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Interview with John

JM: Did you find it difficult to get along with other inmates? Please give examples to explain why you did or didn't.
John: Basically , not . But...Some conflict-threatening times...Once , when we had been swept out of the block into spare rooms outside because they had some sweep going on , some Jane's Addiction/goth-looking dude threatened me , " I have nothing to lose " with beating me up , both there and outside , " I know where you sleep " ( I am homeless , remember . ) . No one else said anything to him , he himself threatened me if I reported him . Wrse , one time some yung punk-looking inmate called me on some " violation of convict code " , saying " I would get beaten up and rolled out for that ' then saying he'd tax me my evening meal instead . I had to give him it . Later , some more sympathetic inmates did give me some scrap of thir comissary/a sandwhich they didn't want , I guess they felt they couldn't protest but:-( (the threat )_... A slight disagreement with a guard at one point had him genttly seizin my arm and taking me , briefly , to some unoccupied confrence-type room with only a chair and leaving me there for a bit - later on that same day , after a repitition of the disagreement , he invited me out of the door again presumably he would have done it again but I didn't answer . I should say that that same guard did me a good turn that day . I didn't resist the marching to the room - Let's face it , if I had he'dve like done worse to me and put in perhaps something worse and left me there longer . I knew it and he knew it . You're in jail , dude ! This guard was one of he guards who didn't have modern wrestler/surfer-shaved heads or very close crops rather like mor thesort of haircuts you imagine Midwestern bank clerks of 40 years ago , extras in a Disney Fred MacMurray movie fromthe 1960s , having . Mostly the guards were okay , again . I remember one time some younger cons (a whole class of " pee wee gangbangers " - whether litral gangbangers or not , kids I guess getting thrown in for the first thing they had been caught at at 18-+ - " kids " , really , I remember one who was like 115 pounds , they were baby-faced - Some seemed to get into Beavis and Butthead-y conversation late at night boasting about their possible sentences/getting off?? - I remember one actually saying to another , " You know , the only way this place could be cool was if you could come and go and you could bring a girl in " . One time , one youngie , who had bcaught not because he'd been before , ' a great burglar " , as he thought , but because he didn't have any fingerprints on public file - got caught . Just past his 18th birthday . Because he had put prints on file to get a driver;s liscence . told me f his horrndous childhood , being born H-addicted was about the least of it . He was optimistic about his preggers girlfriend and their child , however , he was maybe missing his birth in jail .

JM: What types of things did you have to do to avoid problems or fights with other inmates?
John: I was a touch not too assertive , somewhat playing up - if unconsiously - " older , slightly nutty " - Asperger's - guy " , I have a long beard and grey in it and my hair this probably heped a few addressed me as " O. G. " . I did fall into doing the jail thing of doing yard push-ups/sit-ups - Though I wasn't consiously planning it that way this probably helped increase my respect ! Almost all inmates were pretty non-agressive/trying to be friendly , or at least not fight . The fact that manw were being held there pre-trial or pre-sentencing probably helped that !!!!!!! We were alone in the block much of th time with the guards coming in maybe on the average every 15 minutes . The guards were , considering , fairly nice , tending to address us as " gentlemen...", I guess Sarge/CPO-style when calling everyone for chow (which was served in the block , always , we had one cafeteria-type tray and one plastic spoon and one plastic mug which we were supposed to have for the whole time initially during my main three weeks I had an older model slightly larger mug which painted me as having been in the hospital wing for a bit as I say here elsewhere but it got replaced eventually . You were issued a plastic credit-card lamiated of your upon-booking mug shot which you wee supposed to present at all times when needed/required .) , etctera .

JM: Were you able to choose an inmate as your cellmate if you knew one? How often would your cellmate(s) change?
John: I was in dorm/barracks style bunks/mattresses (sometimes on " boats ") on the main floor , so that is N/A to me . There was some moving around of what your bed was , but not a whole lot . We were in that block , with a cement block outside with sun coming in when sunny and 4 kinds of fencing over the top , the combined area essentially 24/7 , counting being perhaps just slightly outside of the door to our block for a moment to receive meds/whatever , there was a once-a-week " church " class I don't think there were any scheduled releases from the block otherwise , sometimes circumstances might have us out of it briefly in other nearby sections in the jail if someone had a visitor they would be brought to the visiting room . Some people were in for , I know for sure , as much as 15 months though I am unclear if they were literally spending all of their sentence in our block . A few might've been in preparation for an upcoming release after being housed elsewhere one older-than-me 'Nam vet was I think?? - His release kept getting delayed for a while . I was likely the oldest " all-week " con there most of the time anyways .

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