I fell into the fantasy, falling in love with her. As a desperate, sleepless in Soledad,  lonely man who felt accepted for the first time in years, I proceeded to see how far I could go with her. I began to write to the station every week and ask for hard-to-find songs, challenging her. As […]

The horrible reality of a failing system. Prison doctors are almost always in a hurry to shove medical files out, like a factory worker on a conveyor line. They are also skeptical of every inmate, on the defensive, to keep inmates from pulling a con on the prison health care system, manipulating them out of […]

Try spending a typical morning in the shoes of a prison inmate. During my incarceration, corresponding with people from all over the world, I’ve heard it all: bored, midlife, menopausal, neurotic, desperate housewives tell me how their husbands can’t get it up any more. College students complain about their sky-high debt from student loans and credit […]

If it’s prison food, it all tastes the same. When I first stepped foot into prison and read the chow hall menu, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! Ah, I remember the days when I could eat whatever I wanted: Denny’s Grand Slam for breakfast, a cold Subway pastrami sandwich for lunch, a […]

Mischief in the Prison Chapel “Is there anyone out there whom the Holy Spirit has touched, who wants to be healed by the blood of the Lamb, who wants to accept Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior? Raise your hands!” When it comes to religion, I personally believe that one can benefit tremendously […]

When there’s plenty of time to think about life inside and outside of prison. A prisoner has nothing but time on his hands to deal with while on lockdown — 24 hours until the next breakfast, eight hours until dinner. One Sunday afternoon, I was hanging out in the law library, reading new case law, […]

Homemade booze: it’ll kill you. On the third night, he took a sock, using it as a strainer, and began to pour the bag contents into sock, and out came a pure orange liquid, which streamed into a big jug placed below. The result was jailhouse pruno. As a free man, just 23 years old, […]

Women find romance behind bars, and a lot more. If you’re a guy, you probably got aroused at the title of this article, thinking of some hot jail babes who are locked up, horny, and ready to rock your world on a conjugal visit! If you’re a woman, you probably instantly thought of some tough-looking […]

The prison black market specialist. In every prison nationwide exists a man on whom every inmate depends: the extraordinary, smooth-talking convict who can deliver—for a price—anything you ever wanted, even the things you don’t want. An agent, middleman, who regulates supply and demand, a walking swap meet or newsstand—he always delivers. Everyone knows him, even […]

“Quickly, the deafening chatter of over a hundred men’s conversations takes over the dayroom.” Growing up as a Mexican American in an affluent conservative Southern California suburb mostly populated by whites, I had to assimilate to “fit in.” Dated hot blonde-haired, blue-eyed chicks, became a regular at frat kegger parties, looked and dressed like a […]