm like hey man this isn't even enough for debate like right because I'm not what I'm not gonna do is fucking say something and they put my foot in my mouth and then back cower that's what that would look like it's cowering

now if I made a legitimate mistake that'd be a whole other story then I can apologize right but this was this was the rule. So they go and I sit down next to you know, bro, we get fucking surrounded. Oh my God. 40 dudes in a U shape. So I instantly jump up, right?

And I had pepper spray. I had baton. I always thought I'm going to use my hands, right? Because I'm not, you know, inmates will take your, but your own baton away from you and beat you to half to death. I've seen it over. It's happened over and over again. So I'm like, I'm not going to take this shit out.

Or they'll take your own pepper. spray and pepper spray you and hit you over the head with a can. I was like, fuck this. So I jump up, right? And I wasn't like this guy, but I was just like posted. Oh, dude, surrounded. I was fucking scared. I was fucking scared, bro.

I'm not going to lie. You'd be an idiot not to be scared. My two partners stayed sitting down. And I caught that out of my left eye. Like I write your awareness. And I know that the inmates are watching me and they're watching my partners. And everybody's just getting the vibe, right? Like, fuck.

So now you got the Mexicans. the blacks, the whites, and the others in cahoots, right? When normally there would be tension amongst themselves, which is better for us, taking the focus off of us. And push came to shut, well put it, and then like fucking... One of the inmates said, hey, we're just like the gym. We're like the dorm. The dorm has day room 24-7 so we can have day room 24-7.

And my dumb fucking partner, the buff one's like, oh yeah yeah that's right they do and I just shot him a look because in essence he sided with him yeah you know what I mean during a time of fucking when it was a conflict he sided with them which is a bad move and I looked at him I shot him a look the inmates saw me shoot him that look and then they in their head they probably just thought like fuck this is not gonna be worth it yeah right this is are we this is really gonna kick it off over this they back down right

Well, they didn't back. They took it back to their bunks. And I told my partner, don't you ever fucking do that shit again. I was pissed, dude. And he's like, I'm sorry, bro. I was scared. My motherfucker, you don't think I was scared too? But I'm not going to fucking, like, coward in front of these dudes.

Like, you know, and that's just, what do you want to call it? Not stupidity because that's your job. You guys understand. You got to go back to work the next day. And respect is huge. I mean, you know that. respect and people don't respect weak. How does a prison hit, a prison murder go down?

What is the CO's response to it? A prison hit, a prison murder. Okay, a murder is usually, not all the time going to be ordered a hit, right? It's going to be blessed, co-signed. So they know a dude is going to get murdered. They're the victim. So they'll get two suspects

armed with extremely well knives homemade metal approximately 8 to 12 13 14 inches of steel very sharp with a good handle out of cloth

they use the linen from the sheets and tie a good fucking thing and trust me man they study the art of war Sun Tzu the books they read all these books they know where to hit somebody under the armpit right in the fucking chest right in the heart in the carotid artery they know all the hit the one hit or quitter spots man everything is strategically planned as far as inmate program yard opened up at the same time day room so they

know when and where they're going to hit the guy they're looking at the gunner and 99% of the time this victim is caught off guard and i've heard it over again they're like even though i knew i was going to get hit. I didn't know it was going to happen then. They make you feel comfortable. They lure you in. It's like prepping your your your bait like um buttering up your you know like a little mice with a fucking anaconda wraps around it or eats it and uh bro it's vicious it's vicious with the southern Hispanics of sorenuous with the whites the Aryan Brotherhood you know the Mexican mafia, the Our Familia,

those are the big prison gangs, but they're soldiers. And even them, when the own members commit, they're, they're like possessed animals, bro.

They are on them. Boom. Boom. Boom. Hitting them. All throughout the fucking, they're hit. Every shot is possibly

a kill shot, bro. So it doesn't, you, you're just booking a dude, right? And fucking, dude,

you can have one individual holding, holding, the guy down pinning his arms down and another guy just fucking boom right in his fucking chest right in his fucking heart bro boom boom they do not care that they are being pepper sprayed by us at all we are pepper spraying and they are not fucking stopping they do not care that we are hitting them with batons the monotnot batons the one with the power safety tip and we're talking about fucking full swings bro from big guys they're just

on them boom booking them they do not care if they're getting hit with the 40 millimeter less lethal. The wooden baton rounds or the sponge. It's like a Nerf gun that hits you fuck it. That shit can kill you too if you get hit in the dome. They're on you. Boom. It's like they're they're possessed bro. It's a fucking there's a there's a mission at hand and it's to kill this dude. Even mini 14 the live

2-2-3 round. You can fucking fire a warning shot you don't have to fire a warning shot but some people do and maybe maybe then they're going to stop when they want to Wow. Hey, dude, what do you think that scene looks like? Like the movie fucking Carrie. It's like the suspects have just as much blood covered as a victim.

