Locked Up Abroad: Where Are They Now?: Shaun Attwood

My answers to the 10 questions emailed to me by Nat Geo are now on their website here:  http://tvblogs.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/25/locked-up-abroad-where-are-they-now-shaun-attwood/#comment-22954

Question 10: Locked-Up Abroad Raving Arizona

What are you up to these days?

I credit incarceration with sending my life in a whole new positive direction. I tell my story to schools across the UK and Europe to educate young people about the consequences of choosing the drugs lifestyle, in the hope they don’t make the same mistakes I did. The endless feedback I get from students makes me feel that the talks are a better way of repaying my debt to society than the sentence I served.

When I’m not talking at schools, I’m usually on my computer writing my life story as a trilogy, which has turned into a 15-year project. My first book, Hard Time, was published in 2010, and covers the time I spent as an unsentenced inmate in the jail system with the highest rate of death in America run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The prequel to Hard Time, Party Time was recently published by Mainstream, a division of Random House. Many of the scenes in “Raving Arizona” are based on Party Time and Hard Time. I’m polishing up the third and final instalment from the English Shaun Trilogy, Prison Time, about the time I served in the Arizona Department of Corrections once I was sentenced. I hope to have it published next year.

In prison, I formed friendships with people serving long sentences, some of whom are never getting released. My brief taste of their suffering instilled me with a long-lasting desire to do what I can for them, including keeping their voices being heard on the Internet at Jon’s Jail Journal. It’s my hope that the episode of Locked-Up Abroad and my book, Hard Time, raise awareness of the conditions in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail system. I’d like to see Arpaio get voted out of office, and a new sheriff put an end to murder, mayhem and human rights violations. I also hope that by posting to the Internet what I'm doing in the schools and how I'm developing as an author, prisoners will be inspired to achieve positive goals. I have a lot of friends in prison who are rooting for me to succeed, and looking at me as a role model.

Finally, I’d like to thank the staff at Raw TV and National Geographic for enabling me to realise my dream of exposing Arpaio’s jail conditions to the world.

Click here for yesterday's question and answer: http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/question-9-locked-up-abroad-raving_3.html

Link to all of my books at Amazon USA: http://www.amazon.com/Shaun-Attwood/e/B0042NT0CU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Shaun Attwood

Question 9: Locked-Up Abroad Raving Arizona

For the next 2 days, I'm going to post a question about the episode and my answer.

What advice would you offer someone who is enamoured with the glamour and money of drugs and a drug-dealing lifestyle?

I can understand why you are enamoured, but for many people it ends with the police, prison or death. Every time you do drugs, the pleasure slowly decreases, the pain increases, and the addiction gets a stronger hold of you. The addiction is extremely demanding. Over time, it can devastate your life and the lives of your loved ones. You may make fast cash in the short run, but in the long run, dealing will ruin you financially when you get busted and the police confiscate your assets. Your addiction might take your health, and in some cases – as happened to several of my friends – you will die young. For example, my friend, Joey, in Raving Arizona was found dead in his swimming pool with all of his clothes on. 

In jail, I was surrounded by people who’d gone much further down the road of drug use than me. Most of them were injecting drugs and had hepatitis C, which is hard to treat and can kill you by slowly destroying your liver. All of the fun, glitz and glamour were gone, but they still couldn’t stop taking drugs. They were committing slow suicide. They had yellow-jaundiced skin and eyes, and their teeth were rotting out. Seeing their condition put me off doing drugs for life, and made me ashamed that I had dealt drugs. You have the opportunity to avoid a road that ends in so much misery. Life is meant at times to be tough and challenging. It takes a strong mind to remain sober and refrain from the lure of drugs. There are better ways to put meaning into your life. Take a look at all of your interests, and try to channel you energy into positive ones. Physical activity in particular will put you on a natural high

Click here for yesterday's question and answer: http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/question-8-locked-up-abroad-raving.html

Link to all of my books at Amazon USA: http://www.amazon.com/Shaun-Attwood/e/B0042NT0CU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Shaun Attwood

Chelsea Lately US TV Show Comments on Shaun Attwood's Locked-Up Abroad "Raving Arizona"

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSQWtkExv9I&feature=youtu.be

Question 8: Locked-Up Abroad Raving Arizona

For the next 3 days, I'm going to post a question about the episode and my answer.

How did you feel when you returned to England again, a free man?

I got off the plane with a small box containing my scant belongings. Walking through Gatwick Airport, I worried that UK officials might want a word about my criminal activity and lifelong ban from America, but I breezed through customs, which was a relief. With blurred vision, I had difficulty locating my parents among the hundred or so people thronging around the gate. Out of nowhere, Mum ran at me, her jacket flying and landing on the floor, my sister behind, tears streaming. I dropped my box, and with an adrenalin rush hugged Mum off her feet, and hugged my sister and Dad. After I reassured them that I was OK, we made jokes about me looking like a Russian dissident due to my lengthy stubble and gaunt face.

Day of my release

At airport with my sister and mum

On what felt like the wrong side of the road, Dad drove us away. For the first time, I read Jon’s Jail Journal on a computer, and posted a blog entry myself:

13 Dec 07

I'm free!

This is Jon/Shaun.

I can't thank you enough for all of your comments and support over the years. My prison journey is finally at an end! I'm at my sister's flat in Fulham, London. Tomorrow, I'm heading for my parents' house in Cheshire. Tonight, I'm being treated to Indian food with my family, and I hope to get a good night's sleep after several harrowing days spent in transportation (no food, sleep, showers, etc).

