Has anyone here been a con or done time in prison? (CA, USA)

[TruthOrConsequences]

I know that, much like in the rest of the US, prisons in California are extremely brutal and dangerous. I know how it's all segregated by different gangs and races. I've watched damn near every show out there about life behind bars as it's one of my hobbies. My favorite ones are Lockup, Lockdown, First Week In.

I strongly recommend anyone to watch at least one episode(today it will be on all night on MSNBC). It pretty much shows the American society at it's finest, without any filters or any political correctness. Down to the most raw form of existence here in America. I like how it really lets you feel what America is all about; ostracism, segregation and racial violence. But that's just me. I like to keep my mind in the gutter because it helps me get that strong vibe of reality and see through all the fakeness and the bullshit that the so-called 'normal' people exhibit in day-to-day life.

So my question is: given that prisons are all racially segregated and all the politics and all is mostly about race, what happens to the people that don't really fit into any of the gangs or races? I know that in Cali it's broken down to Blacks(Crips & Bloods), Surenos, Nortenos, Whites(AB & NLR) and others(Asians/Natives/Polynesians). What if you're Italian or Eastern European? I don't think the whites are too keen on those. What if you're Middle-Eastern or Indian? Who are you supposed to run with? Or do they just automatically put you in PC?

[Banano]

Do people get all f***ed in the ass in prisons or it is myth?
Can you ask to get your own room as you dont want to get abused

[skateboardstephen]

I don' think any one here has been to prison considering the fact that you can not have a felony to obtain a passport.

[zboy1]

I know that, much like in the rest of the US, prisons in California are extremely brutal and dangerous. I know how it's all segregated by different gangs and races. I've watched damn near every show out there about life behind bars as it's one of my hobbies. My favorite ones are Lockup, Lockdown, First Week In.

I strongly recommend anyone to watch at least one episode(today it will be on all night on MSNBC). It pretty much shows the American society at it's finest, without any filters or any political correctness. Down to the most raw form of existence here in America. I like how it really lets you feel what America is all about; ostracism, segregation and racial violence. But that's just me. I like to keep my mind in the gutter because it helps me get that strong vibe of reality and see through all the fakeness and the bullshit that the so-called 'normal' people exhibit in day-to-day life.

So my question is: given that prisons are all racially segregated and all the politics and all is mostly about race, what happens to the people that don't really fit into any of the gangs or races? I know that in Cali it's broken down to Blacks(Crips & Bloods), Surenos, Nortenos, Whites(AB & NLR) and others(Asians/Natives/Polynesians). What if you're Italian or Eastern European? I don't think the whites are too keen on those. What if you're Middle-Eastern or Indian? Who are you supposed to run with? Or do they just automatically put you in PC?

Yeah, I've always wondered about that too. What if you're Asian/Indian/Middle Easterner stuck in prison? I think that means you're f***ed...literally, LOL! American prisons are literally hell-holes. And plus, you got all the violence, gangs, and racial tensions in there--I'm not sure how anyone ends up surviving the whole thing, tbh.

[Jeygonza]

LOL! American prisons are literally hell-holes. And plus, you got all the violence, gangs, and racial tensions in there. Hell holes!! You must visit "La Victoria" a prison in DR especially the poor side.

[Jeygonza]

I know that, much like in the rest of the US, prisons in California are extremely brutal and dangerous. I know how it's all segregated by different gangs and races. I've watched damn near every show out there about life behind bars as it's one of my hobbies. My favorite ones are Lockup, Lockdown, First Week In.

I strongly recommend anyone to watch at least one episode(today it will be on all night on MSNBC). It pretty much shows the American society at it's finest, without any filters or any political correctness. Down to the most raw form of existence here in America. I like how it really lets you feel what America is all about; ostracism, segregation and racial violence. But that's just me. I like to keep my mind in the gutter because it helps me get that strong vibe of reality and see through all the fakeness and the bullshit that the so-called 'normal' people exhibit in day-to-day life.

So my question is: given that prisons are all racially segregated and all the politics and all is mostly about race, what happens to the people that don't really fit into any of the gangs or races? I know that in Cali it's broken down to Blacks(Crips & Bloods), Surenos, Nortenos, Whites(AB & NLR) and others(Asians/Natives/Polynesians). What if you're Italian or Eastern European? I don't think the whites are too keen on those. What if you're Middle-Eastern or Indian? Who are you supposed to run with? Or do they just automatically put you in PC?

Yeah, I've always wondered about that too. What if you're Asian/Indian/Middle Easterner stuck in prison? I think that means you're f***ed...literally, LOL! American prisons are literally hell-holes. And plus, you got all the violence, gangs, and racial tensions in there--I'm not sure how anyone ends up surviving the whole thing, tbh.

[zboy1]

LOL! American prisons are literally hell-holes. And plus, you got all the violence, gangs, and racial tensions in there. Hell holes!! You must visit "La Victoria" a prison in DR especially the poor side.

Yes, foreign prisons are even worse, but you have to remember that the U.S, has the highest rate of incarceration in the entire world. According to the New York Times:

"The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners."