I always thought that would suck to be an inmate getting stabbed because not only do you have multiple holes on you, but you're also pepper sprayed. That shit has to suck. But in the case of somebody you getting killed, once you see the eyes, it's almost like you've seen one, you've seen them all. right you see the the ferocity you see you already know what's going to come next medical attention call the paramedics call the 9-1-1 the ambulance called the medevac the life flight they bring the helicopters remember for a month straight a sentinel estate prison we were life-flighting inmates every single day for a month straight because that charley ard was off the fucking hook bro stabbing good ones hits good weapons

And since I actually got to promote to sergeant to lieutenant, not only do I know the CO work of stopping the fight, but I definitely know all the paperwork bullshit behind it. It's a lot of fucking paperwork. And the unfortunate part of calling the next of kin, the inmate's family member that's on their paperwork. You have to say, hey, ma'am, is this the mother of inmate so-and-so? You already hear their voice trembling. I would get to inform you that your son passed away And then boom bro, you hear the cries No

No You hear the phone drop You hear the brother pick up the phone Hello hello who's this hey You got to repeat the same message And they're like fuck no no One dude's like damn our dad just died last week And his dad had died last week

The son had died that week Then he goes on to say We don't have money we don't have money. We're from San Bernardino. I can't get an... I'm a lieutenant. I'm a human, bro.

You know, I'm getting chill. I'm a human. Like, hearing family members, because the family members don't deserve this. They're innocent victims. They're innocent players in this game. You know what I mean?

And to be the one to deliver that message that your loved one just passed away, it's not a good feeling, do you? What happens to the guys that you guys catch in the act of committing these murders? Do they just go to solitary? Are they getting charged again?

What happens? you book them you you handcuff you you you restrain them they go to solitary ad seg administrative segregation the whole that process looks all the same they're definitely getting charged with homicide murder they're definitely getting charged with it right so it's important to doc to get all the evidence preservation all the photographs the video the bloody clothing the weapon DNA blood um because all that's going to the DA is going to pick it up district attorney's And then that's a whole Another fiasco of

Them having to go to court for multiple years Unless they take a plea deal But if they already have fucking four life sentences Under their belt If they're already serving 160 years to life 200 years to life Do you think they care, bro?

No, they don't give a shit They don't bat an eye They actually feel proud Are most of these murders Pretty much all gang affiliated? Like is anyone just getting stabbed or random? No, it's drugs money, drugs but it's a part of a gang, right?

Part of a gang. Yeah, it's all, it all, it is, is anybody getting killed? Yeah, for sure people are getting fucking killed over disrespect. What about sex offenders? Are they at this yard? Sex offenders, uh, rats, anything like that? Or not at this type of prison? Less than two years ago, I saw a white inmate that had some sex offenses charges on his record.

And he should not have been on this general population yard that I'm speaking about. Somehow, some way, somebody screwed up or the paperwork or I don't know. They fucking killed him. It was three whites. One knew that he was going to kill him. The other two poor bastards were in there for DUIs, bro. DUI and were going to get out in a year. And now they just got charged with fucking murder.

So like, that sucks too. You're committing murders when you're about to get out of prison. on behalf of the gang. Fuck, no, that doesn't sound like a good, fun idea, bro. That sounds horrible. Wow. Because you're throwing your life away. Now, you've had a lot of, like, fronthand,

like being able to see how, like, the Aryan brotherhood and stuff works. A lot of the comments I get when I post content about prison, it's a stereotypical, oh, you know, like you'd get recruited by the brotherhood, this and that. But not the types of prisons I went to, but does that happen at the types of prisons that you were working at, where if you're a white guy, you go on the yard, they're coming up to you right away and approaching you? In California, bro.

