The guy at my table never saw it coming. Luckily I did or it would've startled me into getting up from my seat, and being next. When the seven inches of homemade iron knife went into the Hispanic man's neck. I just turned my back to him and went on eating, like I hadn't noticed the other guy walk up and quickly jab him about ten times, or the sound it made as it crushed his voice box and windpipe so he couldn't scream. None of my business and there won't be another meal for twelve hours. Can you believe this is just another breakfast at 3am in prison? Not like I hadn't seen about eight or ten other guys get iced since I got here. When the "laws" (guards) came and sprayed the killer that day alot of men around us coughed so hard from the pepper spray that they vomited everywhere. A panicked mob formed at the entrance/exit doors after the cops locked us in. By the time I got out of there I was covered in mace and blood. Neither the guy next to me nor I finished our day's first meal. I finished the day, though, he didn't. I walked out, he was carried on a stretcher on his way to the morgue. The other Hispanic man who stabbed him was doing 8 years. When his own race decided they'd rather steal all his stuff and gang up on him for not joining their gang, instead of finessing him into changing his mind, The guy retaliated by killing one of his tormentors to prove he wouldn't be hogged. Now he'll never get out. Such is life in prison. Doesn't matter how much time you come in with because tomorrow you may die by another man's hand or you may have to fight for your life, take someone's life and get a sentence called "Life" which only describes what you'll lose slowly or "Death" which hopefully will come in 10 yrs.

Life in prison is like being a fly on a window. Your life is passing by, you can't get out and all you can do is look out and watch everyone pass you by. They say you're paranoid if you think everyone is out to get you? Well, in here, everyone is out to get you. You've never seen so many sharks in your life! They'll all try and get over on you and you ain't a man if you don't do something about it. You ever hear of the criminal calling the police? Well it don't start in here. Then you're a snitch. In here you're either a snitch, a bitch or a man. Most of the Laws are bigger criminals then we are. This is a man's world, yet many of these guys can't even be considered human much less men. You'll be in a cell with a guy who will almost definitely (be) a different color, bigger in size and inclined to find out as quickly as possible what your limits are.

Rapists, Murderers, Thieves, child molesters, Dope fiends, pimps and gangsters. Many of the officers are racist gang members who work for the system to move cigarettes and dope for their race and alot of others are redneck racists who would like more than anything to see you hang. And if you cross them they'll spray you with mace, handcuff you and take you somewhere isolated so they can jump on you 4 or 5 at a time. You'll be lucky if you live. Then they'll say you swung at them first and they were just defending themselves and somehow none of them are marked up but you have no grill, a broken nose, arm and wrist and a face like a raccoon. The worst part is the additional 2-10 you'll get stacked onto the end of your sentence.

Hope you don't mind the heat either because it can get over 100 degrees in one of these cells in the summer. And summers are 8 months long in South Texas. You're clothes will almost never fit you and will look like they hadn't been washed in a month. You'll never hear an inmate say he's in here for rape but every time a female guard comes by you'll see more dick than a Richard convention. Don't drop the soap. You could join a gang for protection but they're only interested in you if you either have money every week on your account or if you will be a "crash dummy" and go do their dirty work and take the heat for it. I've been doing time for 14 years and I've never joined a prison gang. I've fought alot more because of it, but I'm more of a man for standing on my own 2 feet.

Me? I'm now doing 6 years for drugs. My very first sentence was for murder I got reduced to manslaughter back in 1991. I'm just a dope dealer who couldn't get his shit together. Now I'm 33 and I'll be free in 9½ months and ain't got a dime. No friends, they'll forget you in the first year, your girlfriend will too, she'll just sleep with someone else and swear she's waiting on you to come home. Parole? Big joke! My last reason for being denied was "hostile, violent crime brutal nature and preying on victims vulnerability - oh, and use of a weapon" my crime was possession of L.S.D. and cocaine. No violence, no victim, no weapon and obviously - no parole. So get your mind right or someone will do it for you. Maybe you'll get lucky and it'll be someone like me, I'm only 6 foot one, 195lbs. and tattooed up head to toe like a circus freak. We'll save you a bed. Get your boxing game together or get fitted for a new thong and skirt. Good luck, because if you are reading this you need it. This is real - and so am I.