Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - How I Survived Prison at 21 Years OLD...

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

How I Survived Prison at 21 Years OLD...

It sounds like a fucking animal shelter, you know? It was like, it sounded like a jungle in there. And I just remember thinking, oh, my God, this is going to be hard as fuck. Hey, this is Matt Cox, and we're doing a video on, or a podcast on Andrea Carswell's story. I say it right? Andrea? Andrea. Andrea, okay.

Andrea Carswell. Okay. So, and yeah, so that's it. so I'm sorry I mean I just don't know much about the story so I know you were on doc you were on I always say I'm gonna tell you this too I don't know if I mentioned this the other day I always say doc TV a lot of people I think read it that way yeah he always he always he always says DOC and I was like bro why do you say DOC he's like department of the corrections like why are you saying doc and I was like because I thought like maybe that was

your nickname he is like what are you nuts and I was like I really genuinely felt have felt this whole time like probably in prison his nickname name was doc yeah a lot of people i think read it doc but yeah it's d oc so anyway department of yeah florida department of corrections uh so it's it's d oc tv 813 yep and uh so anyway you were interviewed on there and so yeah we're doing it we're gonna do an interview and we're just gonna talk about you've been in prison twice you've got 22 felonies 22 convictions yeah felony convictions by the age of 22 i'm third almost 32 now but yeah so so where were you born so i was born in Pontiac Michigan, and then my family decided to move down here to Florida when I was about 11, like right

before Detroit really started to fall. My family decided to move out of there and come down here. We lived with my grandmother for a little while, and then my parents built a house in our neighborhood. And so I started going to school. I ended up having to go to summer school after fifth grade because I was behind a little bit, which is weird or whatever to go to summer school that young. And I met one of my first friends. I'm in summer school. I even, I even failed like the second grade. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. So I met one of my first friends in Florida. And she actually, her and her family lived two houses down from where my parents were building their house. And she had a huge family, seven brothers and sisters total. And we got really close. But there was a lot of older. You know, her brothers and sisters were older. So that's where I kind of started hanging out there. And we all started doing drugs together and stuff like that. When I met them, I was 11. We probably, we probably started debilers. and drugs and stuff when we turned like 13, 14, started smoking weed and doing that stuff. But then we ended up trying pain pills.

You know, when I was growing up, when I was in like the age where you're trying new drugs, experimenting, having fun partying, it was like the pain pill epidemic. And so, unfortunately, which are super addictive, you know, so that's what I got hooked on at the age of about 15. I was addicted to pain pills. So like through almost all my high school years. Yeah. Okay.

So I don't know if people know about the, like, a painful addiction and stuff, but the withdrawals from it are severe. Right. You won't do almost anything to get them. So that's where I was at. I was in high school still, barely struggling to, like, make it through, you know, trying to hide it from my parents because my family doesn't use drugs. My mom doesn't. My brother doesn't.

My dad didn't. I was kind of like the black sheep of that. And so I made it through high school, barely. I mean, did they figure out, like, were you caught several? You have to have been caught. Yeah, yeah. I mean, of course my mom could see it. I was obviously skinny, you know, drawn out, tired, staying away from home all the time.

You know, I would miss school. So they figured it out. And then I ended up, like, she always knew, but I would never tell her, never tell her, never tell her, never tell her, you know. So then finally I wanted to get clean. When I think I was about 17, I might have been home, or maybe just turned 18. I was like, I'm done. I want to get clean. So I told my dad.

And my dad was like, well, we knew something was going on, you know, whatever. So then when my mom got home, I told her. And my mom actually worked for pain manager. she has her whole life she does medical billing but she's worked for pain management doctors so when I told my mom what pills I was using she immediately knew immediately knew the problem and immediately knew how serious it was and I tried to use she took me to her one of her doctors and I tried to get off of pain pills with suboxin right and boxin that's like huge in in prison like what I mean guys get out like they'll then they'll get addicted to suboxone yeah so when I started taking it it was

still in like a pill they didn't have like they have strips now they didn't have have those. It was still a dissolvable pill. And it was super expensive. They were, they were like, I think they were like $14 a pill in the pharmacy, which is at that, at the time, oxycodone roxies were a dollar in the pharmacy, 80 cents. So, you know, like that's like one of those things with society. It's like, what the fuck? Who's going to get off pain pills if their pain pills are only 80 cents if they have to pay $14 for a pill that's not going to get them high? I never got high on Suboxins, I, um, what I would do is actually I would sell them. I ended up selling them to get pills because I didn't want to, you know, I was, I thought I was ready, but I wasn't.

How, and you were 17? I was 17, maybe 18, you know, I was right on, it was right there, right getting ready to graduate high school, all that. So I did that. That didn't work. I continued to use. And, um, eventually I started to be an IV user. I started to inject, um, pain pills. Oh, pain pills? Yeah. A lot of, because a lot of people will move from like oxies to to like heroin because it's cheaper. So heroin always freaked me out. I always scared me. I don't know what it is.

I guess it's just because I felt like pain pills, I knew what they were. You know, it's a pill that came from the pharmacy. I know what's in it. I know it could still kill me and if I, you know, overdose and all that. But heroin and stuff like that always freaked me out because, you know,

I always been told about rat poison and shit like that in heroin. So I think also it's like, to me, it's got less of a stigma to it me like like I don't think I feel I don't feel like I've ever really taken drugs but yeah but I was but yeah but you did take pharmaceutical drugs and I'm thinking well yeah but I had a prescription well it doesn't matter like you're what are you doing like it's no what's the difference is that if you didn't have a so the difference is I have a script the doctor said it was okay yeah so it's just stupid but in my mind it made it okay yeah yeah they were they were just

legal drug dealers. So, yeah, so I, I forgot where it was at. Sorry. You were the Suboxin and then you were switched to oxycodone. You were actually. Oh, yeah. So I ended up not getting clean with Suboxin. You were shooting oxycodone.

So I started shooting oxycodone because just snorting oxycodone and Roxy's wasn't enough anymore. So I had started shooting it, which was, I was one of like the first in like my friend group, like our, you know, whatever to start shooting. So it was weird. How do you even figure that out? What, to shoot? Yeah.

I mean, it's a pill. So how I did it, I was, yeah, I was hanging out with this kid who, actually the first thing I ever had shot in my life was cocaine, to be honest. I was hanging out with this kid and we were, you know, snort pills, whatever, and he was shooting pills. Well, I didn't want to shoot pills, but I was like, he's like, well, try cocaine, so I shot cocaine. Well, then after that, I was like, you know what, now I want to try shooting pills. And then, yeah, you just dissolve it. But somebody teaches you, you know, you just find out how. It's scary at first, especially injecting yourself.

You're like, oh, my God, what if I blow my vein up? da-da-da-da-da, but the need to use the drug overrides all that fear. Yeah, yeah. So it overrides it. So I just, I went there. And I started dating a guy who was 17 years older than me at that time. I was 19 probably at this time.

I had done like a, I had gone to jail for like six months for some misdemeanors for petty thefts. And I did like six months for that. And I got out and started dating this guy who was 17 years older than me. He did pills, went to the doctor, all that. and um he would write fake prescriptions so i was with him and we would he would buy the blank prescription paper and we would he would take them to somebody to print them out well i was with and he would pay them for it well this was before they had the the federal that or the the system way

before yeah yeah this is when you could doctor shop you could doctor shop this is when i and i specifically remember this it was in 2011 i remember reading an article that rick scott said that we could not afford that system in Florida to link the pharmacies, but we were one of the only states who did not have it, which is absolutely insane, absolutely insane. What do you mean we can't afford it? This was after he got, his entire health care system got indicted and paid that massive fine, and then he becomes the governor of Florida. And says we can't afford a pharmaceutical company to stop doctor shopping and fucking. Right. And I actually knew a guy who bought one of the hospitals that they owned.

Oh, wow. And they continued to just do business the same way. And then two years later, they got indicted. Oh, wow. And he ended up going to prison for like five years or something. I've seen a lot of, when I was in jail waiting to go to prison my first time, or no, my second time, I seen them. They were bringing a lot of doctors and a lot of girls in and to tell on doctors and

pharmacies and everything and bring them all down. So the guy that owns it, never, he doesn't get, it's always, they pay a fine and run for governor. That's crazy. So, anyway, I'm sorry, go ahead. So, yeah, so we, I started dating him, and I went with him one time when he was getting those scripts printed. And when I seen the girl doing it, I was like, I can fucking do that.

I don't need to pay her $50 a script to do this. So we bought the, at the time, you could buy prescription paper online and have it delivered right to your house. A hundred sheets, or 100 sheets, four scripts per sheet, 50 bucks. Nothing. Right. You know, you can make, that's, what, 400, 400 scripts or, whatever you know so we did that and so I started printing on myself when we started printing on

myself at the same time my boyfriend was also doctor shopping so he was seeing eight doctors a month plus we were writing faith prescription in his name my name and then other people so he's making that's a that's a bunch of money there's a bunch of money but we're also using right you know he's doing nine and ten pills in a shot you know what I mean and I'm doing four or five you know whatever so it's it's a lot like believe it or not like it's crazy I want to be like, yeah, it's a lot of money. We made a lot of money. We had a lot of shit, but we were barely paying our fucking rent.