California moves different in general. And it is safe to say that it is the most violent prison system in the United States. And when I say that, I'm not taking away of the violence away from any other prison or even the feds. But, bro, there is something to be, we're on the map. As far as a lot of people know about the ruthless cut-throw politics of CDC California. Whatever race you are, when you go into prison, you are going to be approached by people of your

same race. That belonged to a gang because they're following under an organization and you will participate. You have just, you are, you're definitely not going to do your own thing. You're definitely not going to tell them no because you're going to get stabbed. You're going to get hurt, extremely bad. So you just now became part of the machine. So yeah, if you're a white inmate, you're going to be asked by the other whites to hold drugs for the shot callers.

You're going to be asked to hold weapons. You're going to be asked to move stuff from point A to point B with a possibility getting caught an extra time added to your sentence. You're even going to be asked to, hey, take this weapon and start stabbing the fuck out of that guy. He's the fucking child molester. This is average dude, man. What are like some weird rules and habits you've seen inmates like create for themselves and end kind of like enforce? They're good rules.

They're good rules, bro. Practicing good hygiene. And I come from the military. You need structure. People need structures and people need rules, bro, especially alpha males. It's a free-for-all. Free-for-olds are not good. Yeah, but some of these rules are silly that they come up with, you know?

Like what? I don't know. It was like squatting the pee was one of them. Oh, okay, okay. Like, habits and stuff. Yeah. So something when you go, when you go in ad seg and you see the pisser, they'll straddle the pisser, the toilet, they'll sit down. So they're facing the toilet. They sit down.

They hold their dick down and they pee. Yeah, looks ridiculous. But I guess it's better sense than standing up and showing your dick to it. It's a chain link fence. Right, so they don't want that's maybe viewed as a homosexual act, right? There's a fine line between disrespect or the perception of disrespect in prison. You know that. So like, and another thing is they don't want to get pee on the toilet seat.

Which is respect. Well, I could respect that. I mean, I wouldn't particularly sit down to take a piss, but that's normal. That's absolutely fucking normal. Yeah. Another one, washing your clothes in the, I never even spoke on this. Ever in public. Washing your clothes in the toilet.

Same fucking toilet in the cell that you take a shit in. Getting clothes. Getting detergent. Washing it. Cooking fucking soups to eat in the toilet. That's what they do. Well, that's what they did then. Like I said, I don't know what they do now.

But, dude, that's, that's crazy because I was listening in on the phone call one time. because we, all inmate telephones are monitored when they call their loved ones. We have, we have a phone. We can push a button and tap in on their call. And this dude was talking to his girlfriend. Like, oh, yeah, I just got done washing my clothes. We sanitized the toilet real, real good.

In my head, I'm like, oh, brother, no, you cannot sanitize the clothes. Yeah, what was the, like, the craziest thing you've ever heard on a recorded phone call that you were listening in on? They were always the same type of conversations, man. I know what guys is like having phone sex or anything? You have a guy just disrespecting his girlfriend.

Hey, you fucking B word, you bitch, you better. You bword this, you B word that. And fucking switch it up. Hey, baby, I love you. Can you put some money on my books? And the girl would fall for it. Every time, hook, line, and sinker. Like, damn, man, these guys are good at like manipulation.

Yeah, it always starts off like disrespect. Maybe that's what they do. Break them down and the building back up. But it was constant. Phone sex, argument. if you were privy and savvy to understanding code it or be lucky enough to catch like a drug deal or a hit, that definitely happens. Some people get caught slipping.

But with the introduction of cell phones. Check it out, dude. The way they order hits in 2023, I'm giving you a lot of 20203 inside, bro. FaceTime. What's app? all these other apps conference calls

so you can have four Aryan Brotherhood members on the screen four Mexican mafia members on the screen and we seen them we got the picture everything is

fucking courts documents everything is evidence so there's nothing you can do that's not going to go detected because phones are going to get confiscated people are going to rap people are going to drop out people are going to tell

we're going to get that information. And yeah, brother, they're fucking on an encrypted app ordering, orchestrating a murder from start to finish. And you got all the key players on a fucking conference call. In prison. In prison, in a cell. In different prisons throughout the state of California. That's crazy. From the south, San Diego to the North Pelican Bay.

Different inmates in different prisons, FaceTiming, orchestrating time now go. where you'll also have a cell phone. A guy's talking to his girl, hey, I'm going to go do something. You're not going to hear from me in a while. She knows what time it is. She said, I love you. Okay, be careful.

