Locked In with Ian Bick - The Harsh Reality of Violence in Florida State Prisons | Ehren Brown

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

Ehren Brown, a former inmate in the Florida State Prison system, shares his experience of surviving one of the most violent prison environments in the country. From facing constant threats and fights to understanding the unspoken codes of prison life, Ehren provides a direct look at the realities behind the walls. He discusses the power struggles, the role of gangs, and how violence shapes life in prison. #FloridaStatePrisons #PrisonViolence #LifeBehindBars #TrueCrimeStories #PrisonSurvival #InmateExperiences #PrisonSystem #survivingprison Thank you to FLOCK for sponsoring today's episode: Visit https://flockfoods.com/discount/LOCKEDIN & use discount code LockedIn for 20% off everything on the Flock site.  Connect with Ehren Brown: https://www.instagram.com/breakin_da_law?igsh=MWpwODFxNDg5dzA1Nw== Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://www.ianbick.com/shop Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 Moving from Baltimore to New York 00:05:02 Childhood Adventures and Personality 00:09:43 High School Dealing and Popularity 00:14:25 Breaking into a Neighbor's House 00:19:01 Early Criminal Charges and Avoidance 00:23:36 A Tense Encounter and Its Impact 00:28:14 Harsh Prison Experiences and Dehumanization 00:32:58 Brutality Inside the Prison System 00:37:33 Fights Over Petty Disputes in Prison 00:42:09 Confrontation in the Yard 00:46:39 Prison Sentences and Inmate Experience 00:51:30 Wrongly Accused: The Setup with My Gun 00:56:07 Facing Violation of Probation in Florida 01:01:02 Jail Incident: The Cup of Piss Story 01:05:29 Confrontation on D Block 01:10:16 Embracing Meaningful Experiences Over Materialism 01:15:13 Inspiring Stories for Life Changes Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aaron, welcome to Locked in from Philly area or Pennsylvania. York. York, okay. That's in Pennsylvania. Yeah. And what was that, like a four-hour drive almost? Four and a half. And you grew up in York?

No, no. I'm originally from Baltimore. I got in trouble there at a young age, so my parents moved me to Florida to a spot they thought was better. Okay. It wasn't. So I just continued my trouble making down there in Florida. And now you're a you live in Florida. York. Yeah. Okay. Do you like living in New York? No, I actually came up here because I was on the run. I was running from the cops in Florida. And I had a buddy that lived up here and came up here and just went back to committing crime and took a tour to state prison system up here. And decide to stay? I'm still on parole. I can't.

Oh, so once you're off parole, you'll go back to Florida? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. It's nicer weather than out here. Absolutely. It sucks. It's so cold. Yes. This morning, I think it was like 30 degrees or I got like a freezing alert or something like that. Definitely like this weather. I'm actually going to Florida tonight, so I'm escaping the cold to Miami to do a couple of interviews. Yeah.

Yeah, so getting away from the cold for a couple days. I spent a lot of time in that area. Yeah, I've only been in Miami like a couple times growing up. Right. It hasn't been too major. Yeah, I was around central Florida mostly. But the last place I was at down there was Tampa. Tampa, Clearwater area?

Yeah, I was in Clearwater for the first time over the summer. Oh, okay. That's where Hulk Hogan's thing is. Yeah, Hogan's on the beach. Yeah, right there. That's all been affected by like the hurricane and everything in that area. Absolutely. So Baltimore growing up, you were born in Baltimore.

Yes, sir. And who was raising you, your mom and your dad? My mom, my stepdad, he basically raised me from a baby. My biological father was like a heroin junkie. not a good person and wasn't really around Did you ever get to meet him? I met him once when I was 15

for like five minutes I felt like I was selling my dad out so I didn't talk to him Do you hold resentment towards him at all? No, I just don't care about him at all When he died I was like, yeah Yeah Did you guys grow up with money

What was like the financial situation? So my father always worked As a kid, my mother didn't. My father hustled a little bit to like, I guess, make ends meet. But other than that, it was a pretty normal existence. You know, their house was kind of like the party house, but they kept it away from me. But I would say I grew up pretty normal. My mom kind of raised me like a Spartan.

She did. But I grew up pretty normal. What do you mean by like Spartan? So my mom, like I can remember like as an eight-year-old kid in Baltimore, you know, if like my mom bought me a new skateboard or something, I knew I was going to have to fight for that when I went outside. Somebody was going to try to take it. Somebody that didn't have it. And I was getting these fights.

Well, over time, you know, one time I think I fought in front of my mom and she's coaching me. Kick him in the face there and knee them in the balls, you know. I'm like, eight. I remember one time a kid had, he did something to me in school. And she walked me up to that kid after school and told me, Aaron, punch him in the fucking face. And, you know, that's kind of how I grew up. My mom was, I don't think life was very good to her. So she'd never really seen the good in life, kind of.

So she's just the hardest woman I've ever met. And I've been around some gangsters. My mama could probably take half of them. I ain't even like that. That's funny. That sounds a lot like my dad. Look, one time, I'm 10 years old. I've told this story a bunch.

I'm 10 years old. And I'm in the hood in Baltimore, okay? Me, my mom, and my dad were the only white people in there, right? And we're waiting on this video to come in. It was Platoon, right? This is 87. We're waiting on Platoon. And the way it worked was there was this big box in the middle of the room.

and when a new release would come in, the person that was waiting there the longest, they would get that movie first. Well, my mom was there the longest. And that platoon comes in and sits it down, and my mom grabs it, and this black lady grabs it too. And she snatches it from my mother. And my mother snatched it back. And we're in the line and we're checking out. And that lady came by and she kicked my mother. And my mother grabbed her by the hair and was beating her.

her ass all over that video. Me and my father were dodging boxes of Orville Redenbocker popcorn. I mean, it was going down. And her husband looked like he was going to try to help his wife. And my father was like, I wouldn't even think about it, buddy. You know what I mean? And that's just how I was raised. That's awesome.

You know, my mom never raised me to back down from anything. Like, there's no give in her. And that's kind of how I came up. Would you have considered yourself a violent person or just someone that was doing what he had to do to survive? I would say I just was doing what I had to do to survive. I always felt like I was supposed to do something different, something better, but I couldn't never figure it out. And I had ADHD that was untreated. I just found that out recently.

So that was kind of really affecting me. And I was just running around wild. Like if there was something that could be done, I was doing it. And I was on probation when I was 15. As a 15-year-old, I'm on probation already for selling drugs in my school. And I'll tell you a crazy story. So I'm in the eighth grade, right? This will tell you the polar opposite, like how I once was to how I evolved.

I'm in the eighth grade and I have this bus driver and I hate him. Now, by the time I'm 15, I'm already like a terror, you know, the principal knows me. All the cops know me. Like, I'm a terror. Everybody in the town pretty much knows me. But up to this point, I was not there yet. I was almost there. And I had this bus driver, and he would always fuck with me.

His name was Mr. Snyder. He was a dick. And one day, Mr. Snyder, he just, he's driving a bus, and he, he, like, falls out, right? And I just, I see him down there. And I'm like, I'm going to take this opportunity. And I grabbed him and I threw him down the stairs real quick. I'm, you know, just being a dick, like, fuck you know. And when I looked up, the bus was about to hit a telephone pole.

So I hit the brakes. And my man Kenny, he grabs the wheel. And we stopped the bus. Everybody gets off the bus. I don't think nothing of it, right? Well, the next day when I'm coming to school on the bus, my name's on the school sign out front. Aaron Brown, hometown hero, right?