Right, right. You know what I mean? Barely paying rent. Rent at that time was $8.50 for a three-bedroom house. You know what I mean? And we're barely making that because of our habits. So we did that for a long time. And we had the whole setup.

I had a fucking calendar at the house and it would say this doctor and we only use this pharmacy. So then, you know what I mean? So every month we were doing that. Well, then eventually you meet pharmacists who are. For real. You know, like the expo boards and shit. it. So eventually you meet pharmacists and stuff like that who are dirty. And then you just start buying scripts from them straight out without, without any prescription. I met a pharmacist. And

really, you just approach them, you know, and they can either say yes or no, you know. And so we approached them. We asked him if we could just start buying bottles, which a bottle would be 100, you know, pharmacy bottles is a bottle of 100 pills. Right. And he was like, yeah, so he would sell them to us for cheaper, but he would only let us have a certain amount of month. Yeah, but it's also monitor so like what's he doing just shorting somebody a pill or two here I have no idea he would tell us we you I can only sell you nine bottles a month that was it because that's probably what he figured out that's the most I can get away with because they were so when you were filling your scripts they were getting you know like a dollar a pill but if they sold if he sold him to me we'd pay

him three dollars a pill right and then we'd go sell them at that time for 10 and 12 so you know what's funny is like I honestly like if that's what they're doing like I was thinking like if you get 30 pills in a bottle or something like you never break it out and count the pills Nope. You never break them out and count them. And most people don't take every single pill, especially when it comes to pain killers, pain killers, unless you're an addict, of course. But like if my father was to get a prescription for painkillers, he would have them left for years. Because he would literally only take them when he needed them. So I don't know what they were doing, but... Yeah, I guess you know what? He could be, like, if you had a script and you hardly ever came in, but the script was on file, he could just start filling those. And the insurance company or, the person wouldn't know that their script had just been filled and oh okay yeah yeah and if he didn't run it and if he didn't run it through their insurance because like i had a girl who walked prescriptions for me so and she had she had medicaid so i'd take her to cvs she'd use her

medicaid it would cover the roxies oxy zanix fully and then i'd take her to a mom and pop pharmacy because the pharmacies were not linked and she wouldn't use her insurance so she could run two scripts like that and she could use her insurance once and not use one how much money would that be if you didn't have a habit. I mean, that would be... I would have to write it down to figure it out. It's so much money. So at that time, they were writing scripts for rocks...

You got to think oxycodones were... They were writing them for, like, 240 a month. And then they would couple them with, like, 90 oxycott and 80s, and then you'd have, like, 90s Xanax. So that a month, if you're paying a dollar in the pharmacy a pill, selling them for 10 and 12 at that time... Right. Millions.

Yeah, I wrote... Well, I wrote a story called a Generative Oxi for these kids. I went to school with them. You know the book, Generation Oxy. I have it at home. Are you serious? I didn't realize that that was. And now that you're saying, now that you're saying Cox, I'm like, okay, obviously I've seen

Matthew B. Cox on my, on my, on the, I have it right on my, my table. Doug Dodd. Yeah, I went to school with them. I'm a year behind them. Oh, okay. I went to Hudson High with them. Yeah. What a, what a, like I met all of them except for Lance and I traded emails.

The wildest one. Yeah. The wildest one. Traded emails with Lance through Dodson. through Doug. So I was like, Doug, ask him this, do this. So we were going back and forth. But yeah, I wrote that.

And I also wrote another story called Paine, which is a guy, there's a guy named Derek Nolan. And he was, do you know who the George brothers were? No. Okay, they owned the largest pain, the largest, whatever you want to say, franchise or whatever you want to call it, of pain management clinics in the country.

I mean, 60, was it, was it, it was, it was, 60 million pills that they put out. They made like $60 or $70 million, and there were two twins. Wow. And the guy that actually ran the clinics for him, his name was Derek Nolan. They've actually written a book about him. There's been a documentary about him. I wrote a story about him, which is like the only version of the story from him.

But he was talking about just like, he was almost like a, he was a manager, but he was like the bouncer. He was like, you'd walk out into the, the, um, he was. into the like the waiting area because I mean people are sleeping on the floor people are dozing off because they just drove 12 hours from out of state right well and they're they're also on on pills I remember he had this one thing I'll just tell you this one thing we keep because it's just always cracked me up he said literally he had a doctor come to him one time and say so he uh he said like the food trucks would show up oh yeah and they'd show up to feed everybody and leave and he said so he said I he said one of the doctors came to him and said listen Derek I've got like I've had multiple people like the last like I've had like four or five people in the last you know two or three hours that have come in to get their scripts and they've got like brown spots on them it it's not bruising it's like dirt or something I don't know what it is like I didn't want to say to but it's like three of them three or four of them and he goes really he goes well he goes what's what is it and he's like I have no idea he goes I'll check so he goes into the visitation room and people are

are eating ice cream and falling asleep and they're falling asleep and hitting the ice cream he goes and they would wake up they'd like and they'd keep and they'd walk in with a big oh my god i can totally see it i totally see it i've seen i've seen shit like that before yeah he used to call them zombies they were yeah because like at that time you know they were calling them pill mills obviously because they were they were seeing groups of people instead of you know you wouldn't just go in and have a conversation like with this is the doctor they're seeing they're seeing 10 at one time is everybody okay okay here's everybody scripts because they were just trying to get as many in and Now, no insurance accepted, only cash.

Only cash, no checks, no this. Insane. And then he said the cops. First visit, $500. He said, and then the cops would sit out outside. He said, and if you drove off and you had like an Alabama plate or whatever, an out-of-state plate and you were leaving, he said, boom, woo, they'd pull you right over, search your car. He said, and they'd always find something.

Something. We'd, meth, crack, whatever, they'd always find something. Because, you know, if you're driving from Ohio down to Florida to get pain pills, it's probably not your only problem you know so well and you know he said he was explaining like how they they he said then it got to the point where we would test them to make sure they were taking them so they would know to take to take one before they got there i know people that would just drop it in their pee too oh okay which i didn't even know something like that would plus the MRIs like he would he said they had a mobile MRI machine where they would say go your marr is no good you got to go back

over there go get one come back it's 1100 bucks and they i mean it's just it's such a fucking racket. But he would meet, but they met all the guidelines. He's like, we would meet all the guidelines. Oh, yeah. Totally. They totally do. It was just, it was just how, like the guidelines were so, it was at that time where the, I think, like, law enforcement and all that hadn't caught up with what was happening yet. Because they, yeah, of course, they were meeting the guidelines, but in- You could only put so many guidelines out there. All you have to do is get over it. If you just get around it. So I have to do this one thing. Yes. Okay, well, I did it. Great. Give me my pills. And then when they stopped letting, you couldn't be out of state anymore,

then they started getting out of state or in state IDs like I was letting people use I would take people and let them use my address to get a Florida ID to go to the doctor down here because that you know what I mean because they were like okay no more out of state you got to go you know whatever we don't take out of state patients people started losing their fucking mind so it's it's terrible but yeah I went to school with Doug Don and them they were a little bit older than me but I definitely read the book my mom's read the book seriously that's awesome that's pretty cool yeah Tommy, the Generation Oxy. I know. I have it at home, but I didn't know. I didn't realize it was, I didn't realize Matt Cox was Matt Cox, I guess. You know, I didn't put it together. You know what I mean? I didn't put it together that he was the one who had read the book.

I'm excited about that. That's like the first time. It was awesome. It was an awesome book. I think it was great. It's funny because some people, like the way that some people are described in the book, I know exactly who they are without their names being named. Like a friend of mine, I'm not even going to say her name.

But yeah, I knew exactly who she was. they were talking about Doug, how he described her. It was perfect. It was an awesome book. Yeah, it was, wow, what a pain in the ass Doug was to deal with. This kid was just the, first of all, you know, he followed me around for like a week.

Because I had written another book from a guy named Ephraim Devereoli. And Ephraim Devereoli is Jonah Hill. He's played by Jonah Hill in the movie War Dogs. So I'd written his memoir. And so Doug had read parts of it because he was like, their cells were close to each other so then Doug came and he was like bro you got to write my book you got to write my I was like well you don't have a fucking story and I kept like brushing him off and he was like well you're you're doctor shopping like if I want a doctor shopper I'm like I could

throw a rock and hit bounce off 10 guys right that a hundred guys you know because Coleman had a huge turnover too so you're not talking about the same 800 guys you're talking about 3,000 new guys every year coming through so I was like it's not that big of a deal. I was like, boy, you don't even know what it is. And I was like, and I remember thinking, you know, you're right. You know, opportunity knocks very softly sometimes. So don't be a dick. Listen to him. So I listened to him, tell the story. And as he was telling the story, I thought, that's really not bad. Yeah. Bad story. Like, there were some great, like, there were some pretty cute things that I thought, you know, you're not gangsters.