Make sure you get that done. So they're all fucking, it's all just criminal organization, bro. You ever walk in on guys like having sex? Oh, God, that fucking question came out of left field. And the answer is no. I purposely would shake my keys at night, graveyard shift. so that I wouldn't see anything like that

so you're one of the cool guards that would shake the keys yeah I mean I'm not trying to see that what the hell what I want to see that for bro my partners have told me they have seen some things they have seen some things at night bro yeah inmates having sex like and they describe it too in detail to me man it's kind of fucking grotesque they're like

yeah bro they'll be telling them like hey get off of him get out of him get out of him And one dude's like, oh, this dude was like fucking hung, bro. It's like you just pulled out of them. Were there female cops working here, too? Yeah, 100%. What are they like? Are they surviving on this yard?

Yes. Yeah. And again, not to do a blanket statement. It's very important that I make it clear that there's no stereotypes of blanket statement, right? Because I've seen it all. Good female COs, bad female COs, dirty, corrupt female C. that are having sex with the inmates in prison. And that happened all the time all across the country.

All the time, bro. It does happen all of it. Why do you think they do that? For me to say it doesn't happen all the time would be inaccurate. Yeah. It happened all the fucking time, bro. Why do they want to risk their jobs and whatnot to do that? I can't understand that.

I can't fathom it. I would only imagine it's a whole bad boy image. I don't know, bro. I've been studying girls all my life. So what have you found out? Anything good? Yeah, they're all the same. They're all the fucking same, bro.

And I've been married for 17 years, bro. They're all the same, meaning like, they don't know what they want. They think they know what they want, right? It's like, it's hot or cold, bro. I think we're like cavemen. Right? They're always chasing that alpha.

They're always chasing the biggest, the bad is. They say they want a nice guy, but they treat nice guys like, shit. You know this. We see it over and over again. That's why, you know, the bad. boys, girls like bad boys. And that's the only thing that I can imagine why they're sleeping with these inmates.

They like the thrill. I never particularly asked when, hey, you know, fucking, because I, what's crazy is that you have these female COs that are hooking up with all the COs and they're fucking the inmates too. It's a fucking origin going on. It's a present origin. Yeah, man, but you don't want to be like, God damn. Like you don't want, imagine thinking you're like, yeah, I'm fucking this chick.

But God damn. She's fucking the inmates too. Like, the fuck. Kind of make you feel dirty. You know what I mean? No disrespect. But I just told you they eat out of the toilet at times or wash their clothes or pee sitting down. Yeah.

But A, she don't discriminate and fucking everybody can get it. So what was the driving factor that pushed you out of working in the prison system? So I was a pawn as a CEO. It was a pawn as a sergeant. when I promoted to lieutenant, yes, I was still upon, but I got an insight. I got a front row seat at the corruption. I got a position as a public information officer, which is a PIO, the person that wears a suit and stand up in front of the news. The right at this prison.

Which is a prestigious spot, specialized spot, hand chosen by the warden. I was part of the tactical team, the crisis response team, which is equivalent to a SWAT team. as a tactical operator, a certified hostage negotiator, and then I eventually became the commander. So on paper, I had all these certificates and it looked fucking great. The warden I was working for, I can only describe as Hitler. Demeanor wise. He looked like Shug Knight, and he ruled like a dictator. He did not follow policy, contrary to what the rumors were about him prior to him showing.

up who we heard he was coming and we always heard all the dudes by the dude's by the book the dude by the book the dude fucking follows policy which when I first heard that I'm like well that's cool because like I know the book I know policy and I'm not doing anything wild or I can survive you know what I mean no dude that dude was fucking corrupt showing favoritism sabotaging sabotaging those going against the grain even though his grain was very wrong bro and ultimately the people he would surround himself with

were fucking idiots because he wanted to feel like the smartest guy in the room they were very incompetent there was a captain the captain had made captain in nine years which is unheard of dude he was book smart

just not fucking street smart and that captain befriended a Mexican mafia member which resulted in two officers almost getting stabbed to death an attempted murder on a peace officer, which I was a PIO and the CERT commander, and I responded to that. You can see the blood on the ground.

Dude got stabbed in the fucking mouth. Dude got destroyed, bro. It's a miracle he didn't die. And the warden covered up that whole incident because he didn't want to reflect back bad on his captain. Sacramento headquarters said, hey, since you're the PIO, we want you to type up a letter refuting that there's any,

that there's any shadiness. that that that captain was not incompetent i'm like why would i do that for her they're like never mind we just did it so they actually put out like media stuff saying that everything was good when at that prison everything was not fucking good bro it was on fire and they covered it up they covered it up so then the clock started taking for me like i have a five-year-old daughter i have 12 more years left to go i see the writing on the wall they're mixing general people population in S and Y inmates that's a new thing now in in prison they're mixing the GP with a child molesters whether I think that's right wrong or indifferent I don't feel good purposely

leading lambs to the slaughter you know what I mean get somebody else to do you guys could do whatever the fuck you want to do I'm not gonna participate in that so I resigned December 1st 22 11 months ago 11 months ago 11 months ago 11 months ago bro how long were you 16 years almost you were with them. 16 years. So then I go home and I tell my wife I quit my job. She's like, what?

