MyTimeToBlog
Once incarcerated, an offender can become whatever he wants: a kingpin, a Division I recruit for a prestigious college, a porn star, the leader of an infamous gang, or a former Navy Seal. These are some of the men who can't accept the reality of being a state number in prison blues, so they lie.
Bill, a 40-something white man with a fading green flute-like tattoo on the left side of his face, is a liar. He's frail, bald, and wearing wire frames. His story is that of pure nonsense: "When I came in prison at 17, I fought all the time. After a while, everybody knew I would handle myself with homemade shanks."
The truth is, he's an antisocial liar who has never been in a fight in the 30 years he's been incarcerated. He's so scared that if someone occupied a phone, he'll never approach them and ask if he can get next. On top of that, he complains about the men being loud in the dayroom, but never directs it at them, just those he's comfortable with.
You get men lying all the time, and it doesn't take a scientist to figure out a formula of BS. Once you hear a person lying, it doesn't take long to recognize that the individual is full of crap.
Gambling James was the worst at lying. He spent all his money on parlay tickets. That was his bid. You would see him sitting with the borrowed sports section from Johnny, who would tell this: "When I was in Vegas, I spent $10,000 dollars on a pick 6 ticket that had a million-dollar payout. I ended up getting high with this call girl named Big Titty Brie. She and I smoked an ounce of crack, then I decided to drive a car into the desert just so I could see the sunset. But when I got out there, I passed out and Big Titty Brie robbed me for my ticket, then moved to Africa." The truth is that this piece of crap lied to his mother and said our building was struck by lightning and electrocuted his TV, so she needed to send him some money to buy a new one. Well, he got the money and spent it on parlay tickets.
Men lie all the time in here about who they were, but the truth will eventually come out. Like Marshall, who was incarcerated for the murder and sexual assault of his own daughter. When we met at Wallen Ridge State Prison, that was what he told me: "I'm from a rich family, and I'm spoiled. So much so that I took my Mercedes-Benz for a drive with my cousin and we drank expensive bottles of Tequila from Cuba. I drank too much and crashed the car, killing my cousin--and due to that, my family cut me off completely." A new offender moved into our housing unit and saw Marshall, sharing that the sick bastard raped his daughter, then killed her.
Nobody can hide their truth in prison, simply because we all have bull crap detectors. That was why when I learned about Paco, I was lost on how to proceed. This was a friend whom I became close to. He spent his life in prison, but had the audacity to lie about being a Christian. The way he shared his faith, you would believe it, because he spent time in church and reading the Bible...but he had an addiction: Gunning (jerking himself off). This came to light when he had someone come to his cell, discovering him naked and stroking himself off to a female correction officer in the booth. Paco began saying, "The Devil got to me. I'm so ashamed." Hey, we all make mistakes, but then he did it again--and this time, the men put his business out there for everybody to know. Well, Paco let the Devil out and tried to fight the men for sullying his name in prison.
This world we call prison is a mind f#%k. If you're not capable of seeing what's around you, you can be hurt in more ways than one. Like T-Bone, who proclaimed he was a paralegal. Most of us in prison desire assistance in legal matters, and some of the incarcerated see this as an opportunity to get a quick come-up on those not equipped to think for themselves. Well, T-Bone had this kid named Skyy in his pocket. So much so that T-Bone was speaking with Skyy's mother, giving horrible legal advice, while she dished out a few hundred dollars for his assistance. Skyy learned the truth when the courts wrote back and told him what he sent was unfounded. This caused Skyy to lose his chance at getting relief from his sentence. The outcome for T-Bone was that he checked into segregation, running from an ass kicking that Skyy wanted to give him.
The stories you hear in prison can become outrageous, especially when men are working in collusion, to get someone comfortable. For instance, Carlos, a young kid who wanted to be cool with everybody. Well, that reached Jones and Spoon. They created a path to get Carlos in their clutches, and how they did this was by listening for a while as the young man shared his entire life with strangers. Well, once Jones and Spoon discovered a way in, they used it to get Carlos comfortable with them. They accomplished this by saying, "You're from Norfolk. So are we. We lived out there all our lives. As a matter of fact, do you know a guy calling himself Rudy? Yeah, that's our main man." They heard Carlos say that name and developed a way to get him to let his guard down. Once they had his trust, they had him smoking weed and drinking prison hooch. The sad thing is that they dosed the hooch with a sleeping agent they purchased from the mental health patients. When Carlos passed out, they took turns sexually assaulting him.
This is the world of prison, and you gotta learn to listen more and trust your gut. Liars are all around in this world, and most times they're plotting for a come-up on that next individual who can't think past go. Sadly, only time can help you understand that men lie just to make themselves sound better. That is why the old adage comes to mind: believe none of what you hear, and half of what you see. This is a skill one must have, because not everybody in here is your friend.
Welcome to prison. You better be listening.