I'm like, what the fuck? And when I get to school, it's like, they made this huge, massive deal out of it. I'm like, what the fuck? And everybody's touting me up to be this hero, right? Really, I was being a dick. But I don't tell nobody that. Nobody to this day knows this.

So at the time, there was a TV show. It was hosted by William Shatner. It was called Rescue 9-1-1. And they would tell, like, 9-1 stories, like emergency stories and shit. And they would, like, recreate it. Well, they came to town and recreated this situation. And there was like award banquets.

The senator wrote me letters, you know, commending me and giving me money and tickets to Disney World and all this shit. And I was just being a little asshole. And the police department gives me plaques saying I'm a hero. And like three years later, them same cops was sending my ass to prison. Are you craving a snack that's crunchy, savory, and totally guilt-free, meat, flock, chips guys, the ultimate high-protein, low-carb snack made from real chicken. These remind me of the pork rinds we used to have in prison, but let me tell you, flock chips are a way better version. I wish we had these puppies in prison. Same satisfying crunch, but packed with even more flavor

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I'm about to go order some more of these. We're almost out. What did they think happen that they made you such a hero to them? They said I saved the bus from all them kids from hitting that pole and dying. But the bus driver didn't know. You were one of like the – he didn't, like, admit what happened or anything? He was unconscious. Okay.

So he was unconscious. I threw him down the stairs. But even after, though? Like, he didn't tell the cops, hey, this isn't really what happened? Well, he wouldn't have known because he passed out at the wheel. I threw him down the stairs. And then when I looked up, we were about to hit a tree. Wow.

And then it turned into a massive, I mean, massive thing. We were on the USA today on the front page. Like, we were on the front page of our newspaper. Like, it was crazy. This is while you're on probation or after? I would say that was right before. Right before. And then you go on probation for selling drugs in high school.

Correct. Okay. Well, you're just selling weed? I'm selling pills. Pills, okay. Yeah, and one of the kids, I was actually a good friend of mine. I sold him some pills. Somebody seen the transaction and, like, called him with him.

And, yeah, that's what happened. Were you making any good money? No, hell, no. You know, just getting by. Did your mom know you were selling pills? I would say that my mother knew that I was involved in everything under the sun. I never really hid anything from her. I think that maybe that was where kind of we went wrong in our relationship was a...

She would tell me what I was doing was fucked up, but at the same time, nobody was stopping me. You know what I mean? What was your motivation to sell pills? Was it the money or did you want something else out of it? I think that later on in high school, I figured out like my route kind of. You know, you had the quarterback. He's, you know, popular obviously because he's the quarterback. Well, I became popular because I was that guy.

I was that other guy. You know, you had the quarterback and I was the neighborhood bad boy. You know, I was the guy that, I mean, something happened on the other side of town. The cops would come to me. All the cops knew me. The main detective in town, Detective Joe Wolf. knew me, chased me for years, liked me, respected me. Like, but I was always, always, always into something.

Do you think getting arrested that first time made you a better criminal? I think that, no, I think that it made me a worse person because I got arrested. I was in the 11th grade. And when I finally went to prison, I was 18. And I went in the Florida system first. And that shit, this is in the 90s and that shit was the jungle. I mean the jungle. Like all the nightmares, the stories, did you hear people faking nowadays?

That shit was what it was back in the 90s. And so I had an extremely rough first prison sentence, you know, trying to like get used to the politics. And, you know, I would get into fights. And I got kicked out of so many prisons. I can't even tell you. I took a tour of like all the Florida, Florida prisons. How did you make it from, you know, being in high school in Baltimore to then Florida by the time you're 18? No, I wasn't in high school.

Oh, sorry. So let me back up the tape. So we lived in Baltimore and at the age of 10, I was tagging and I tagged a car and I got arrested. The cop takes me home. Mom starts freaking out, right? Because where I'm from, to be a brown is like the worst thing possible. Like my family long legacy of like just criminals. So all my life, they call it Brown syndrome.

You know what I mean? Like that's what I was, you know. Stop acting like a Brown. You're one of them Browns, you know. So she didn't want that for me. So she tried to move me away from all of that. And she took me to Florida. Okay, that makes sense.

Then the school bus thing happens and then you're jammed up. What do you get sent to prison for by the time you're 18? We robbed a drug dealer and they called the cops. and they called the cops. The drug dealer is called the cops. Called the cops. Well, you've got to tell us the story behind it. All right, so I had a friend.

She was, her mom was like a boiler maker. She would, like, bounce around, but she was one of the homies. Like, we would commit crimes together. She was just my homie. And she was up in New York and she was trying to get back to Florida. And her mom had a trailer still in the neighborhood.

and she was like, oh, you should go by there and rob the trailer. This is in there, that's in there. Look, just send me a bus ticket. Keep the rest. So that's what it started out on that night. And we go over there, and when we go to hit the house, these dogs next door are barking. So that's a rap. I'm not fucking with that.

So my man Pete, it's like my partner in crime, he's a snitch bitch. Pete Guffingbaum, you a snitch. He, uh, it's my main partner in crime. right. He, he says, hey, yo, you know the acres, right? He said, they're out of town. Their son's graduating from some Marine Corps boot camp in North Carolina. He's like, we should go hit that. And I'm like, all right, you know, so we go over there. Break in the house, I go right to the room. I find a couple pounds of weed. I find a badass bowl. I put that shit in my bag. I'm out. I ain't touching nothing else. My man, he lives right next door to these

people. Pretty much, unbeknownst to me, he goes back like three or four times. He's stealing fucking knickknacks, putting them in a trash bag, and he left a trail from their house to his. So when they come back from the boot camp, they just followed his fucking trail right to his house. I'm minding my own business. I was selling guns for this dude named Lou. He was from New York. I ended up owning him some money So I'm out there hitting licks trying to pay him off And about that same time This whole thing happens

And I was going over to Lewis House To give him some money And Pete was supposed to meet me over there And I'm calling him He ain't there He ain't there And I'm knowing something was up And finally his grandma answered the phone

And told me oh he's at the police station And I'm like I'm not really thinking nothing of it at first because three weeks before this there was an incident and I pulled out a pistol in a BP parking lot and tried to shoot at a couple people. When was the last time you felt in control

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And they're coming around trying to find this gun. And they can't find the gun. So my man, Pete, he works out some slick-ass deal where we're going to tell them where this gun's at. And they give us a $250 crime stoper. ward, right? We literally got paid for turning a gun that we shot at somebody with. I swear, that really happened. Right? Well, my man Pete, I guess he got too comfortable talking to the cops. So a couple weeks later, the motherfucker, when he's at the police station, he's telling on me.

So I got all this stolen shit at my house, right? Not from that, but from other shit, you know, and the cops, they come to my house. And I'm in the yard and they're talking to me. One cop's talking to me and the other one's talking to my mom and they're walking around in the backyard. And there's this fire pit. There's like one acre of woods back there. There's this fire pit. And right beside the fire pit, there's bags. Like, they look like garbage bags, but they're full of it's just stolen shit, jewelry, whatever you can think of. So the one cop's back there with my mom and I'm over here. And I'm street smart by this point, but I ain't like, I've never dealt with the police. So they got me a little bit. So he's like,

He's like, where's all the stolen shit at? I'm like, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Well, as he's talking to me, the other cops walking with my mom, and they're walking closer to the bags of stolen shit. And as they get right next to it, the dude goes. Yo, now's your chance. He said, you should probably tell me where is that right now? We're going to find it.