Also from the same article:

"Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China's extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

San Marino, with a population of about 30,000, is at the end of the long list of 218 countries compiled by the center. It has a single prisoner.

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151; Germany's is 88; and Japan's is 63.

The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.

[E_Irizarry]

I don' think any one here has been to prison considering the fact that you can not have a felony to obtain a passport.

That's why I am so diplomatic when dealing with the police in different parts of the U.S. of Gay as a 6'3" 285 lbs non-WASP male.
All I had to do was act like a damn fool, and bam, I would have had a felony just from hitting an officer or jumping in an unmanned running car and all
that dumb shit that too many dumb Americans fall for.

It's scarily too easy to obtain a jail-arrest-prison record in this country.

Because i have known at a precocious age that once one acquires a prison record, he's finished for life: no going abroad, no legally high-compensation career, no credit for housing, no food stamps, no chance at receiving free skill training and job placement. f**k THAT SHIt; I know better.

[momopi]

I know that, much like in the rest of the US, prisons in California are extremely brutal and dangerous. I know how it's all segregated by different gangs and races. I've watched damn near every show out there about life behind bars as it's one of my hobbies. My favorite ones are Lockup, Lockdown, First Week In.
I strongly recommend anyone to watch at least one episode(today it will be on all night on MSNBC). It pretty much shows the American society at it's finest, without any filters or any political correctness. Down to the most raw form of existence here in America. I like how it really lets you feel what America is all about; ostracism, segregation and racial violence. But that's just me. I like to keep my mind in the gutter because it helps me get that strong vibe of reality and see through all the fakeness and the bullshit that the so-called 'normal' people exhibit in day-to-day life.
So my question is: given that prisons are all racially segregated and all the politics and all is mostly about race, what happens to the people that don't really fit into any of the gangs or races? I know that in Cali it's broken down to Blacks(Crips & Bloods), Surenos, Nortenos, Whites(AB & NLR) and others(Asians/Natives/Polynesians). What if you're Italian or Eastern European? I don't think the whites are too keen on those. What if you're Middle-Eastern or Indian? Who are you supposed to run with? Or do they just automatically put you in PC?

I have a couple friends who went to prison. The racial groupings is more of a generalization. In the yard you hang out with smaller groups around a bench, table, or some area. This is called your car, and depending on the quality of the people there, your ride can be a ford pinto or a BMW.

If you did not fit in specific racial groups, you go to the "other". If you're smart and can write legal docs, you'd be popular and people from various cliques will come to you seeking favors.

[ladislav]

I don' think any one here has been to prison considering the fact that you can not have a felony to obtain a passport.

Wait a minute. You mean after you have served a sentence, you cannot travel abroad ever?

I just got this info from Ask.com

You CAN travel if you have a criminal record - HOWEVER - if you are on parole or probation the court will probably place restrictions on your travel so that you don't leave the court's jurisdiction in an attempt to avoid the surveillance and control of either the court or your parole/probation officer.
If you are referring to being prevented from entering other countries because of a criminal record - that is that nations privilege to do so. They have enough of their own homegrown criminals to dealwith without allowing anymore into their country.

[E_Irizarry]

I don' think any one here has been to prison considering the fact that you can not have a felony to obtain a passport.

Wait a minute. You mean after you have served a sentence, you cannot travel abroad ever?

I just got this info from Ask.com

You CAN travel if you have a criminal record - HOWEVER - if you are on parole or probation the court will probably place restrictions on your travel so that you don't leave the court's jurisdiction in an attempt to avoid the surveillance and control of either the court or your parole/probation officer.
If you are referring to being prevented from entering other countries because of a criminal record - that is that nations privilege to do so. They have enough of their own homegrown criminals to dealwith without allowing anymore into their country.

See. I will totally evade such a situation. That's why I don't fight stateside anymore. It has become too easy to get caught up in the law in the U.S. of Gay now. Even if I had been blatantly disrespected, I walk the f**k away although I might say something crass as my only legal defense in that moment.

[djfourmoney]

What was the point of this post actually?

If you got to prison for any length of time you are a second class citizen. Whats there to talk about? Many of you largely voted for the system the way it is and wanted to ignore the obvious racial reasons why the prison population is 35% Black when the Black population is only 12.4% Nationally (13.3% in California).

http://www.dylanratigan.com/2012/04/27/ ... black-men/

[NorthAmericanguy]

Male prisons are hell for chiefly one main reason, and that reason is due to the complete absence of WOMEN.

[NorthAmericanguy]

Yes, foreign prisons are even worse,

Yea, but for mostly different reasons, such as, dealing with unsanitary conditions, heavy sentences, or you could could be tortured by the guards such as in the prisons in Iran/ N Korea.

So what it boils down to is that foreign prisons are more for the average guy because most of your worry will be sourcing quality food and staying clean, where as American prisons you MUST be a gladiator and very aggressive in order to survive because all the prisoners target you, and if you have no choice but to join a gang and fight for your gang on command or else your own gang will then target and eliminate you.

[NorthAmericanguy]

I'm not sure how anyone ends up surviving the whole thing, tbh.

MANY don't. They die inside the prison.