You think you're a bunch of soft white kid that think they're tough guys. But you're not. You're really just a bunch of white trash guys that were grown in trailer parks and this and that was so funny is I said look okay here's what I'll do I'll write a synopsis and if I can get some some reporters interested in your story and get you into a magazine like I don't know I said like Rolling Stone or something like that I said then I'll write the book he's like bro you think you can do that I'm like I don't know what I can do bro I'm in fucking federal prison I got 20 years to go I got plenty of time to see what I can do yeah so I wrote a bunch of letters I got a reporter involved and he put it he put the story in Rolling Stone magazine and

we sold the book and optioned the film rights to it and I wrote I wrote his whole book but this kid when he first came to me he was begging me to write it and at one point he was bro I'll give you half of everything bro and I went I go that was that was always going to happen yeah wasn't like you're not offering me something that's like wow yeah thinking I'm writing it right what and he went he's like no bro come on so I said okay well write it like this write it like that. And what was funny about that is when he started reading what I was writing. Because I'm taking an outline and I'm writing it. And I'm writing it. So it's a memoir. It sounds like he's writing it. Because he can't write his own book. Yeah. So I'm writing it. And as we're going

through it and I'm writing it, he's like, bro, that, you know, honestly, you got to change some of this shit. And I'm like, what? It's like, like, you basically say that like I'm, we're a bunch of like, you know, trailer park trash guys or, you know, white trash. Like you, I even named a, I even named one of the chapters, um, upper class white trash. I mean and he was like pissed off and so I said and I went he was like you make you sound like I grew up in a trailer park and I went but he did but you did I said we grew up in Hudson right I went I mean Hudson's almost all trailer parks it's a lot and he's like no no no and I'm okay you know this one story I told where did that happen well yeah that was my buddy's my buddy's house like it was it a house he's a no it was a double wide trailer I said it was a double wide what about this story where did that happen well me that was a that was a single that was a single white okay we're What about this one? Where did that guy live? Well, he lived in a trailer.

It was a trailer park. What about this? So I named like six stories. Mm-hmm. And I said, Doug, where were you raised at this time? He's like, well, that was, I was living there with my mom? And I go, was it a house? He's like, well, no, no, it was a trailer.

I go, okay. But I haven't always lived in trailers. And I get that. But let's face it. Yeah, it's beginning where it began, though. Right. But see, people can't see themselves as themselves. Yeah, they have hard time accepting themselves.

By the end of the book, by the end of the book, by the end of the book, and he's read it. He's literally, guys would be like, bro, what's, so what's up with your story? I mean, Cox is walking around. He's writing your story. Like, what's so great about your story? And Doug turns to the guy and goes, I mean, nothing, bro. And we're just a bunch of, he goes, we're just a bunch of trailer park kids, you know, growing up and selling pills, man. And I looked at him and he was like, and he was like, he was like, nice, it's perfect. Good. Reading that book, if you were not from there, reading that book, it describes it perfectly. You get the picture perfectly

He owned it though It's so much better to own it And he did By the end of it he owned it And listen He was great And that's what made the It is a story

It is it's a great story And it's a great story There's nothing embarrassing About where you came from So what? And like Lance and Landon and them They were like the kings Anyway over there anyway

Right They were they had more money And they grew up at a trailer And they were like big dogs They were Yeah Their parents got them out of everything Listen, they were...

They owned a homeless shelter. Yeah. Yeah. But not just that. You know, like, listen, was it Landon? Landon's older. So what, okay, no, no, the middle one. Not the, so Lance, who's the oldest?

I think Landon's the oldest. Lance is the youngest, I think. No, the oldest guy I met him. I'm talking about the, um, yeah, it was, it was Landon. No, there's a third brother. But the one that I met in, and, uh, he was an amazing athlete. The black guys, like they had like a relay, they had races. They did, he was killing everybody.

And I mean, the black guys were calling him the white knight. They were like, that fucking white boy. Like he was. Was it Richard? Yeah. Was it Richard Sullivan? No, no, no. It wasn't Richard.

Richard was the one that went to California to try and be like a porn star, right? So it wasn't, yeah. Yeah, that's Richard. Yeah. You gotta love that. Yeah, he's back now, but yeah, yes. I forgot about that. Yeah.

This was one of the brothers. Yeah. But he was, he was like a great, he got his tooth knocked out. I remember he got his tooth knocked out. I'm trying to, because, yeah, I didn't know Landon because he was older. So Lance went to school with me and I'm trying to, because he was definitely, it was it was landing. They have an older brother, but he was barely even in the story.

Yeah, I can't, I don't know. I'm sorry, I got off track because I'm excited because it's about me. Yeah. So anyway, so anyway, you were saying, um, it's a good story. It is a great story. It really is. And you grew up there. That's great.

I don't know. I don't know. I'd have to ask Amanda in them. I have the book around here somewhere. Yeah, definitely. So, okay, so you're, well, wait, how old were you when you're actually writing the scripts at this point? So I had to have been like 19, I guess, because I would have went to jail, did my little six months and got out. So I had to be about 19, maybe turning 20.

And going to jail for six months, that's the, that's for the petty thefts. But I was, you know, stealing to use pills and stuff, you know. My boyfriend at that time before my boyfriend with the scripts had gone to jail. And so I was like, oh, how am I going to support? my addiction now, you know, I'm not working because who works when they're, you know, that far into an addiction. Right. Almost impossible.

Right. So I wasn't working. You know, I didn't have anybody that was providing me pills anymore. So I started stealing all the time and that's what I started doing. And we didn't go to jail the first time, didn't go to jail the second time. And then the third time, of course, they went to jail. Yeah, they get tired of it. Yeah.

So then they gave me, it was like, I would been in there for like a month and they offered to give me like, I don't can't remember. It was like two and a half years probation. And I was just like, well, my, and my lawyer was like, you could get, I could get you six months. in here. So I was like, let's just do it. And I was a trustee. I was out in like four or whatever. So that was easy. So you don't want to do two and a half because you'll, you can't, you basically have to take piss test. Yeah, yeah. And misdemeanor probation was really easy, but I had already been on it and violated it for this with another petty theft. So I was like, I don't want to do

it. I'll just, I've already been in. I got two months in. I only got to do like two and a half more months. Whatever. So I just did it. And, you know, of course it wasn't enough. It wasn't anything. It was a joke. I was a trustee. I did laundry. Got special treatment. All that shit. So it was nothing i got out started dating the kid or the dude that was 17 years older than me and then we were writing the fake scripts so eventually how that came to an end was we were like down on our ass by this time we had moved out of our home we weren't you know we hadn't paid our rent our electric got shut off whatever and i was staying with a friend of mine stephanie and she was a pain pill addict as well and she had an infant son and uh we all were living together whatever we would give her pills and

you know whatever we all took care of each other well one day we all woke up and she was really dope sick we were all dope sick but we only had enough pills for me and my boyfriend and we were going to a doctor's appointment so i told her i was like i'll take the baby with me you just stay here relax we'll be back it's a it's a you know it's just a follow-up visit in and out we'll be right back come down we drive down to penelis county go back by the time we get back when i have her son with me okay my house appears to have looked like it was robbed but it wasn't the only thing missing was my laptop with my script formats on it that she turned into the pawn shop right so when she sold it

to the pawn shop they because she sold it to them she didn't pawn it so when she sold it to them they immediately went in there to clean it out and seen script formats on there and called the cops so then the cops were looking for her for a few weeks and they eventually caught up to her and she told on us and that's how it all came down that's how that came down yeah that's how that came down so we found out how much time did you where they they come they came in they arrested you they did they call you nicely on the phone and say would you please come by the so i had seen that she had got i had seen that she had got busted so i already knew i was like she's missing the good parts you know so they didn't knock on the door say hey listen no no so they um so she i had knew she got

busted or whatever and arrested i was like great she's probably gonna fucking telling us whatever but we didn't really know for sure that she told on us we didn't at this time i didn't even I know. I already, in the moment you said she got busted, she's on drugs, she got, you're telling. Like, I got to get out of this. So at this time, I didn't even know yet about the pawn shop yet though. Like, I didn't know they were the ones who had called the cops. I thought she had just somehow got caught. Did you realize, like, when you came home, did you realize, like, did you know immediately? Like, she's telling you the store and you're like, oh, okay, okay, but deep, but you're really thinking, oh, I knew immediately it was her. Oh, yeah, because I knew it was immediately it was her because if somebody robbed my house, I had plenty of other things to rob. Right. My printer was sitting right next to it. Right. She didn't take that. They didn't take that. I had a, you know, just like a fire safe that you would keep your paperwork in in my room. Full of jewelry. You literally could drop it on the ground and it's going to bust open. Anybody who's robbing a house is going to check. I don't care if you think it's paperwork or not. You're checking that little safe. So I mean, there's guns in the bedroom. You know what I mean? There's TVs there. There's just, it's just, it's just, she just dumped drawers and shit to make it look like somebody went through it. But the only thing missing is some cheap ass laptop. Bullshit. You know, bullshit. So I knew it was her immediately. So she took her son, she left, we ended up going different ways, whatever, she gets busted, goes to jail. So at this time I still didn't know that the pawn shop was the one who had called the police and all that, and that's how they found her. I thought that maybe they had investigated a pharmacy, seen that her scripts that she had been walking for me were fake or whatever. So she tells on us, me and my boyfriend at the time, we're going to one of his doctor's appointments.