And as he's saying that, I'm looking at the cops standing there right next to it. So I'm like, all right, bro. I'm like, I'm going to get busted in two seconds anyway. I might as well try to bust a move, you know? So I tell them, all right, you got me, you know. It's right there. The cop standing right next to it. So they get it.

Take me to jail. Four days later, when my mom bonds me out, she goes, you dumb motherfucker, I had them convinced that was just a bag of garbage. And that's what got me. So I get bonded out. And I was out like a year. But when I got bonded out, that shit just made me like a legend in my town because I was the first motherfucker in my high school to go to prison. You know, and it was a big deal when I got locked up.

And now I'm out on bond and I'm still going to high school for a minute. They didn't kick you out of the high school. They did. About two or three weeks later, they came to me and said, you can't go here no more. And I'm like, what? You got arrested. Well, I'm not found guilty. Why are you going to kick me out?

Like, that's counterintuitive to the whole situation, right? You want me to better my life or be a criminal forever? And they did. They kicked me out. How much time do you get for that? For that, I got two years, five months, and 17 days. Why so much for, like, your first offense? Because it was armed burglary of an occupied, unoccupied dwelling.

And it was in Florida at the time. I don't know what it is now. But at that time, if you scored 50, 56 points or more. It was an automatic prison sentence. And my first charge was like 56 points, just the one charge. How could they prove that you did an arm, though? Because they didn't.

Oh, so, okay, so there was a gun involved, right? A gun was stolen. My man brings it to me later on. I saw it off, right? And I carried that fucker around for a long time, too. But I got lucky. I ended up some reason, right before he snitched, I got rid of that gun. And something told me not to tell him.

And I didn't. And because of that, they couldn't charge me with the arm. That shit got dropped. Otherwise, I would have got a lot more time. Why guns? Why were you into guns? Why do you feel like you need to carry around one? Well, at that time, I didn't.

But so there was this guy. He was a good friend of mine. He did some fuck shit. But at the time, he was a good friend of mine. His name was Larry Conley, and I'm an air his ass out on here, too. So his name was Larry Conley. And he was a good friend of mine. And one day he tells me, he said, I don't know nothing about gang shit at this point.

I don't know that it's all around me. But it was. You know, I'm 15. And he goes, yo, I'm about to fight these dudes after school at the lake. He's like, you should be there. I'm like, bro, I can after school today. So he goes. And the next day I ask him, I'm like, yo, whatever happened with that?

And he goes, man, they jumped me. And I'm like, what? So now I feel bad, right? So I go see one of the dudes. I'll bang his head in the locker a couple times. Wow, wow, wow, right? Well, about four or five days later, me, my mother, two of my aunts, like six or seven cousins, my father, me and my father were working on a car. We were outside in the yard, and this fucking car comes by.

And I hear one of my real good friends say, that's Aaron right there. And when he says it, the car starts shooting. and then they go around the block and they come back and they start shooting again and then they go around the block again. And so I don't think nothing about guns at that point. Well then about three weeks later, I had this Rolex. It was a fake Rolex but everybody thought it was real. And so one day the same dude that I slammed the dude head in the locker for because he got jumped.

He calls me one night and he says, hey man, my brother's over here. He don't believe you got no Rolex. He says, bring it over here. I said, all right. I got my buddy with me and me and my buddy Mike. We go over there because it's just one street behind us. We walk over there. And when we get there, I show a dude to watch.

And he's like, hey, yo, my brother-in-law is about to go fight this dude. But we know if we go to the door, homie won't come out the house. He goes, so will you go over there and knock on the door? And I'm like, yeah, right? So we get in the car. Now where I lived at, it was Lake Tropicana, that's my house. neighborhood and it's basically versus Westwood Acres. That's this whole other neighborhood. So as we're driving, I know we're going into Westwood Acres. And I'm like, man, I'm telling Mike,

I'm like, man, this ain't good. So we pull up to this trailer and he goes, this is it. And I'm like, all right, so I jump out the truck and I go knock on the door. Boom, boom, boom. And when that door opened, 15 of my worst enemies came out that door. And they jumped me. When they came out the door, I knew what time it was, but I don't know my buddy set me up. So I run back to the truck and I'm like, yo, take the fuck off. And the truck don't move. And I'm like, fuck. So now I'm up in the truck.

And they got the trucks around him. And dudes like, man, just come out and fight. I'm like, man, y'all ain't going to fight me one on one. They got a pit bull out there trying to bite my ass the whole thing. So finally, I'm like, fuck it. They're going to get me regardless. I might as well jump down there and try to do what I can do. And I did.

And they beat the shit out of me. And then they give me a ride home, right? And this is when I found out how cool my father was. So when I come home and I tell my pops what happened, he's like, he looks at me and he's real serious. And he goes, you want to do a drive-by? And I'm like, no. No, I don't want to do a drive-by with my father. You know what I mean?

But he offered. I swear to God, he offered. That's your real father. Well, my stepfather, he raised me from a baby. Okay. He offered. And so right then that's when I knew if I come out the house, I got to be able to settle whatever dispute comes my way.

You know, one time I almost shot my Aunt Mary in the head because some dudes came by the house and they was going to try to jump me. I'm talking to them the whole time I'm loading up the gun. And right as the whole thing goes down, my parents are coming around the corner. So they start chasing them off because they think they done killed me, you know. It was just a crazy time. You put your parents through a lot.

Oh, man, you have no idea. You have no idea. Wow. It was hard because once I got out, back at that time, like, there wasn't people like you showing people like that people could be rehabilitated and do something positive. There was none of that. You know, I got out with tattoos at a time where a tattoo would mark you for life as a criminal. You know, now you got doctors and lawyers with that shit. But you didn't have it when I got out.

And it just didn't. seemed like it was possible for me to do anything else but commit crimes, you know. My mom would try her best to, you know, help me, but ultimately she couldn't give me any advice. And it took me all the way up until the last two years to really get myself together. Did going to prison at 18 make you a worse person, you think, behavior was? Way worse. Way worse, just because I just... experienced too many negative things in that first run.

Like, I went through a place called Lake Butler. It was notorious. It's called the North Florida Reception Center. And when you go through there, it is extremely rough. So that was my first initiation in there. I come through Lake Butler. And my first time, I was scared, so I kept my mouth shut. And I kind of passed through without a breeze with a breeze.

And then when I came back the second time, everybody else that was around me at Lake Butler was all scared. And me and one other dude, we had been through there before. So we're not scared. We're like smiling when everybody else is like this, you know. And the guards didn't like that shit. So they take you, when you come in off the bus, they strip you butt-ass naked right there. And they put you on this bench. It's right up against the wall.

Big long ass bench. And literally, you hear a lot of people talk about it. Like they talked about it in prison up here, that nut the butt shit. But nobody's really making you nut the butt. But Lake Butler was, they really was, you know. So you was nut the butt and then they would do that. You know, spread your ass cheeks, lift your nuts, then make you spread your mouth around, you know?

Put your fingers all in your mouth after you don't spread your ass cheeks and shit. Now, explain to the audience who's never been to prison what nut to butt is. Nut the butt is a bunch of naked ass men, literally one guy's nuts to the other man's butt. Just that's how compact you are. And why do they do that? I think it's to demoralize you and to dehumanize you and to make you feel like you have no power and break you down so that they can control you. That's what I think. Now, I've heard that these reception centers in Florida are very dangerous.