Fuck. Oh, bro. It's been a roller coaster ever since. Do you get any benefits from that job? When I turn 50 years old, in 11 more years, I will be able to collect my pension. Okay, so you'll still get a pension. Yeah, dude.

But to me, this freedom is better, man. What do you do now since resigning? I'm on YouTube. That Prison Guard, the channel. I wrote a book. I wrote a book. pretty much how to survive in corrections, a perspective, the ins and the outs, the respect, the etiquette,

tips and tricks, through experiences, through lessons learned, through other people's knowledge. It's on Amazon. My social media, I put out, like, you know, motivational speeches, motivational content, working out, health, fitness, mental health awareness. I'm fucking huge on mental health awareness, bro i feel like this is my passion i feel like this is my purpose remember i told you i cursed god

as to why i did not die in iraq when my friends had i see it now i see it now i was meant to be given a platform to help others others that are hurting because it took me to go through what i had to go through to be able to reach those type of people because dude there's a lot of former inmates that watch my fucking channel there's a lot of former inmates that i'm in communication with and our relationship is cool as fuck because I'm not a prison guard no more I'm a civilian dude and they're no longer an inmate they're a fucking law abiding thriving civilian do you ever regret your decision to leave no absolutely not would you ever go back the reason I will not go back is because that fucking department is so shady what they will do

because they're not happy about what I did they will get me you know what I mean I'll go back, I'll be under their policy, under their contract, under their procedures, and they'll make something up and they'll get me. Like, let's say I go back, they'll probably say that they're going to use what I did, even though I don't know how they could, but they would, oh, look at this guy. He was doing this while he was employed. We're going to put this type of charge on him. Nah, fuck that, bro.

I won't go back. It's like getting back with a crazy ex-girlfriend. Do you talk to any of your former co-workers at all? All the time. All the time. They call me touch. They want to know how I'm doing. A lot of people give me a lot of information.

I don't ask, I'm not on the phone. Hey, tell me what you know. They're like, hey, bro. Just so you know this is happening, this is happening, that's happening here at this location. I'm like, want to talk about it? Yeah, I'll talk about it, bro. You got content.

Everywhere at all times. What's your next few years look like for you? What's on the agenda? Grow. Grow bigger. Help more people. Because right now I'm hustling and grinding. You know, I'm always going to be grinding.

But like I'm trying to establish myself first while simultaneously helping people. But like, who knows, man, drug and alcohol counselor? Something like, something like professional. Maybe halfway houses rehab. Like I said, I haven't delved into that. But I do want to help people. And I want to do it the right way. You know what I mean?

Like somebody that actually cares about people's sobriety, people's recovery, people's mental health, not just, hey, I want to fucking put this person in this house. That's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking to help people. Out of everything you've been through in your life, what would you say is the biggest life lesson you've learned and that you want to share with others? The biggest life lesson I learned was surrendering to win. Meaning asking for help. Meaning letting go of my ego.

And, yeah, making them. that decision to fucking ask for help, man. Because had I not done that, I was going to die. I was going to fucking die, bro. Hector tried to do it Hector's Way for 26 years. And Hector's Way got him in jails, hospitals, and institutions. Right, when I fucking shut the fuck up and started listening to other people that knew what the hell they were talking about, doctors, therapists, family, right?

It's kind of like. How's your relationship with your parents now? It's good, bro. good, but I'm in a unique position. They were at it. They were fucking against me quitting my prison job. My career. Their old school mentality in 1990s.

Right? I'm like, hey, dad, that's 2023. I can make a living on fucking on social media on the cell phone, right? I can do an only fan with my feet. I don't have to go bust my ass and work like breaking my back for a man that I hate for the man. I can do

what I love doing, helping others and get paid for doing so. I mean, fuck, dude, I'm living a great life. Like, I love helping people. Because for the longest time, I was a piece of shit, bro. And I heard a lot of people in my past. I hated that way of living.