Question Time

A student emailed: 

I would like to ask you questions on your time in prison and how drugs got you there. In your DVD, it says that you were sent to prison for talking on the phone to someone about drugs. Is that 100% true?  Another thing, you said you went to prison and some of your bouncers went to the same one. What happened to them? You said you didn’t need their protection later on because you had people from the Mafia and others protecting you. Did your bouncers have a hard time or do bouncers immediately go straight up the prison ranks? You said you wrote your blog on a wall. How did you get it put onto paper without anyone knowing? My dad was in prison, and as soon as he went in he was in the higher ranks, and no one said anything to him. He said there were a couple of people trying to steal his back, but he sorted it by giving them turbo laxative and clean-filming the toilets. He had a couple of fights, but not like the violence you describe at the jail.

My school hasn’t watched your DVD yet, but I saw it when I was in inclusion because the ‘drugs and prison’ tittle caught my eye. I really enjoyed watching your DVD, and I’m ashamed to say that I have smoked drugs in the past, but now I’m completely clean. Thank you for bringing the video out to schools, and I’m now going to buy your book. 

My response:

I was convicted of talking about drugs on the phone. By the time they caught up with me, I had stopped the Ecstasy business. They didn’t have much evidence of the bigger deals, but I broke numerous drug laws over the years, so it was time to pay the price for my life of crime. Sooner or later it catches up with you.

For the first year of my incarceration, there were lots of people in Arpaio’s jail who were arrested with me, including a best friend from my hometown, Wild Man, who the gangs respected for his fighting skills. He looked out for me, and we all looked out for each other. I was split from my codefendants after the first year, so then I had to rely on my people skills, Englishness, education… to avoid trouble. Writing blogs about other prisoners enabled me to make some powerful alliances, including with Two Tonys, a Mafia mass murderer, and the mighty T-Bone. 

Bouncers have better fighting skills than most people, which makes it easier for them to move up the prison ranks.  

I started the blog by writing with a tiny pencil sharpened on the wall and door of the cell. Parts of the door usually worked best. I wrote on paper that my aunt smuggled out of the jail. Click here for how this blog started or watch this video.

Click here for the previous Question Time

Shaun Attwood