Absolutely. I can tell, I'm about to share a good one with you. Yeah, give us some insight, man. So this time I'm laughing. I'm sitting there. I'm laughing. And I don't know that I pissed the CO off with the laughing. So once they nut the butt you, make you spread your ass cheeks, lift your nuts,

they've checked you for all your contraband. They put you on this bench. And now you just got your boxers on. It's like 40 degrees in that fucker. I mean, AC blasting. And you're in here for like four or five hours just sitting under this AC, waiting for somebody to call your name to give you a shot or something or a haircut. They're going to skin your hair down to nothing.

You got the prettiest waves. And you're black, they're skinning that shit. And they're going to take pleasure in it. Like, that's what they do. So they skin your hair. And then after that, they put you in this little room and you take your picture. Well, when I make it to that room, the guy says, turn around and face that X. And when I turned around the face to X, he put his finger in the back of this little pressure point right here.

And he jammed it in the country ass. He's like, you know I kill you, boy? And I'm like, not even knowing what the fuck's going on. And he starts banging my head into the wall. Another officer smacked me that time. Yeah, it was just an awful experience. They made me one time, they would tell you, sweep the sun off the sidewalk. Like maybe a female CO came by, you looked at her.

They called her reckless eyeballing. They make you sweep the sun off the sidewalk. They give you a broom and put you out there in the hot-ass Florida sun. And make you sweep from sun up to sundown. And that was if it was a good CO. If it was a bad CO, he makes you sweep the sun off the sidewalk, and you ain't even got a broom. You're just making the motion with your hands.

You don't even have a fucking broom. You're just looking like a fucking idiot for eight hours. You know? Or when they would make you wait for medical, like you're waiting to get shots and stuff, they would put you in the brightest spot. They just skinned your head and they would put you in the most sunny spot and make you stand there for hours. So your second day, you got blisters on top of your head. Your head's fucking peeling. Like, they were disgusting people. Why do you think this made you worse going through this that first time?

It just, it dehumanized me, you know? I didn't really think much of myself at that point. And then my experiences from there were just equally as fucked up. I had a sergeant beat my ass with a two-by-four for two hours one time. For what would you do and what happened? I didn't do anything. So at this point, I started off in Lancaster, CI, which is like a boot camp. Now, if I would have completed that, I would have pretty much got right out.

would have got out in some months. But the way that that worked was when you started off, you were in phase one and you were in this one dorm. And you would do like PT during the, you know, you get up at 4 in the morning and do PT and March for an hour or two. And then you would do all these drills. And then you would go to breakfast and come back. And they were as hard as fuck on you to try to see if they could get you to fail. And if you made it those two weeks, because during those two weeks, you couldn't

order any commissary or nothing. But if you made it those two weeks, they took off your orange hat because they made you wear an orange hat and they gave you a blue hat and you graduated the phase two. And that's when you could order like cigarettes and stuff like that. Well, the first time, I didn't make it out of phase one. So now I got a bunch of buddies on the compound that are in phase two. So everywhere I'm marching, somebody's throwing me cigarettes, right? If I start bringing them back, I'm selling cigarettes in this phase one program for $6 worth of stamps, $7 worth of stamps. And after like two weeks, I don't graduate again. And now they're starting to catch on that I have all these stamps.

I got tobacco. They know it, but they can't catch me. And that's going on for a while. I'm in this phase one program for probably two or three months, a two-week program. And one day this female officer, I was standing near her on the block. She was searching somebody's bunk. All of a sudden she throws herself up against the wall and screams for help on the radio and makes it look like I was trying to assault her.

So the goon squad comes in. They jack me up, take me to the hole. I was in there 30 days. And they transferred me to a Bervard Correctional Institute, which was like three hours away, three and a half. And I was there for some time. I had ended up with an inside grounds job. and it was a tool shed.

And in Florida, you got to get a job, and you might have inside grounds job. And we would hand out like sling blades, or we called them Fred Flintstones, like them push mowers. You know, you might be out there pushing a mower, cutting the grass with the sling blade, and we would check those tools out. While I'm in this tool shed with a good friend of mine named Eddie Whitehurst,

this sergeant, Sergeant Harp, and these two inmates that were always, always with Sergeant Hart. These two big-ass white dudes. They were always with Sergeant Harp. And we were in there for months. Got pretty comfy with the sergeant to the point where we would talk shit. Yeah, fuck you, Sergeant Harp, that type of shit.

His wife would bring his food on Thursdays. Like, you know, it was all right. One day we go in there, and it's a normal-ass day. Sergeant Harp says something to Eddie. And Eddie goes, ah, fuck you, Sergeant Harp. Normal day. when he said that the two inmates grabbed Eddie one of them's got his legs the other one got his arms and Sergeant Harp goes over and he grabbed it was a two by four split right down the middle

so it's about that wide and about two or three feet long and he starts whooping Eddie's ass with that two by four wow wow and I'm like I can't help Eddie I want to jump in that shit but I can't help Eddie so I just look out the window and act like I don't see that shit right I don't see nothing and I'm looking out the window and they're beating Eddie forever. I'm just looking out that window. How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount.

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And then they started beating me. And they beat me for about five or ten. minutes. And I didn't even do shit like nothing. So then while he was beating Eddie, one of his arms got out and he hit Sergeant Hart right in the eye and gave him a black eye. And so when Sergeant Hart was done beating the shit out of us, he goes, look, if y'all tell anybody, I'm going to tell him y'all was in here trying to hit me and who you think they're going

to believe. So we ain't going to say shit. We wasn't going to say shit anyway. So we get out of there. And it was probably two or three days later. this female CO. She was pretty cool. Every once in a while, she'd give you a new port or something like that. She called us up into the little CO's office in the bubble. She called us up there,

and she goes, I suppose you guys ain't going to tell me what happened, right? And I'm like, no. And she goes, why don't y'all lift your shirts up? And we lifted our shirts up. And we were black and blue from our necks down. I mean, it was bad. I was black from my neck down to my knees.

And when we lifted our shirts up, shirts up, she started crying. And she was like, no, not again. Not again. Fuck this. Not again. And she called the warden's office. So the next thing I know me and Eddie are down in the warden's office. And the warden's talking to us. And he's like, look, you guys ain't in any trouble. He's telling us, like, this sergeant's done this before. You know, you guys are going to have to go to the hole, but you're not in any trouble. It's just an investigation. So we're going to move you. How was that Bervard, CI, the West unit. So they moved me back to the main unit at this point.

And they put us in the hole. And then they transferred us. So we never found out what happened to Sergeant Harp. And my mom tried, because they took pictures of it. The deputy was willing to testify. Man, there wasn't a lawyer in the state of Florida that would take that case. Nowadays, a motherfucker gets smacked and he gets $300,000. I got beat black and blue.

and a lawyer wouldn't even touch that case. So you couldn't find other inmates that happened to to kind of like get some type of case going? No, because they put me in the hole and then they immediately shipped me out. And they shipped me like seven hours away to Century Correctional Institute. From where I was at, from the rec yard at Century C.I.

You could see the guard tower to the prison and Atmore, Alabama. That's how far away they sent me. Yeah, because it sounded like the nurse's reaction was that there was, this has happened before. Yeah, she did say that, but she didn't elaborate. Yeah.