It's in Tampa. We get there. I'm sitting out in the waiting room. He goes in. He comes back out and he's like, we got to go now. And I'm like, what? He's like, we got to go now. We get in the car, we leave. He tells me that they had him in the back. He was sitting in the back waiting for the doctor for about 10 minutes, 15 minutes. And then one of the nurses or whatever comes in and says, hey, look, Pascoe Sheriff's Office was here, inquiring about you. They told us when you came back for your visit to call them to come, because they need to see you. They need to come get you. We called them. We've been waiting. If you want to go, go. That's what they told him. So he went. They're investigating you for trafficking, is what they said. We can't see you. you have to leave trafficking pills pills yeah distribution yeah it was like yeah like traffic drug trafficking because at that time the law and trafficking was just how many pills you had you know like if you had i can't remember the count i can't yeah it was by weight so if you had so much weight in pills it was considered trafficking whether you were making a deal or not right it was just if you had that much weight on you it's just the term i mean the term trafficking to me look like

look like in the feds like they have certain terms they use in the state they like for instance you would never get charged with running a boiler room or conspiracy to run a boiler room in the feds. Like, that's not a charge. It would be, you know, they have, like, it would be wire fraud or it would be mail fraud or it would be a financial institution fraud. Like, they have different names for it,

even though you're running a boiler room. But then in the state, if they charge you, they actually have a charge called, you know, like conspiracy to commit, you know, or to run a boiler room. And so the same thing with trafficking. Like you're saying trafficking, trafficking in the feds is distribution yeah it is it that's what i mean by state too they just like so

it'll be her his would have been trafficking and controlled substance okay and then you know if and then they would have put the amount if it would have been cocaine trafficking cocaine right you know but it is distribution how i was going to say that how bad is that how bad like how it used to so when at what time what year was that like 2011 and this is him this is just him that's just they don't know you're there. So it may be the same thing for you? I wasn't seeing doctors. Right. I didn't have an MRI. But is it the same thing? Like, is that what happened later? They were also looking for you? Yeah, they were also looking for me. So, um, so they tell him he's being investigated for trafficking, so we leave. So how did he even get arrested? Oh, at another doctor. Wait, no. How

did Michael even get arrested? Court. Okay. So then we're on, okay, so now we know that the cops are looking for us for trafficking. So we're like, whatever. We're not going to call them. And, and say, let's come talk to you, because obviously we know they have some type of evidence. They were at one of his doctors. They were at one of his doctors, so they have some type of evidence. They know what he's been up to. So we're just- What's the evidence?

They've got the girl, and they do have the laptop. The laptop's yours. But the laptop was mine, but it has all these scripts on them, which are fake scripts, but they all mimic real doctor prescriptions, which I was copying from his real doctor visits. So they're going there, and they go there, they check with them. But also, she, I believe when she told, she told them. Like, you know, Andrea Carswell and Michael Nolan.

Oh, yeah, I'm sure. It's who I've been living with. I know that. So. But that's still just her word. Yeah, so then, but if they're going to investigate and see, you know what I mean? And then they look at CVS and see that Michael Nolan, Andrea Cariswell, and Stephanie were running these scripts. They're all fake.

Right. And the doctor didn't write them. We talked to him. Yeah, the doctor didn't write them. She's got the stuff on her software. She puts it together. Okay. Yeah, it's pretty.

It's, you have an issue. It's an issue. But the laptop, mind you, the laptop didn't have anything to prove it was mine either. Right. So they couldn't prove that the laptop was mine. It just, they just informed them to go find her. Yeah. Which all worked out for them.

Yeah. You're still done. Yeah. So we're, you know, just me and Michael continue to do our same thing. We're living the same. We're just, you know,

one less doctor now because they won't see us. You know what I mean? It's how we think it's going. So he is at the time going to court for a misdemeanor. Like driving on suspended, something really stupid. He's been to prison before and it was something, it was really dumb,

but he was going to court for it. And he ended. up taking a 60 day plea, which now looking back, why the F will we ever go and take a 60 day plea? Why would you go to court? Like, knowing they're looking. Did you not have that discussion? Like, do you think maybe there's a warrant out? They're looking for us? And they're going to know we're going to be at court? This is like 11 years, 12 years ago now. I'm trying to remember like the series of events of how it went down. I remember though he went to court. He took a 60 day plea because then after he was in jail for a week is when they came and charged him with

trafficking talked to him and asked him where I was right so I'm I'm yeah I was gonna say I just can't remember what the fuck because I remember going to the doctor them telling them looking for him for trafficking then he went to court for the misdemeanor he took 60 days in yeah that's how it went he took 60 days in and then after he was there a week they came and hit him with three counts of trafficking a few counts of obtaining controlled substance by fraud that's you know getting fake scripts using fake scripts and then he had called me from jail and was like hey you know they're looking for you asking where you're at. I was staying at some house that somebody was letting me stay there,

you know, fucking rats in it and shit, you know that thing because I had nowhere else to go. I couldn't be at my parents' house with cops looking for me. I was so strung out on the needle. It was ridiculous. I was barely making it. And that's where the cops ended up finding me. In the house?

In that house. They ended up raining me at like 7 o'clock in a fucking morning. I was 90 pounds. They threw me on the floor, face down. It saved your life. Yeah. I always love these guys. Yeah, I guess, yeah, you can definitely look at it like that.

Yeah, so they came in at like 7.30 in the morning, you know, of course, guns and masks and, you know, the whole. I know, like you're, I don't understand. You're a terrorist that they were, like they're checking down a terrorist organization. And I mean, they, you know, it's, they said that they had been tapping my phone, and I guess they heard me say something about having a gun at the house and stuff like that. But ridiculous. So when they, anyway, when they busted in and raided me, they had, I had no pills. Not, not any pills on me. I was actually doapsick at the time.

All they found was a bag of, like, used needles, you know, and my empty prescription paper that I was technically allowed to have at that time. It wasn't illegal to have, so they took me to jail, and it was just like, they charged me in three counts of trafficking, they charged me with obtaining controlled substance by fraud, and then I had some, like, dealing stolen properties that was just, like, pawned and stolen shit. And it was crazy because I was like, how are you charging me? Like the way she says, you know, like, if I had a dime for every time I fucking see. deal of the whole property everybody everybody you guys you know what that is okay so yeah so um

I went to fucking jail I remember being like how am I being charged with trafficking like first all you didn't even catch me with a pill on me I've never caught me with a sale hand-to-hand sale how am I being in charge of trafficking and I was told that because of the amount of pills I obtained by fraud that it was no way I could be using all those pills right but I mean I absolutely could have been right if I wanted to I mean who's to say, you don't know, you know, whatever. You'd have to have a massive tolerance. You'd have to be, you have to be 350 pounds.

You have to be 350 pounds. You know, like the scripts that are in my name, you know, like the scripts that are in my name, I could have easily used those. I want to be on your side. I want to. It's like when they come and they say, you know, we found five gallons of blood and we can't find Jimmy and we have, it's his blood. And they're like, we're going to charge you with murder.

How? You don't have a body? Because he can't live without this much blood. So, you know, I hear you. But yeah, sorry. Yeah, so they charged me to trafficking, which I still didn't get because I was like, I didn't, you know, whatever. And I ended up beating the trafficking. They ended up dropping them.

Or they administrative count closed them, whatever the hell that means. They like pretty much told me. So that you pled. So in order to get you like, it's a plea, right? No, they, no, it wasn't a plea. You went to trial? No, no, they, administrative count closed is this is what they told me. They said they close it, but they can really.

reopen it at any other, any time, if they ever found new evidence to support the trafficking charge, which I'm like, well, you're never going to do that. So of course I, you know, accepted that. I took my, I had like, I want to say like aid of training controlled substance by fraud and four dealing and stolen property. So I had never been on felony probation in Florida, anywhere in my life. These are my first felonies I ever got. I was 19 years old when I was arrested, 20 when I was getting sentenced. And my first offer was five years in state prison. And I was like, what? You know, I've only done six months in the county jail before that for a misdemeanor,

never been on felony probation, never been to a drug rehab, never, never done drug court, never done any of these things. What do you mean five years in prison? I'm 20 years old, you know, like what? I was so scared. And, you know, my public defender at the time was like, you're not going to get five years. The first offer's always crazy, da-da-da-da-da. So I ended up getting it down.