Much love. Talk to you soon.

Shaun

Blog comments poured in from all over the world,congratulations and well wishes, raising my spirits. A documentary maker arrived to capture my return to society on film. At night, we went for an Indian meal. I tried chicken tikka masala, my former favourite, but the meat activated my gag reflex, and brought back memories of the mystery-meat slop known as “red death” in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail, so I decided to remain vegetarian.

The next day, I did two BBC interviews. We travelled home on the motorway, a five-hour drive. We stopped at a fish ’n’ chip shop. I tried to order curry and rice – popular in in the northwest – but the young server’s thick northern accent was incomprehensible to me. He fetched a girl who spoke to me slowly and concisely as if I were mentally handicapped.

The drive through my town brought back memories as if I were in a dream. Inside my parents’ home, the feeling intensified as I checked out each room. I ate, read the latest blog comments, and tried to sleep. Wearing socks, a beanie, a dressing gown, and buried under two fifteen-tog duvets in a room with a radiator on, I couldn’t stop shivering as I was so used to the desert heat. My ears turned to ice. I sneezed. My nose ran. I only slept for a few hours, and woke up with my vision still blurred.

The next morning, I went on a food-shopping spree, loading up on fruit, nuts, cheese, bread and beans. Going from aisle to aisle, being able to buy a banana was the height of ecstasy for me. At home, I filled a spoon with peanut butter and a cup with milk, and tried to consume them like I did daily in prison, but they wouldn’t go down, so I spat them out. After it being my main source of protein for almost six years, I could no longer eat peanut butter.

Claudia called to wish me good luck. One of my best friends, Hammy, showed up with champagne, and offered to hook me up with a local nymphomaniac, so I could make up for lost time.

In the day, my mood was mostly up, but exhaustion came in waves. The next night, I slept for thirteen hours.

Still traumatised from the journey and the whole experience, I sat down at a desk upstairs in my parents’ house and wrote about my release to the people who understand Arizona prison the most and with whom I feel a lifelong bond because of the intensity of what we went through: my prison friends I left behind. Longing for their company, I filled with sadness, almost wishing I could return to prison just to be with them. An ache expanded from my jaw up through my face. Tears fell on the paper, moistening it like my sweat did when I wrote from Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail. My teeth chattered. I missed them so much, I couldn’t stop crying – no matter how hard I tried.

It took months to adjust back to society. My parents helped tremendously. I was institutionalised, and used to being told what I could and couldn’t do. My mum said I was like a puppy dog following her around the house, awaiting orders. At first, it was hard to stop reacting as if I was in prison, but over time, I returned to normal. To adjust in a healthy way, I structured my life around positive activity. Exercise keeps me mentally strong. Writing books and talking at schools keep me focussed.    

Click here for yesterday's question and answer: http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/question-7-locked-up-abroad-raving.html

Link to all of my books at Amazon USA: http://www.amazon.com/Shaun-Attwood/e/B0042NT0CU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Shaun Attwood

Dauntsey's School Visit, Wiltshire

With Ben and Eddy today
 

Shaun Attwood

Question 7: Locked-Up Abroad Raving Arizona

For the next 4 days, I'm going to post a question about the episode and my answer.

What did writing your blog "Jon's Jail Journal" mean to you during lock-up? How did you hide the logistics of writing secret documents from other prisoners and guards during the day?

Bloggingmeant a tremendous amount to me and my family – it was a team effort. My dad came up with the idea of starting a blog after he read about it in the news. My aunt smuggled my writing out of the maximum-security Madison Street jail, and typed us some of my early blogs. My parents handled all of the administration, typing blogs up and handling the correspondence with the public, which became a full-time job in itself over almost six years, taking up all of their spare time. Writing about the conditions – dead rats in the chow, cockroaches trying to crawl in my ears at night, gang murders, mayhem and violence – helped me deal with the situation and contributed to saving my sanity.

Jon’s Jail Journal was inspired by a guard who said to me, “The world has no idea what’s really going on in here.” With a golf pencil sharpened on the door, I started documenting everything. I hid what I wrote in legal paperwork and letters. My aunt took the blog entries – still hidden in paperwork – out through Visitation, typed them up, and emailed them to my parents in England, who posted them to the Internet. As the blog became well known, kind strangers started to mail me books and letters from around the world. Their outpouring of support helped restore the faith in humanity I’d lost after experiencing inhumane conditions and witnessing constant brutality. It was as if my blog readers were there with me in spirit, and I’m forever grateful to them.

On a mission to get the conditions changed, I was delighted when the BBC reported my blog. International media attention to the human rights violations followed. The maximum-security Madison Street jail was shut down a few years later, but Sheriff Joe Arpaio runs six different jails. He opened a new maximum-security high-tech house of horrors down the street. I even have footage of him on my YouTube channel bragging about his Tent City jail being a concentration camp. I still use the blog to campaign against Arpaio. Although incarceration worked for me, it was a disaster for most people I saw. Young people came in, were recruited by the gangs, started shooting up drugs, and committed acts of violence to earn racist tattoos. Perhaps that’s why Phoenix has the highest crime and reoffending in America, and Arpaio is the most sued sheriff. 

Click here for yesterday's question and answer: http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/question-6-locked-up-abroad-raving.html

Link to all of my books at Amazon USA: http://www.amazon.com/Shaun-Attwood/e/B0042NT0CU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Shaun Attwood