Too bad you can't find the nurse. I know. Now, you just described a lot of prison guard on inmate violence. Was there a lot of inmate on inmate violence? So, yes, initially. So when I first went in, I just didn't know the politics. You know, maybe I'd make a slick comment or something like that and get myself in a fight. And then when in the juvenile, what is the youthful offender?

I was sentenced as a youthful offender. It was my first offense. I was under the age of 24. So anybody between the age of 16 and 24 at the time could be a youthful offender. And they would send you to, we called them Jit camps. Yeah, I've heard that from 1090, Jake. Yeah, so we called them Jit camps and they'd send you to a Jit camp. Well, the Jit camps were wild.

And Brevard was the wildest one because that was the last stuff. for youthful offenders. Once you left there, you were going to adult prison, which is what they did with me. But in there,

it was more of a, like they'd be like, get there. That's all they say, get there. And you just go in the corner and fight it out. And win,

lose or draw, you had your respect. There was no games, right? It was purely violence-based. So it was like, all right, we're going to go fight

and what the fuck ever. We're cool later, but we're going to fight right now, you know, and that's what it was. So someone would just challenge you to a fight randomly or was it provoked or how I would say mostly it was provoked but one time I got in a fight over a loaf of bread uh you know somebody gave me a couple slices of bread felt like

I owed him a loaf back you know that type of shit well tell us the story uh there was this dude um i don't even remember his name right now but we were fairly tight you know we're cooking together and shit you know all the time and uh it was like a week before i got my commissary he gave me enough he gave me a couple pieces of bread to make a sandwich. And that next week, I'm at the commissary. I'm getting my shit. And he goes, yo, let me get that loaf of bread. I'm like, what you mean?

Let you get that. What are you talking about loaf of bread? He said, I gave you that bread for that sandwich last week. I need that loaf of bread. Like, I ain't giving you no fucking loaf for bread. You know what I'm saying? So when we go back to the thing, I ain't even thinking nothing of it. And I was sitting in a chair.

I was sitting on my bunk. and there it was all open bay. That was another thing that made it kind of rowdy. So you had basically like 120 bunks just wide open. And I was sitting on that bunk and a homie just walked by and jacked me. I mean, he hit me so hard. It took me about 20 minutes to get my shit together to go back and beat the shit out of that motherfucker. It took me about 20 minutes.

That's how hard he hit me. He hit me that hard over a loaf of bread. So do you ever end up giving him the bread or that was it? Fuck, no, I ain't giving the breath. So you guys were good after the fight? Yeah, we were good after that. We ended up being in a couple different prisons together, you know, later on. So it was a lot of petty stuff that's what people would fight over.

The dumbest shit. I think that most of the time in their, most of the more violent situations I've seen have been petty. Now, in Florida, some of the, ironically, I've not seen that anywhere else. I've been around. But in Florida, he was mostly petty shit. Or somebody would be, they called them their punks. You know what I'm saying? Like, you'd see them too.

Like some dudes, they come in, right? They might be wearing a 36 when they come in. And then next week they're wearing like a 28th. And that shit's tight as fuck. You mean like their pants? Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, I swear to God.

They got punked out. And you better not even look at, look in that motherfucker's direction. I promise you. You better not even look in his direction. Because the motherfucker that's with him is ready to kill. ass about that shit. Did anyone try to punk you out because you were young and white in there? So yeah, that actually did happen.

That led to me. I think that was at that moment right there is where what established me to the point where I didn't really have any more problems after that. So I didn't know it. So in Florida, and I've heard you talk about this on a show before, in Florida it wasn't race-based, right? There was no race-based cars. It's more like we call it home team, right? So when you get to a prison, somebody, they'd be like, where are you from? Oh, Cala.

There's your boys right over there. You know, they point. And them might be black, Spanish, whoever, but these are the people you can trust, right? Those are the people that are going to give you your first bit of commissary to get on or let you hold something until you get your stuff. So when I first hit adult prison One of the dudes that was in my car Was this black dude

I ain't really known And I didn't like him right off the get right out the bat You can just tell he was a grimy dude But he's part of the home team You know? So he's there, right? I'm cooking with another dude He was in there for murder

But I knew him from the streets Right? So that's my man And so I would be cooking with him all the time But this dude was his man, right? But I don't really like him, so I'm, I'm there, but I'm trying to not fuck what that dude. And then my home boy, he gets moved off the block.

And now it's just me and this dude. Well, I started noticing little shit. Like, I go to the shower and home me be in the shower. You know what I'm saying? So then I'm like, all right, is this motherfucker like really following me to the shower? You know what I mean? That type of shit. and I would fucking try to take showers at odd moments.

Like I see him playing poker and not jump in the shower. And sure enough, that motherfucker would follow me over there to the shower. But then one day I was out on the block. I was out on the yard and I come back. I forget what it was. But homie was like, yo, why are you talking to that dude? I'm like, man, I talk to whoever the fuck I want to. What are you talking about?

She better not talk to him again. I'm like, man, I'm going to talk to whoever the fuck I want to. You know what I mean? What he was trying to do is see what he could get away with, right? Because if I just sit there and be like, oh, yeah, I won't talk to him no more. Then he can push a little further. Well, he kept trying to push. And it was so bad that I would go to sleep at night thinking about killing this motherfucker.

He never really tried it. He ain't tried me. You know what I mean? He ain't trying no gay shit with me. But he just fucked with me to the point where I'm just like, I got to get homie out the way, you know. So I end up, I go to the warden. And I tell him, I'm like, yo, I want to go to the non. smoking dorm and at the time I smoked but I'm like fuck it man I get away from home boy I ain't

got worried about getting in no shit fucking up my parole you know what I'm saying so boom I slide over there I'm there for about maybe a week or two um I had this radio I bought it from a guard for a hundred bucks and uh it was in my locker homie shows up on the block I'm like what the fuck he must have told him he want to go to a non-smoking too right And I ain't do no pussy shit, like try to put a separation or none. I ain't going to do nothing like that. So he's there. So now he's on my block.

Well, I go to the yard, right? And when I get out on the yard, homie's got my radio. He then broke into my locker and got my radio. So I go over to him and I snatch that shit back, right? Because I'm new to this. I'm a dumb ass too, right? I'm pretty loudmouthed and just been known to be, you know, not very thinking in moments like that.

So I just snatch it back. And he goes, I'm about to come over there, kill you and all your homies. He's talking some shit. He's telling his buddy to go get his shank and all that shit. So while he's saying that now, I'm fearing for my life. So I get back to the block. And I go ahead and I get my master lock. And at the time we had these belts.

And I took that belt off. And I had heard stories. I don't know from experience, but I had heard stories about people hitting and somebody with the sock and the lock popping out the end of it, and now you just got a sock, you know what I mean? And I don't want that to happen to me. So I put my shit on a belt. Then I put that in the sock.

And the way these buildings were set up, it was like a T building. He had the officer's bubble in the middle and then one long wing over here. And then on the other side, there was one long wing. And he would have to come down a sidewalk, come in a door. And when you come in this door, you're looking at the officer's bubble in front of you. And you got to walk right up to that bubble almost. and make a left around the corner to come back into the bedding area. And I was waiting at that window.