I sat in jail for like six or seven months, and I ended up getting what's called like a split sentence. And so they gave me 18 months in, followed by 24 months probation. So I did the 18 months in. Well, you've already done. Six months. Okay, so you already did six months. Six months. Plus you get gain time.

So you basically, you went in for six months? That's not even worth unpacking. The gains have no count when it goes to state. Yeah, when it goes to state. So the six months, you don't get gain time off the six months from county. Oh, you see what I'm saying? It starts from the day I get in prison from DOC. So the longer in county, the longer you're fine.

Fucked. Especially when you get a short sentence. Like six months on an 18-month sentence is pretty average. People sit in jail for six months before they get sentenced. You know, that's pretty average. Yeah, and the feds is like a year, yeah. Yeah, so that's just drags. That was fine.

I did that. But when I went to, when I got to prison, my first day, when I walk into reception, I'm informed that I'm a youthful offender. How old are you? I was 20. I was 21. No, it's 21 when I made it to DOC. I was 21, but youthful offender in the state of Florida is 24.

and under. Really? After the age of 18, the state can decide if they want to put you in general population or if they want to keep you in YO status until your 24, till your 24th birthday. So you have 24th. So what does that mean? Boot camp. It's boot camp.

And it's like, fucking, so you're in prison with the regular, with the general population. I already don't want to be here. Do I have to really march and get screened out constantly? So now I have to be with 15, 16, 16, 17, 17 year olds who are doing life. who are absolutely fucking wild. For pills? No, just for murder or whatever. You know, they're just in prison.

But because they're minors, they have to be in the Y.O program. And since I was 12. And you weigh, you're what, 5-2, 5-3? Yeah, probably 5-3. And you weigh 115? 150. Probably by that time, yeah, 115, 120 pounds. So I'm like, great.

So I'm like, great, you know. I'm like walking up, I can hear, I'm like walking through the compound of the prison and, like, the Y-O dorms back here and the windows are open because you don't have AC in state. and it sounds like a fucking animal shelter you know it sounded like a jungle in there and I just remember thinking oh my God this is going to be hard as fuck

because I knew people in prison already I'd been in jail and on the streets with people who were in state prison but not in a YO so I get to this YO I have to wear this yellow shirt with these crazy color train conductor hats which is like signifies your level in the program and your privilege

we march we chant everything is done together it's it was hard it was rough so after that you were like you were probably thinking like you know what the military is for me no I'm going in the military no I was like no exact opposite after that she was probably thinking

you know what the military life is for me yeah I need to yeah right I actually do well in like environments like that believe it or not but which I think it's from prison now at that time I didn't I do now but oh yeah like I'm much better if I'm

on some kind of a super like a schedule and I'm more something more regiment I plan everything like I plan what I'm going to do I was just thinking I was only once the only because it relates to you this is funny we were going to after I'd been locked up I was transferred one time to go back to court and when I was being we went through a transfer center now I've already been locked up like seven years so all the fright and the scariness and everything of prison is just like whatever bro yeah like it's over so we were transferred and then they they transfer you know they'll take you from a bus here drive you for six hours put you here for two days get you on another bus to go here you know so we get off and I remember there are the guys do they give us

our our our blanket and our no pillow just a blanket in your other bullshit and your stuff and you're walk into your cell and it's like 1130 at night and there are guys so there's like eight of us and as we're walking through the on the second tier and the guards are saying like okay this is your cell this is their the guys are on the windows bang and like bam bam bam we're Put them in here. Put them in here. And guys are fucking terrified. Yeah.

And I'm sitting there like laughing. I'm like, like I'm watching the guys. And I'm thinking like, yeah. Like this guy, you're good. Matter of fact,

put me in with him. Yeah. Because he's funny. Like for you to be pulling this shit at 11.30 at night. Like I get it. These guys are good. Guys are literally almost pissing their pants. Like,

oh my God. Oh my God. I go look, bro, you're in a, this is a low holdover. These aren't pin guys. You're fine. You're fine. You're fine.

And they're like, oh, bro, I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. They're fucking with you. Yeah. It'll be fine. Yeah, they're absolutely fucking with you.

But it's terrifying. Yeah, if you don't know. Initially, it's literally just uncontrollable shaking like, what's going to happen? That's how I felt. It wasn't like,

like I wasn't scared. Like I didn't think, oh my God, I'm going to die. Right. Like I was just like, great, this is going to be hard. I'm going to have to fight.

I'm going to be in confinement. Because I've heard about YOs. I've already heard about them. Like I said, they're worse than adult prison. Because they haven't. Well, matured so they have they don't you know they're still children in an environment where they have

you know authority and all that it's like being a 19 year old like at 19 i would drive 130 miles an hour in my four in my Ford F1 or my Ford 5.0 Gt you know what I'm saying I would do that like now if you said here matt get in this car and drive 120 i'd be like are you your fucking mind yeah because you just you know better now anything goes wrong I'm dead you're smarter right so I was just it was more like fear of like how hard this is going to be I'm going to constantly being in confinement I'm never going to be able to talk to my mom. She's going to be upset, yada, yada, yada. So I get there, and it ends up not being that bad.

I mean, it was wild. I kind of just stayed in my own lane, though. Like I said, I was 21. I didn't know anybody in the program, and a lot of them had to go to school still and stuff. You know, they went to school all day. I didn't do that. So I stayed in the dorm and worked

because I didn't have to go to school. And eventually, I did get into a fight with a WIO girl because she stole my ID tag. And in state prison, your ID tag is your money. right that's how you go to the store and she could absolutely have used it and spent my money because all she has to do is pay the canteen worker to let her use my card I knew it was her because I had seen her I had kept it under my mattress when I slept and she slept next to me and for some reason I seen her next to my bed and I was like what are you doing she's like oh tuck in your

blanket over here that's so sweet of you yeah I mean all inmates are taking yeah I'm like don't tuck my bed I don't need you tuck my bag on my own bed you know so I knew it was her and she was like I ain't got your tag I don't have your tag I don't have your tag And it was this whole thing. And I was like, if you don't give me my shit back by pine, we get back from chow from breakfast, we're going to have to fight. You know, all these wilds see what's going on. I can't be punked like this.

Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Fuck that. They'll be eating out of my locker after this. Yeah. So I ended up, so we get back. She still wants to deny that we don't have the tag. So she went to swing on me first.

I ducked and hit her and we fought. And then, you know, they said one time. So here comes the cops. We jumped off each other. The cops had already seen it. They could see it through the bubble. That's why they were coming. but I didn't want to get pepper sprayed.

Right. So we jumped off each other. They asked us what happened. I was like, you know, it's just a disagreement. She tells them. She tells them. She thinks I stole her ID tag. Well, dumbass, we already got into a fight.

They're already going to take both of us to confinement. They're going to search both of our stuff. Right. They're going to find it. So they find my tag in her shit, but we still both went to confinement, which I was fine with. I didn't give a shit. So I went to confinement.

The only thing that sucked about it was it was my first Thanksgiving and Christmas away from home. I had never been away from my family. for Thanksgiving Christmas and I was in confinement. So I couldn't even speak to them, couldn't even do nothing, didn't even have a fucking pen to write them a letter, you know. You know, it's so funny. That sucks.

It's all this, like, drugs and stealing and doing this and doing that and doing this. But the thing is, you know, you're still just a 20-year-old girl. Yeah. And I still, no matter how many. I got to talk to my mom. It's like, what do you? You know, it's like, these guys are like robbing banks and getting into car chases and then being concerned if they can see their mother.

Their mothers, yeah. What are you, what's like the disconnect. neck there is just insane. It was, yeah. So I couldn't write them or nothing, but then I get out of confinement. You know, you don't get, most of the time you don't get any extra time. Sometimes you lose gain time, but not really for fights because they happen so much. Yeah, confines the shoe, right?

Yeah, yeah, confine is the shoe. Yeah, they just call it confinement in state, though. So I did that. And in confinement in state, since I was a YO, I could only have a YO bunky. So for part of the time, I didn't have a bunky at all in confinement. which some people say they like but I'll lose my fucking mind if I don't have somebody to talk to you know

so I had somebody a girl came in with me and we made like a little Christmas tree out of like paper and hung it on the wall and it was fine I got out and the first day I'm out of confinement I'm back in my dorm and my sergeant calls me to the window and says pack your stuff you've been classified

you're going to general population I have no idea why he had no idea why I still have no idea why probably because well clearly she's willing to fight So, but, yeah, I don't know. So, and when they said that, I was like, holy shit. So I start packing my shit.