And I seen him coming down the walk. I watched him come in the door. And when he came in the door, I went up to the corner right there at the officer's bubble. So this whole thing happened at the officer's bubble. And when he came around the corner, I cracked him right in this shit with that lock. And he fell down. Well, when he fell down, he had this, it must have been a piece of a fence post, because it was about this long

and it was braided. He took a piece of the boot string and he braided a handle around it and he had that tied to his wrist. And when I saw that, I'm like, he's trying to kill me. You know what I mean? And I'm not, I'm not no gangster

at this point. I'm just a scared motherfucking kid, you know? And I seen that and I just started wailing. And I wailed until my arm got tired of wail them. And then they took me and put me in the hole. They didn't give me a shower. I was covered in homie's blood. They told me I killed them.

I told my mama I killed him. I thought I killed him. And then about two weeks later, they transferred me from Century C.I. To home CI. And it was only after I got there that I found out the homie didn't die. And then are they taking away your good time for this or any? In Florida, you don't got no good time.

That's what made it. So I think probably made it so violent. There's no incentive to be good. Because like up here, for instance, when I was in prison in Pennsylvania, I was a model inmate. Not the same inmate than I am typically. Because here, if you get a fucking write-up for cutting somebody's hair in the cell, they're going to take all your shit, all your good time. You know, and they'll give you sentences like two to four years or four to eight.

Like me, I got a two and a half to eight. So I could get out in two and a half Or if I fuck up in there I'm gonna do the whole eight For a dumb ass write-up I I wasn't, that wasn't gonna be me So

So how old are you when you get out From that first Florida bid Where you kind of hopped around 22 You were 22 and you did two years Two and a half Two and a half Okay

I had to max it all the way So you get out what happens next I get out I did not try to get a job My brother, he's dead now, but he had the gift of gab and everybody loved him and he was a hustler. You know, he knew everybody. He knew where everything was. You know, everybody kind of gravitated towards him.

And he was in the club scene at the time and the ecstasy. And when I got out, I got kind of wrapped up in that and taking this dude to Orlando and picking up ecstasy and coming back. to the clubs and selling it and raving and I think I was out for six months and I went right back. Would you get jammed up for that time? Dealing and stolen property. Dealing and stolen property. Okay. So like you were stealing items and selling it?

No, actually that time my buddy went into a pawn shop to try to pawn something and he didn't have his ID and he asked me. So I went in there and helped him out and ended up being a necklace. They were stolen from another friend of mine. mine, right? And his girl called the cops. She didn't want to, like, he didn't want to book me, but it was already too late. And you didn't want to snitch, I'm guessing. Yeah, I'm not saying anything. How much time do you get for that? So I went back in 2000. I think I did probably 18 months that time. And that was probably what, like a probation violation too? Yeah. Okay. It was a probation

violation, dealing a stolen property. And I think maybe. false information to a palm broker potentially. Did you like being back in that present environment after experiencing it the first time? No. I hated it.

I hated it. I never felt, I'm sure like there's people in my past that'll probably tell you that motherfucker loved it. You know? They would think that. But in reality, I hated it.

I never wanted to be like that. But people thought I was really good at it. You know what I mean? So then what happens after that? How do you make it back out here? So I get out, I get out that time, and I actually stayed out for a long time, like 10 years. Oh, really?

Yeah. No issues, nothing? Were you on drugs at all? I'm not going to say there was no issues. I was probably definitely still committing my fair share here and there, but it was more sporadic. I ended up having kids. And what were you doing for work for those 10 years? I definitely wasn't working.

I was hustling. You were hustling. For sure. That's a good run. Oh, I had like, well, 2002 to 2015, like 13 years. And all in Florida? Are you a transition? All in Florida.

Okay. So why do you decide to come here then? I was on the run. From Florida? I still have a warrant. From Florida? Yeah. What did you do that made you on the run?

Robbery. And they don't care about picking you up now? No. I probably shouldn't have said that, but they might be pissed off. and want me now. Leave me alone. I'm just a simple guy. What kind of robbery? Strong arm. I basically robbed a drug dealer, but I just took it. I just took it this time. They were actually there. I just took it from them.

I just straight up took it from them. And he reported it too? Fucking called the cops. He fucking called the cops. I could not believe it. That's too funny that all these Florida drug dealers are called the cops. Called the cops right on me. And what do they say, like, that he stole my drugs? He had a prescription. So even though he was selling his prescription, they were dilaudits, you know, it was about $10,000 worth of pills, but they were legally acquired. So when I took them, he just called on me.

And you knew they were coming for you, so you flood the state? So, no, I didn't flee. They ended up catching me. This is a funny story. So they catch me. I go to jail. but I had previously been accused of a murder, and this murder kind of happened in the same district.

And I kind of... The cops, a gun that was mine, okay? It was, the cops, no, this is my gun. At least they definitely believed that it was my gun. I'm not going to confirm whether it was or not. But they're like, that's your gun. and it was used in a crime. They killed this guy and then planted the gun there.

Like the person that killed this guy left that gun there because he knew that that gun might get traced back to me, right? And so they end up picking me up. And I probably would have got cooked for that murder, but it just so happened to me that it happened on a day when I was in Ohio picking up my daughter. And I had to call the cops to get her because my ex-wife wasn't letting me have.

and I got the custody order and I'm pissed because I drove all that way. And I had to get a sheriff to, like, help me get my daughter. And it just so happened to be that that was when the murder happened. And that got me off, right? But they know I know who did it, right? Because they say that's my gun. So when I get picked up for this robbery, I think I'm in for probably six months, and I realized that it's in the same district.

It's in a strange city. I always get locked up far away from where I live. you know, I never know anybody. Like, it's just, that's how it is. And this was another one of those times. And, uh, but I know I'm in the same district. So one day, after like eight months, they're trying to send me to prison for like 10 years. And I'm like, let me see what I can bullshit my way out of.

Because I've, I'll fake the move on them before, right? One time they got me for selling ecstasy. I told the cop I would, I would help them out. And these motherfuckers actually let me out of jail, gave me a business card and told me to report on Monday. and I never showed up. I never showed up. And then I went on the run for a year. But that's another story.

So anyway, I tell them, I'm like, look, see what they could do about a murder in the fifth judicial circuit. I'm like, if I knew something about it, could they let me out? He's like, yeah. So boom, he talks to him and shit. And he's like, yeah, don't work with you, by, blah, blah, blah. They end up taking me to court. this is how stupid them motherfuckers were. They took me to court.

I swear to God. They took me to court, allowed me to plea out to two years probation under the idea of the guys that I was going to help them on this situation, right? Well, I hadn't helped them yet. And they signed this order letting me out, right? So now I'm out. Obviously, it's fuck you.

I'm not helping you. I'm out. Well, I'm on probation now. I'm on two years probation. And it actually was a simple thing that got me on the run. I was supposed to go take a piss test, and I ended up having a seizure, and I fell down the stairs, fell down these stairs, and I cut my leg all up. And I went to the hospital.

And I was in there for like seven or eight hours. And when I get out, the probation office was closed. Well, I had my friend tell him, you know, he's on. on the way to the hospital when I was going to the hospital. And when I got out the next day, I called my parole officer. He goes, I think you're bullshit. And he said, I call you to take a drug test. He goes, now you're in the hospital?

I said, well, I'm not bullshitting. I really am injured. I'm on crutches. Like, and I got the paperwork. What do you want me to do? He said, well, bring it in when you come in next Friday. I said, all right, I will. So that next Friday, my daughter that's out there now,

she was actually on her way to see me. And I'm like, let me stop by the probation office real quick. And I had that paperwork with me. And when I'll go in there, they got, they're stalling me out. I'm in there for like an hour. And I'm the only person there. So I know something's not right. I've been in here too long.

And finally, he comes out and he goes, it'll be just five more minutes. And I'm like, all right. Five minutes goes by. And he fucking comes back out and he gets me, takes me back there. I'm hobbling. I'm on crutches. And when I get back there, there's a cop, and he cuffs me. And he goes, you know what this is about, right?

I'm like, no, I don't. He goes, I asked you to come in for a drug test. You didn't show up. I said, I was in the hospital. I said, here's the paperwork. I didn't do nothing wrong. Like, why are you taking me to jail? Like, you know this is fucked up.

He goes, look, I'm going to make a copy of it. And I'm going to give you this, the original to show the judge in the morning. Because in Florida, when you get locked up, they take you the first appearance the next day. And you're going to see the judge. they might let you out. But I got a violation of probation. There's no chance. I'm getting out, right?

They don't do that. So I go to first appearance the next day, and I talk my ass off. And I'm telling a judge, look, I did everything by the book. I had a medical emergency. I notified my parole agent. Like, here's the paperwork. And he goes, son, this is what I'm going to do. He says, I'm going to let you out today.

He said, I'm going to give you a court date in 30 days. he said, you bring that paperwork back here and we'll see what we can get figured out. I said, all right. So by the time that all happened, I don't know, my family was done with me. So I ended up having to leave town with some girl that I used to know back in the day. I end up in Clearwater. And I had that court date coming up. And I just couldn't get a ride there.

I'm too far away now. And my buddy that lived up here, he was like, oh, you should just come up here. And I did. and I think I was up here like four or five months. I end up meeting this bad bitch. And right about that time, I kind of rose to my highest point in the criminal world. Everything just kind of started snowballing. The people I was living with, they had like a $5,000 electric bill they needed to pay.

And I'm like, well, shit, let me try to help out. So I start scheming. And one thing turns into another, and now I'm selling Coke over here. I'm fencing stolen goods over here. I'm jacking coin shops over here. I got all this shit going on. And I ended up getting busted. I ended up getting busted.

That was in Pennsylvania. Yeah. How long were you in Pennsylvania for before you got busted? Seven or eight months. Oh, so it wasn't a long run. I did not make it long at all. but I thought I was pimping because I was living on the like border of New York right there. So I would like have people go all the way to like Philly or Pittsburgh and Jackson construction equipment mainly.

I had a guy. He was up in Westfield, New York, and he would take. If I had a bulldozer, he would take it. No ID and give me the cash for it. Do you think that if you stayed in Florida went to your court date, you would have got your life on track or no? I don't think so because down there I got way too many. connections. Down there is the spot where I put in all my work at so the people know me. It's kind of hard to stay on the straight and narrow in that environment.

So you probably would have beat that charge. Yes, I would have beat that charge. Holy cow. I would have. And instead I came up here and I got stuck. And how much time do you get here? Two and a half to eight. And was that based on your criminal record in the past, too? they saw the felonies.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What was the major difference between a Pennsylvania State Prison and a Florida State prison? Pennsylvania is like daycare. Anybody that comes out of Pennsylvania prison talking some gangster stories is lying. That shit is like daycare. The officers are so civilized. They talk to you politely.

They show you respect. I'm used to the officers talking to you like you're a piece of shit smacking you around. You know what I mean? Looking to start 2026 with an unforgettable getaway. Fiji Airways sale is on now. Fly non-stop round-trip to Fiji from just 748. Or enjoy a sunny Fiji stopover on your way to Australia with round-trip fairs starting from 839.

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Here, the safest you could be. Even if somebody jumped on you, you ain't going to last but 30 seconds, and there's 20 COs there. You know, so it's very safe in Pennsylvania. What was your mindset going into that prison? That I was going to just mind my fucking business and not catch a right up and get the fuck out. Why did it change?

Why did you have that mindset? Because when they put me in the county jail up here, I was in this Warren County jail, a small town right outside of Erie. And please see you this way. When the judge sentenced me, I went to prison because of my conduct in the county. And the judge told me when he sentenced me, he said, son, in my 27 years on this bench, I have never had a defendant come before me with as many violent write-ups. you. I had probably had like 20 or more assaults in that county jail and anybody who's been in

that Warren County jail in 2060 they know like they're still talking about me in that county jail forever. Over what? What would happen? Well, I was there five days. I threw a cup of piss in a dude's face. Somebody said he came in there for kicking this pregnant girl and so I threw this cup of piss in his face. First. piss of the morning. You know what I mean? I'm smashing his face. But he's locked in this little cell, right?

They won't, because they're trying to protect him because of what he's in there for. And his bar is on the cell, so I just dash him. And he just covers up, right? He just covers up, takes it. Well, then I come out, they popped the door for lunch. And I dash him again. And he just slicks his hair back. Well, a few minutes later, they came in and they took him out.

And it wasn't. too long thereafter that they came back and they got me. And then they were trying to make a massive stink about it. I told the warden, I'm like, you know, I threw water on dude. Because they were like, if I can find, if I can prove that you threw piss on this guy, you're going to do 10 years. You're going to do 10 years. That's exactly what he told me.

He said, if I can prove that you threw piss on this guy. But he couldn't because right after it happened, they came in there. They took dude out. The inmates cleaned the shit out of that cell for me. So I just did a little bit of whole time. Well, then after that, there was an old man. His name was Paul Coker. I'm kind of still friends with him today.

He was telling me this story about this guy, and he was on another block with him, and the guy had stole like six or seven bars of soap from him. And I told old man Coker, I said, if I ever see him, I got you, you know? I think it was probably maybe a month or two later. I was in the hole. And dude comes into the hole.

And I don't really know nothing about the dude. But ironically, earlier in the day, I get into it with this one dude, Zach rounds. That's his name. And I punched Zach right in this shit. He just takes it. He just stands there. I think figure that's soft, you know, whatever.

Most of the people in that county jail were soft. So I punched Zach. Well, then later on, this dude comes on the block, and now me and Zach are allies, right? Because this guy snitched on Zach on the streets. And Zach's like, yo, he told on me. And I'm like, well, put that shit out there on the bars. Like, tell everybody. So he's saying it.

And the dude's running his mouth. And I'm like, yo, Zach, I got you. Just tell him to come to the wreck yard. So a dude comes to the wreckyard. And I let Zach take off on him for a couple seconds. But then he started getting the better of Zach. So then I just started beating him. Well, then he fell.

And I started kicking him. Well, on the bottom of the workout yard up there, there was this metal piece of trim. It was about this wide. And people would, like, hide notes under it for, like, the girls. The girls would use the same rec yards. So they'd hide notes under there. And then a guy would get that note and he'd leave a note. Well, part of that metal was peeling back, and I didn't see it.

So every time I'm kicking him, His head is bouncing up and down on this jagged ass piece of metal. And it's on camera, too, you know, so we end up getting busted for that. And that just is building my name up in this county jail. Well, then it started being like, I would go to the hole for a fight. And then when I would go to get out, I couldn't get out. I couldn't go to any block because people had separations on me. Or maybe, like, say, a dude was on B block.

They were about to move him to see. He'd be like, yo, Miami's in. see, I can't come there because he'll do something to me. That's what they called me, Miami. He'll do something to me, you know what I mean? So I can't go there. And I had that happen a lot. And I would just get into fights. People would piss me off. They just didn't know how to do jail. They were soft. I would get in fights over like the TV or the bar or soap or one time this dude, he was trying to look tough. his name was Pat. Pat something.