I'm all excited. So you were excited because you figured that's better than this. I need to be with the adults. I need to be with adults. Well, keep mind, the whole time I was locked, like when I was in the U.S. Marshall's holdover, like, I'm thinking I'm better off here than I am in a prison. But everybody, guys that had been in before, like, they're literally saying, but I can't wait to get to prison. Like, what? Like, what do you want to go to prison?

Like, to me, that's shawl shank, you know, but they're like, no. bro it's so much better you can get ice cream you can watch movies you can do you can get a job you you can do it's like you live life yeah kind of kind of have a little life in there but in and in in county you don't have shit no and then yoh it's like i said it's like boot camp you know why oh it was it was it was it was fine like i could have got through it i would have got through it but i was super excited to be declassified and go to general population and be with adults and be with people i knew and when that happened all the other wiles were like how did you do it how did it happen i said I have no idea.

I didn't do anything. You know what I mean? They just did it. So then I go over to the, um, the general, or the other, the annex of the prison, which was another part of the prison where they keep, you know, general population. I was there for one night and I was sent up to a private facility in the panhandle called Gatston, which at that time was probably the best women's facility in Florida, had the most reentry programs, had the most vocational programs, had a dog program.

It was, it was good. It was good to be there. It was far from my family, but it was like a breath of fresh air. Right. I ended up going to school. I graduated high school. I have a high school diploma. So in state prison, if you don't have a high school diploma, they make you to go to school to try to get your GED.

Not everybody's successful, but you at least have to go to school. I know. I taught GED. Yeah. Some of those guys are just not getting it. Not getting it. Some of them are not getting it. So I didn't want to work in the kitchen, though.

There is something about prison kitchen. I didn't want to do it. So I was like, you know what? I want to go to school. Well, in order to get into a certain vocational classes, your tape tests have to be certain points, you know. So I would always pick, like, a vocation that my math was a little low on. So then I would have to go to GED class to bring my math grade up to get on the list for vocational. And that's how I did it.

I went to school all the time in prison. Both times I was in prison, I stayed in school. So you just kept picking things? I just kept going, like, back to, like, high school pretty much in prison. Really? Like, I would pretty much go to the GED classes to try to get, I would need to get my math score up to get into, let's say AutoCAD.

And then what? Once you got there, you'd switch it? Yep, I'd go on to the, well, I'd go on the AutoCad waiting list and you'd still stay in your regular class

and wait for your, wait for your vocational. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's, let's just work in the system. Like, yeah. I kept entering the, the residential drug treatment program

and Coleman, so they would, so they wouldn't ship me. Mm-hmm. I wanted to stay at the low because my mom could see me there. Yeah. And it was only an hour away,

but the closest camp was like Miami or fuck I don't even know it was it one was in like Georgia so that's like a four hour drive so I'll never see her so I kept entering the drug program and staying so they would keep me in the program they'd keep me there and then I would drop out and then three months later when they said okay you're going to be shipped like oh I can I got to go back to the drug program I already you know I'd go back in I did that for like I did it twice but it really covered almost two years it kept me at the prison just work in the system I just didn't want to work in the kitchen man That was it?

That was it. And I did want to do vocational classes. You know, I mean, I did graduate high school. I do have an education. I do have goals, but I wanted to do some vocation. But at that time, when I went to prison the first time, like I said, I only had 18 months. Half my sentence was almost over. There's no vocational classes you can do. Plus some of the vocational, like, to me, the vocational ones at calm.

And it's like, you go there and you learn how to be like, you know, how to run a restaurant. Well, I'm never running a restaurant. Yeah. Or you go and horticulture. Like, okay, I'm not going to be a farmer. Yeah, see, I did horticulture, right? But to me, all that helps you to do is start a grow house. Yeah, if I wanted to do that, which I'm not, which I don't have, I don't have, there's

nothing I'll use my horticulture certificate for. Right. I do have a friend Jessica who did AutoCAD. She was actually on Josh's channel. She did AutoCad and she is a drafter now. See, they didn't, see, that's awesome. That's awesome because most people don't use it for anything. She, she has such a great career now from that.

It's crazy. It's crazy. I couldn't even tell you how much money she makes but she was really good at it and it was a really great opportunity for her but AutoCAD was super hard to get into and it takes a long time and she had a seven year sentence so she was able to do that

but most vocation yeah no because you know cosmetology is good for women that's a good one then a lot of women want to do that in prison but then a lot of them don't do it when they get out yeah they think they want to do it but then they don't well I was just going to say some of the guys like we did we taught GED

there was this kid I only know it was last name was Smith, a black guy named Smith, just sold drugs his whole life. Never had a real job, just sold drugs. But didn't even, and it was GED. Never, he dropped out of high school, like, or whatever, like eighth grade or something. And, but he, he was amazing at math. Like, didn't even know it. And then when he graduated, he then came back. Like, my buddy, Zach and I were like, look, you got to have, the next guy you hire for math has to be Smith. Yeah. Like, he's already teaching the other. She's already teaching the other kids. And he had no idea. Or the guys. Yeah. Came back. And I mean, that kid was him and there was another black guy there too

who had dreads. They were both brilliant. And they loved it. And they actually had books sent from outside. And it was like, like to me, there's no way ever, ever. I'm going to be thrilled about math. Me either. But they loved it. And it's like, it's like, wow, these guys could like, they could have been something. You know what I'm saying? If they hit. But, you know, most people go to, prison you know they go to the rec yard and come back and there there's almost no vocational training there's no way to try and rehabilitate themselves they get out they sell drugs they come back like it's just such a shitty system yeah because because like i said you know unfortunately for those vocational classes first of all they take most of them take at least you know even like cosmetology

i think is like a six month vocational and that's short okay then it takes what a year or two to even get into it so then most people aren't even spending that long in prison because if you get a three-year prison sentence and you spent six months in county and by the time you you you you get to your main camp after being an R&O for two and a half months, three months, by the time you get to your main camp and can get on the waiting list, it's too late. Yeah. We used to say that a little

time guys would come in with six months, we'd be like, yeah, it's not even worth unpacking. No, just chill. You're just going to sit around. You might as well start reading some books, bro. Yeah, just relax, because it's not. So I, um... Because they'll be putting you in halfway house. In a month, they're going to put you in for a halfway house. A month after that, you're going to be gone. You've literally

you're down to two months. Oh, yeah. In the feds, yeah. I forget you go to halfway houses and stuff. yeah and your split sentence is every every federal sentence is a split sentence like people are like oh you did this much time yeah I also have five more years paper when I get out it's not probation it's just paper that if you do anything wrong you go right back to prison but they don't consider it part of your incarceration sentence that's crazy ridiculous that is ridiculous technically my sentence was 26 years and

five years I technically got a 31 year sentence but I don't say that because then you have to Explain it to everybody. Yeah. And then they're, I don't understand. People are like, oh, you're lying. Yeah. Yeah. All right, I'm done.

So I'm on probation. But anyway, so yeah. So, okay, so I did that. I, you know, just stayed in school, whatever. Like we said, it was only, I was only there a few months, I guess. And because I ended up sign up for work release, which work release in Florida is where when you still have a certain amount of time, you can go to a program and you go out in the community and you get a regular job.

You wear regular clothes. You have all those privileges. And you go. go get a regular job and you get paid now do you get how much do you get to keep about after all said and done probably 30% and that's being nice which sucks but at least you're being it's better than nothing right absolutely it's better than being in prison i would be in the halfway house and guys would bitch because they'd take 33 or 30 well no in the halfway house they'd take like 30% or 35% of like everything you made guys would be bitching and moaning and i'd be i mean bro it as opposed to like

I mean, they are feeding you. They are clothing you. They are keeping, well, not clothing you, but they're keeping a, like, look, like 30%. That's what you should be paying an apartment. So, yeah, the work release. When I was in work release, they took, the work release program itself took 55% off the top. And then they made you, they took 10% that they distributed to court costs, fines, whatever. So now you're at 65%.

If you have child support, it automatically gets taken out because obviously you're working. If you don't have child support but have children, the work release center, makes you send money to the caregiver of your children, regardless if you have to pay child support or not. So if you have kids and don't have child support, now you're looking at like 75% they've taken. But like we just discussed, you wouldn't have shit if you were in prison.

It also sets you up for after prison. It gives you, you know, goals, stuff to work for, stuff to stay doing good for. So, I mean, it was fine. I did that. I went there. I did that for six months. I think I did maybe four months, something like that.

And I got out of prison. Nothing happened while I was there. I didn't lose anybody, you know. It was kind of, I don't want to say it was like a joke because it wasn't a joke. I didn't think it was a joke. I didn't take it that way. I knew it was serious, but it wasn't enough for me to be done with what I was doing. When I got out, it was the same, the boyfriend that I went to jail or prison with for the fake prescriptions.

He picked me up with my parents. We immediately started using again. Yeah. We immediately started using again and I was re-arrested 67 days later. 67 days? Yeah, and I went back for five years. Holy. What was that?

What was that arrest? Just get caught with a bunch of pills? No. So when we got out, we started using again. And he had, now, he had been to prison three times prior. So, or two times prior. Two times prior at that time. So when we got out, what he wanted, what he used to do and had been to prison before is he would drive around neighborhoods, look for open garages.

and steel generators, pressure washers, anything that you could grab and get quickly for money, right? Yeah, and it was like a whole thing. So that's what we were doing. And obviously, you know, going to the doctor and stuff like that, but I believe you couldn't doctor shop anymore by the time I got out of prison the first time. Where were you selling them?

You're taking these and sell them? To pawn shops. Oh, okay. So when I'm using, and like when I'm like in my active addiction and I'm using and shit, I don't care about the repercussions as long as they're not right then. Right, of course.

I could give a fuck about credit card, fraud. Get me on camera. I don't care as long as you catch me later. I could give a fuck about giving you my ID at the pawn shop. Catch me later. As long as I get this money right now and go get my pills. I don't care. Plus most drug addiction in general. Yeah, I don't care about. The addiction is so overwhelming. That you just don't care. So, um, yeah, so we were doing that. We were selling them at the pawn shop. We were at a pawn shop, um, selling something and the person we had stole it from pulled up at the pawn shop. Trying to buy a new, a generation. I was like looking for their shit, I guess, you know.

So we drove off out of there, hauled ass, because obviously the pawn dealer was like, I'm going to call the cops. So we hauled ass. I actually called Tommy and was like, what the fuck do I do? How do you know Tommy at this point? You're dating the other guy. So I grew up with Tommy's family, and his sisters, his younger sisters are my age. And they're the family that live two houses down from me.

Oh, the troublemakers. Well, they're not the troublemakers, but they were just. a big family. Yeah. So, yeah, so they're the family. So I grew up with his brothers and sisters. So I had, his mom, I had been calling mom since I was 13 years old. You know, they're my family. So I called Tommy and I'm like, what do I do? They're going to go to my mom's house. I just got out of prison. They're going to go to my mom's house. And Tommy was like, well, you either can run and they're going to go to your mom's house or you can go back to the pawn shop. It's up to you. You know, he's like, that's your two options. I mean, what else do you want? You know, he's like,

come meet me right now, I'll take you back up there. So I went, I went and met Tommy, I went back to the pawn shop, tried to give the cops some lie, you know. It didn't work, I ended up going to jail. So I'm going to jail. They're asking me where Michael is because he didn't go back with me. Right. And we also had a stolen vehicle that we'd been driving around for a month.

So Tommy takes me back. They take me to jail. Yeah. Just a little grant that thought of. Don't worry about a little GTA. Whatever. Yeah. So they end up.

She's done that. All these felonies, she just keeps... Yeah, they're, you know, and, you know... Well, I wasn't my Grand Theft Auto, so... You're driving around in it! So I get, okay, so I get arrested. They're taking me to jail for dealing and stolen property. Tommy goes to leave the pawn shop.

They're looking for Michael. I'm telling him, I don't know where he is. I jumped out of the car, got with Tommy, whatever. Tommy goes to leave. They follow Tommy. Tommy. Tommy meets Michael. And they bust in Michael, right? So, because Tommy was going to get Michael.

He's on foot. So Tommy's going to pick Michael. Michael up to take him, so they pull the car over. So Michael calls me, I tell Michael, Andrews going to jail, bro. I'm on my way out of the pawn shop now. I got a pocket full of pills, but I go to the doctor, so I'm good. Right. And your leg was broke at that time.

And my leg's broke at the time. So he's like, where are you going to come pick me up? They found a blazer when I was trying to watch you guys at the pawn shop. This is that the other thing. I said, well, listen, I don't think it's a good idea for me to come get you right now. Give me like 30 minutes. Let me shake these cops because I know they're following me. They think I'm going to come get you anyways.

I guarantee it. No, bro. Bro, please don't leave me here. I'm stuck. Tommy, please don't leave me. Please don't leave me. Right? I slide over to Home Depot, pick him up.

Bam, detective. Going down a scenic drive over in Pascoe. And I start seeing all these unmark cars, Mark cars, all this. I said, bro, the fit of polis. You want to get out and run and try? Well, then I'm going to pull this, bro. he was idiot next thing you know bro cops are jumping medians okay to pull this over turn on the 19 off a scenic drive and um jasmine went jasmine up to 19 and when i tell you there was 35 cops

that surrounded us i'm not bullshit it was ridiculous for for dealing and stolen poverty you get me out of the car and throw me on the ground i said man you know who the fuck i am you ain't after me the fuck off me you ain't throwing me on the ground yeah it was i mean honestly like one car with light when you were to pull just oh look we're pulling over like i'm not getting to a high-speed chase with you for you when it's not anything to do with me like it had nothing to do with Tommy Tommy was just taking me because i was so shook up and so scared yeah and it's it's crazy because i i'm my boyfriend's with me instead of saying to him what do i called somebody obviously i didn't even trust this motherfucker no he's done a lot yeah you know he can't make a bad

a good decision obviously he picks up and calls Tommy says come get me well the cops are behind me they're around we would have left state right then just come get me all right bro i mean The drugs are just completely fucking got you delusional. Yeah. And of course I didn't want to go back to the pawn shop and turn myself in. But the thought of the cops swarming my parents' house after I had only been out of prison two months. Two months, I couldn't. Right.

I couldn't. It just was too much for me. It really was. And I would have loved to say that, like, I didn't go back, but I did. I went back. I turned myself in. He takes me to jail. I get arrested.

I got another 12 felonies. Just for drugs? Well, one was a violation of probation because I was on probation for the first prison sentence. Right. Then I had dealing and stolen properties and false information to pawnbrokers, but I had so many. So it was like another 10 or 12 felonies I got with a violation. So I'm in jail and obviously I don't have a bond because I had a, in Florida you don't get a bond if you violate felony probation. Right.

So I didn't have a bond. So I knew I was going to go going away for a while. had already been in prison. They came and served me with a paperwork that's for PRR, which in Florida is a prison release reoffender. So it says that the first three years you're out of prison. There are certain crimes you cannot commit. And the feds, they call it recency.

Okay, yeah. So if within one year of getting off or within I think it's three years of prison and like one year of probation, if you commit another, the felony, boom, then it's like, they, well, yeah, they, they give you like another two, another two or three points. So you're, listen, now you're doing at least another few, but you may be another two years, it may be another eight years, depending on where you fall. But yeah, it's the same thing. They served me with it because I got burglary and burglary fell under the PRR list and I had only been out of prison two months. Why burglary? Like I thought it was the pawn chops. Yeah, I got,

well, I got burglary charges for being, okay, so, yeah, for, okay, so I left that. Gritting the stuff out of the garage. Which, and I never went into a garage, but since I was in the vehicle, it's the same. You might as well be. He went into the garage. I popped the head. It's like I'm driving the getaway car for a bank robbery. I did get three burglaries, plus the deal and stolen properties and then that.

Well, burglaries fell on the PRR reoffender list. So they came and served me with paperwork saying that 15 years, you know, that they would serve, that they could pursue PRR, whatever. So I ended up going to court for a long time. I was in county jail this time for 15 months. months. My first, my offer from them was 15 years. So I opted to go to trial on my burglaries because 15 years to me, I mean, now like when I think about 15 years, you can't really prove, you can't really prove that I went in there. You can't really, like there's just, you can prove

that. You can prove that I had the stuff and then I pawned it in which you did that, but you couldn't prove because. But he robbed it, brought it to me and then I brought it. Like I, if they're going to give you 15 years anyways, you might as well try. The bank will give it to you. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I had already gotten my discovery, which, you know, explains all details of your case, all evidence of your case. So I knew that a witness had stated that it was my co-defendant and another man because I had a hood on. And then another witness stated it was a green truck and it was a blue one.

Right. So there was no. Serious inconsistency. Yeah, there was some serious inconsistency. So I was going to go to trial on my burglaries. So at jury selection, I want to say it was like my first jury selection. How terrifying is that? Yeah, right?

So at my first time for jury selection, the state said they were not ready. So we were like, oh, okay. So then when I went back in for my second jury selection, they had offered to, what did they, what did they end up doing? Because I got convicted of burglary. They dropped PRR, which took off the 15 mandatory.

And then I, so my point system, I had a high, I want to say, 154 points, which scored me almost to nine. nine years. So I still didn't want nine years. Yeah. You know, like most people were like, oh, you could have got 15, nine. No, I don't want nine years.

I'm a drug addict. I need help. Somebody help me, you know? So I didn't want to take the nine years. And so what I ended up getting was a downward departure. Right. Because the witness, one of the witnesses said that the other person stayed in the car so we could prove that I was a minimal participant in the activity.