They called him country. Somebody out there knows this motherfucker's name. Anyway, they called him country. He had been to prison before. He was a fake-ass gangster, though. He would tell everybody's stories. Like he would tell him, oh, I used to take Miami's cake

and we was back there on D-block, that type of shit. I would hear people. They'd come to the hole, and they would tell me stories that homie had said. And I'm like, man, that motherfucker didn't take my cake, that type of shit. So one day I get out of the hole, and they put me on D block.

I don't know the dude is there. I don't even know what dude looks like for real. But dude was on that block talking so much shit trying to make himself look tough. And then I walk on the block. And I know everybody's like, that's Miami right there. But I don't know who he is.

So I'm at a disadvantage because I don't know who he is. I don't know that he's there. And I come out, I chop it up with a couple people that I know. And I go back in my cell. And I was blowing my nose. It was my back to the door.

And homie came in the door. And he hit me one time. That's the only time he hit me. And he hit me with a good one, though. I had a black eye for like two or three weeks. But that was the only time he hit me. And then I turned around, and my first punch was a wild one. I hit him in the forehead.

And it broke my hand. Like, it broke my hand. It sucked. But I end up fighting him in there for about, I don't know, probably five or ten minutes. And he, he, he, he, he, he ended up fighting him in there for about, I don't know, probably five or ten minutes. And, uh, he, he, he, he, he. He leaves. We both get rowed up.

It was just a little shit like that. We'd go to the rec yard and knock somebody out on the rec yard because they was talking shit when we was in the hole. Just a bunch of stupid shit. I just, at that point, I really didn't figure I had anything to lose. I didn't know that those write-ups from the county follow you to prison because where I'm from, they don't. Like, you can kill somebody in the county jail.

The judge ain't going to know anything about it when he's sentencing you. Yeah, I think in most states, they don't carry over. But in Pennsylvania, it does. And they talk about all that shit. And they had a lot to say about me. You know, I was just, that was the one time that I was the worst I've ever been. So why did you decide to change your mindset then when you actually got to the regular prison? Um, it wasn't when I got there.

I just knew that I had to stay low key in order to get out. And I got out. When did you get out? What year? 2018. I was in a halfway house up in Erie. But I ended up, I met the meth plug. And I got into that.

And I started selling meth up there. And that led me, I didn't go back to prison because they couldn't catch me with the actual product. But they would catch me with enough shit that they could send me to like this PV center called Gateway. And they would keep sending me back there. So I'd get out. I'd be out for three or four weeks, you know, enough for my name to build a little buzz. Oh, yeah, homies over there with them $20 grams and meth and shit, you know. And then I'd get busted and they'd send me back to the halfway house. And that went on for a while.

I wanted to change, but I just didn't know how. I didn't have anybody positive around me. And then I ended up in this place called Pennsylvania Adult and Teen Challenge in 2020. And ironically, my mom was just telling a story the other day. I got kicked out of there because I, and there was an incident with a straight razor and another inmate. And so I get kicked out of this place. But enough happened there to like spark a change in me.

And I just started like praying more. And because really that's the only thing I had. I didn't have people, you know, that I could really talk to or that could understand me. to figure it out on my own, you know, and I would just pray about the shit, pray about the shit. And then slowly but surely, over time, I just started doing more and more normal shit, got a job, you know, started holding down the job. And, you know, not doing the things that I used to do. I ended up getting my daughter back, you know, things like that. Started getting ambition, thinking about what I actually want to do with myself.

But it was a rough road getting there. It was, you know, I slipped and went back to prison probably two or three, four times before I was able to get it right. How long have you been on a clean act for now? About two years. Two years. Yeah. Why do you think this has been your longest time, but, you know, staying on the straight and arrow? Something just changed in me.

I started looking at that and really just seeing it for what it was, you know. You come out and, you know, do things to survive or, you know, to build your rep up or to whatever. But ultimately, that shit's just fake, shallow-ass shit. Like, you know, clothes or a car, you know, have you covet that type of shit? You don't have anything in life, you know? You can't covet that. Like, nowadays, I try to covet, like, memories. and experiences and the people, you know, that are there with me, not things.

How does it make you feel, you know, thinking about how much of your life you've lost to crime and the streets in prison? Is that like a motivator for you? It is. I just figure I didn't have anybody to, like, show me the way out. And I didn't have anybody else around me that made it out, you know, because it's rare for, That shit was like climbing Mount Everest to get out of that shit. I swear because I didn't know anything else. Like, I didn't know anything else. I'm still learning, like, how to be a normal, productive citizen.

I definitely am one today. I was just telling my mom today in the car. Like, this is the first time I've ever been in a relationship that I actually check all the boxes for a woman. Like, you know what I mean? Did I have something to offer? That's awesome. It was the first time in my life. Yeah.

Are you, like, cautious of who you let into your life to make sure it doesn't trigger anything from the past? I just try to only let good people into my life, you know, people that, you know, the people that are around you should inspire you and make you want to do better and make you want to be more, you know. They shouldn't keep you in whatever shit you're in. they should make you want to be better and get out of that. And I didn't have that. I had to be that for myself, you know. What advice would you give to someone that's struggling to get out of that cycle, you know, whether it's addiction or crime or prison?

What advice do you give to them to break it? Just keep trying. I was addicted, too. I was addicted to oxy. And I had a rough road with that. That just wasn't what led me to prison. but when you're in that, you just don't feel like you've lost the self-esteem. Like for me, I lost that self-esteem.

The more dirt you do and the shitty stuff that you do, if you're a good person at your core, you know, if you're a shitty person at your core, you can do all the dirt in the world, and you ain't going to lose an ounce of sleep over that shit. But if you're a decent person at heart and you're doing all that shit, you know, that's like a war within your own. own self, you know? And you're going to fall, you're going to fail at times, you know,

like if you're addicted to drugs. You know, just because you quit don't mean you might not slip one day and maybe you get high tomorrow, you know, it's not, my uncle told me, and he was a lifelong heroin junkie, and he ended up beating it in his later years and got married and stuff, and he told me. He said, it's not about falling. He says it's about how you pick yourself back up, you know. You can fall all you want to. As long as you keep getting up, it don't matter what it looks like right now.

Just keep getting up. If you just keep getting up and walking forward, life will work itself. I'm sitting on this fucking podcast today. I was the biggest piece of shit in the world. In the world, I'm on a fucking podcast. Yeah. Anybody that knows me, I'm blowing their fucking minds right now.

And you're doing terrific, too. And that's great advice. What are like some goals you want to achieve? Well, I think I kind of, for the first time in my life, I actually have a pretty clear vision of what I want to do. I'm an artist. And in my time in prison, I've met other artists like dope artists. That ain't ever getting out.

Maybe they don't deserve to be there. So I'm trying to get off this little clothing line, which I'm ultimately going to try to, like, open up, like, almost like an artist retreat. I want to buy a piece of property. I want to have a couple cabins set up where, like, people can stay, but also have, like, a big art studio. Where I can, like, take some of these dudes, maybe they're just getting out of jail. Or maybe they've already been out. And, you know, they're not having no success where I can, we can work on these designs and sell these, this merch, you know what I mean?

and change people's lives in the process. You know, I got here. I want to inspire some other people, too. Doesn't it feel good to have goals and, you know, dreams? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, Aaron, thank you so much, man, for making the trip out here and sitting down with me today.

Loved hearing your story. And, you know, I wish you the best. And I think it's definitely an inspiring some people to change their life, too. I appreciate that.