My co-defendant was already being sentenced for PRR. So he was already getting 15 years. He had taken that. He'd been to prison three times before. They hit him with habitual, violent career criminal. He took 15 years. So they gave me downward departure, and I got 60 months, five years, DOC. Followed by no probation is what I thought.

It's what I thought I was taking. So I took five years, and I went to prison. I went back to the same prison up in the Panhandle, Gadsden. It had gotten a little worse because, you know, of course, they cut prison. When they budget cut, they cut prisons and stuff first, obviously, always. But again, it was still a private prison, so there was still a lot of good stuff for being there. That's when I did horticulture. And I took it a little bit differently.

My brother got married, and I have, my brother is my only sibling. He's been with his wife now for like 16 years. He got married while I was there. So that was pretty devastating for me. Like, it sucked to miss that. And then my father also passed. So while I was there, I kind of looked at things differently. I tried to listen to people older than me

like their stories, their advice and just see where I could change my life because I didn't want to be 40, 50, 60 year old woman in prison. No, because this isn't working. And now, like, I wasn't, the first time I was a kid and the second time I was still a kid, but my mind had changed differently. And I was like, this just isn't for me anymore.

Like, I became lonely. I was sad, you know? And the first time I, I was lonely the first time, but I don't remember it was a different sense of loneliness. Like I felt empty the second time. was in prison, you know? So I did horticulture. I did that. And they, the state of Florida wanted me to go to what's called pre-work release before regular work release this time. Pre-work release is basically a rehab in a state-run rehab. So that's what I did. I went to Bradington, Florida,

to the Bridges of America, which was owned by Department of Corrections, and it was a rehab. And I was super successful, and I'm super thankful for that. It was, it's obviously something you have to take it and you have to do it if you don't want to, you know, and you're always going to have people that don't want to be there. They're just getting through the motion, getting out of, getting out of prison and that's fine. But I learned a lot of, I learned a lot about myself, about the way to deal with life, myself, my coping mechanisms, mental, mental illness and others and myself. You know, I learned a lot there. So it was good. And then I went to regular work release again. And I got a job at a restaurant and I still work there to this day, six years

later. So it was fantastic. I relocated to where I lived. I went to work release in St. Petersburg, and I relocated there, and that is where I built my life in my family now. So. All right. Yeah. That's cool. I was going to say the, the ARDAP program that I told you I went into twice. Like, like, that's like, like, to me, somebody asked me the other day, like, what would, should you change? Like, if you could change something about, you know, prison, I was like every single member before you get out, you have to pass that program. Those are great programs. They teach you all about your criminal thinking

and what the errors are. And you're like, doesn't everybody think like that? No. Nope, they don't. And it also taught me to like what I, a lot of conflict resolution. Like I always try to look at the other person's point of view now.

Yeah. Always. I always try to. I may not agree with them or disagree with them, but I always try to look at their point of view and see it from their side before I react. I also think they're great programs. the one I was at is now shut down

because like we talk about they close work releases and pre-work releases first. So there is no more of that program which is crazy because the success rate from that program

just to people I know alone it's like because my best friend now she went through the same thing we went through the same same pretty much the same prison sentence we went to Bradington work release Gadsden horticulture she did five years

I did five years and she is super successful too and she went home to her exact town to the exact place she was from and she's five years out and doing fantastic. Instead of them saying, you know what, should we,

the programs that are set up that actually we can prove work to help reduce recidivism, we're going to cut the budget. Should we knock 25% off of everybody's sentence and put more money into these programs so that we don't have to keep locking these people up? Or should we cut the program so that in the end

we'll have to build more prisons? which one do we go for oh shut those programs down like like I mean do the basic fucking math yeah it was so disheartening when I heard that it's the same thing with us like okay so we spend we spend you know 21,000 in the state and I think it's like 35,000 in the feds to to put an inmate to per year to keep an inmate in prison or you know and then we spend like $3,500 to educate like a student so So how about we double that for students and we just cut the fucking prison population? Like, there's the money.

Yeah. No, no, let's go ahead and we'll spend less money on schools. Or like we talked about with like ridiculous vocational programs. And I'm not saying horticulture is ridiculous program. But how many people in prison really are going to get out and use horticulture in their life? They are. They're going to go open grow houses. You know, why would you spend like the prison I was at had a greenhouse.

Right. So that means that this prison spent all this money to have a fucking real greenhouse, but we're getting rid of the rehabilitation centers that are actively working. Like they work. You know, I mean, no, they don't work for everybody, but I, it's crazy. Like I said, me and my friend, we still use terms to this day that we use there. We still use thinking this way. Like when I'm super overwhelmed and super aggravated, I'll call her and I'll say,

bro, I'm about to shut the blinds. I'm about to close the blinds right now because that's what we used to say, you know? The chick that I used to date, we used to, because she went through ARDAP too, and she would say, I'd say something and she'd get, she'd get a super optimism. She'd say, come on, that's super optimism. I go, don't, don't, don't, don't. Or she would, she would say, you know, you know, that's a thinking error, right? And I go, stop, thinking error. Stop it. A good one. Oh, yeah, we were just constantly, like, throw them back and forth at each other. It's like, don't, don't, don't do that. Yeah, I mean, it was a great program for me. I was thankful for it. I almost didn't go to it. I didn't want to go to pre-work release when I was in prison talking about it.

I was like, they're just going to end up sending me back. It's just going to be some reason for me to get in trouble. And my friend, Stacey, well, was actually one of my friends, really good friends. She referred to her as her mom in prison, you know. Stacey was like, why not at least try? If you get sent back, so fucking what? You'll be right where you are right now. And I thank her every day for having that conversation with me because she made me change the decision to go.

And if I wouldn't have gone, I might not be where I am. Yeah. I really might not. You know, it sounds so cliche to say something like that, but it's the absolute truth because a lot of times they're just true. Yeah, it's the absolute truth. If I wouldn't have, if I wouldn't have gone, I might have gone to, gone, made it to regular work release and used again or got out and used again. Or not even that. Next time you just might just, you know, you got lucky you didn't overdue.

How many people do you know that have fucking overdosed? Like, you may not have even got the third chance. Yeah, exactly. So. But yeah. Okay. Is that, or, I mean, what are we doing? I mean, whatever.

I don't know. Listen. Listen, I'm a talker, like, I'll talk another 45 minutes about nothing. About nothing. Nothing. I mean, I was on probation when I got out this time, which I didn't know about, but because when I got so, okay, so. Do they end, do they, do they cut, like if you're good on state probation, do they, will

they end it early? If you're sentenced that way. You have, when you get sentenced, you have to be sentenced to four years probation with early term. So if you're good. If you're good and meet all your conditions and it's usually half the time. Right. But sometimes they'll let you like, so when I was sentenced,

I was sentenced to probation with early term as soon as I pay. So if I would have walked out of prison and paid every single dollar, I was off. But unfortunately, it was like $12,000 fucking dollars. That's the issue with me is like everybody I know is getting off on half their probation. Boom, done, done, done. But if you owe restitution, you're not eligible to get off at the halfway point. Or they won't put you in, you can't put it in, whatever. It's like, okay, well, I owe $6 million, so it's going to be an issue.

And they're like, well, I mean, that's the way it is. Yeah, but you're holding me to a higher standard. Yeah, exactly. So I've been good for two and a half years. I have another two and a half years. Yeah, well, why can't I get off? Like, I still owe the money. I'll still make the payments.

No, no, no, no, you're not eligible. It's just stupid. It is stupid. Whatever. But, yeah, okay, I was just wondering about that because I know people that are getting off, like left and right. So when I went to prison the first time and I got the 18 in, followed by 24 out, and then I violated with new charges.

When I went to court, normally what they'll do since you're getting a five-year sentence is they'll terminate that probation. But they just kept it up. He terminated all charges but one. So I had, which you should have just kept them all then.

You know what I mean? So when I got out of prison from my second time from my five-year sentence, I did have probation. And it sucked, but I did it. And I got off in a year and I early termed it

and I paid my money and they can get my ass now. That's not really my option. Yeah. Okay. So a lot of things would have to go right. All right. That's, we're good. Yeah, and now I've been clean nine years.

Nice. Yeah, so. And you're, you're dating Tommy? Yeah. You know, I mean, not everything works out. I'm sorry about that. And we're getting ready to have, we're getting ready to have a grand kid. Are you serious?

Yeah. Yeah. His oldest is having a baby. How is you? I'm 30. I'll be 32. Tommy's 42. Well, he'll be 42.

Yeah, what you're like a baby. All right. So. are we done? What are we doing? I can't. I can't. I mean, I think this covered it. I did a better job than Josh did. So, anyway, all right. So Josh would be like, bro, what are you doing? Hey, I appreciate you watching and do me a favor. If you like the video, subscribe, hit the like button, hit the bell, share it and leave a comment. And Andrea, you did a great job. And so, all right, that's it. See you.

And I'm going to be able to be. I'm a lot.