I suppose it’s better to be raped while bending over to pick up the soap than to actually be the soap.
Yes, I’m going to Hell for that joke.
This is almost worthless hearsay, but a cousin of mine (we’re Italian) has been in jail a few time in NY and in talking to his sister, she told me the same thing. The Jews and Italians ban together and stay low and out of the way of the Puerto Rican, Blacks and Neo-Nazis.
I don’t know if that helps and I don’t know if that is regional to this area. I would guess it might be.
Might I suggest reading You Got Nothing Coming: Notes from a Prison Fish, by Jimmy Lerner, a Jew who did time in a maximum security prison in Nevada.
His approach: not tell anyone.
DISCLAIMER: Some of the claims made by Mr. Lerner, both about his time in prison and, specifically, about the details of the crime of which he was convicted, are in dispute. I make no claim of the veracity of Mr. Lerner’s claims.
There was an episode of Barney Miller in which Barney (who was Jewish) went to jail (for what reason I can’t remember). His cellmate tells him “Be sure to let them know you’re kosher” to which he responds “I’m not”. The cell mate says “Tell 'em anyway. You eat better.”
A 50something student who’d been to prison in the 70s said this was actually true: anybody who could convincingly do so told them they were kosher, halal, or had other dietary restrictions, because most prisons evidently do accommodate them to some extent. (More so I would imagine in NYC or somewhere else that there’s a heavy Jewish population I would guess.)
I wonder- if you were a Jew in a Federal prison (not one of the Club Fed but one of the prison like Federal prisons especially) if you could request a transfer to a prison with a larger Jewish population. It would seem reasonable, for purposes of religious observation if nothing else. Take for instance Montgomery, AL, which has a large Federal pen (where speaking of Jews Steve Rubell and two other owners of STUDIO 54 were incarcerated in fact, though I can’t imagine Rubell was that devout). Montgomery has 2 synagogues, one a Reform temple probably about the size of a moderate suburban temple in a larger city, and other a tiny orthodox temple with a mostly elderly congregation that can rarely keep a rabbi (they get the retired or the “just graduated”- they’re not large enough to pay enough for an “in his prime” rabbi.) I can’t imagine that Temple Beth-Or or Aggudath Israel either one can spare a rabbi more than very rarely for religious services at a prison. If a Jewish prisoner therefore asked to be transferred to a city like NYC or Atlanta where there were enough rabbis to have Sabbath services, would this request probably be deemed reasonable and granted?
So where would I fit in as half Chinese, half Irish? I can pretty much pass for white except for my last name. I’m guessing it wouldn’t turn out well for me.
You can be whichever you want*. As far as the state’s concerned, it’s a matter of self-identification - you can be half-Chinese and half-Irish and call yourself an Aztec if you want. As for your peers, I suppose it’s whatever they choose to consider you to be.
*As always, I’m speaking about New York, which is a typical prison system. But some systems may have other procedures.
I was gonna mention the Coen brothers, but I’ll skip it.
hijack: Who cleans the toilet in a prisoner’s cell? In movies the toilets are always depicted as filthy, disgusting, objects. If I lived in my bathroom, I’d keep the toilet very clean. Is it the responsibility of the prisoner or are they cleaned while the cell is empty? 
Which might work for a Jim Lerner, but maybe not so great for Ira Goldberg.
The occupants of a cell are responsible for keeping it clean. We have prisoners whose job assignment is to clean the unit and they clean the communal toilets. Or prisoners are given cleaning jobs as a punishment when they break some rule.
^Thanks for the info! I always wondered about it.
My question is;
When are the walls going to be built around NYC?
I saw someone mention the Louis Theroux episode where he interviewed the Nazi gang member and his Jewish lover. I really found his questions annoying there. Despite all outside appearances, white prison gangs really have nothing to do with Hitler and Facism and all that. Any white person who goes to prison finds out pretty quick that there they are the minority, and without some sort of support system, you will be preyed on and violated by the large black and hispanic gangs. All those prison “Nazi” gangs are just a defensive measure. Shows like OZ, and Lockup, for some reason they portray these white gangs as if they are all actual Neo-Nazis. This always bugged me as I am Jewish and spent three years in prison, during that time I joined a white gang, they all knew I was Jewish, and besides a few jokes, it was not a big deal. In the Louis Theroux episode, some of the white gang members he spoke to were clearly Latino, and one standing in the background was some Middle Eastern ethnicity. But Louis didn’t bother making mention of that, and just kept asking his questions as if they were all blonde haired blue eyed neo-nazi’s he ran across in a mall. Many shows, such as OZ, even go so far as to twist things to look like the white gangs are the only racists in prison, and that all the other ethnic gangs are just banding together to defend themselves against those crazy Nazis.
I have no affinity for real life Nazi’s, but I have lots of affinity for the “nazi” group I banded together with while in prison, I know without them I would not have survived my time there. TV and movies attempt to show a very skewed image of white prison gangs, they apply outside politics to what they see in prison, and outside politics have NOTHING to do with what goes on behind bars. They see a guy with a shaved head, and their natural reaction is to twist things as much as they can to show him as some sort of racist villian. I’d love to throw these “shocked” reporters behind bars for awhile, and you’ll see just how fast they shave that hair off. And NOT because some nazi gang is forcing them to, but because they’ll be so scared sh*tless from the constant harassment from black and hispanic inmates that they’ll jump at the chance to go “skinhead”.
I noticed Louis did not ask a single black or hispanic gang member the same race based questions he asked the white gang members. He clearly chose not to in order to portray some biased image of the prison as a place where the crazy white gangs were the only racist ones, and were preying upon all the minorities in San Quentin forcing them to form their own gangs. In reality it is the complete opposite. That is why 99% of people who belonged to white gangs in prison, have nothing to do with racism once they are released, such as myself.
If you look white enough that a black guy will call you “white boy”, then you are going to be white in prison, whether you are half Asian, half-Indian, Jewish like me, or some other variation. And as such, you will most likely find yourself banding together with a motley crew of other “white” inmates in some sort of “neo-nazi” prison gang. Louis Theroux, Oz, Lockup, and all the rest of them, can take their skewed representations of us, and cram it!
As an “OZ” fan, I would say that zombie resurrection was justified. Interesting post longdays89.
As long as this thread has been revived, I’ll add that there are probably more Jews in prison than you would assume. The Russian mob has a lot of Jews in it and they end up in prison.
Three years later and we’re still waiting. Government projects, huh?
If only there were any Jews in Hollywood to carry this out.
The “break of the fast” dinner isn’t just larger but generally quite festive, and including delicious dishes and pastries. Amongst Muslims who don’t actually respect the fast, “double-dipping”, as denounced by** Little Nemo **isn’t uncommon.
However, I doubt that Muslims held in Jail get any kind of festive meal (although I guess it has to be more copious).
OK. Zombie Jewish criminals (realized it onlyu when I noticed I had posted twice the same thing).
However, for once, the ressurection was justified by longday89’s interesting post.
What is the diet provided for diabetics and people with allergies like? A guy my roomie was dating was in jail in Ohio and he gained a fair amount of weight because it was seriously carb heavy.
Or just as a supposition, would I be able to follow my nutritionists profile?
Excellent post. Please, please stay around here. So many people just join an account seemingly to bump one zombie thread with one single post and then never come back. Don’t be one of those people.
What you’ve said, I always suspected, and that confirms it. The white prison gangs are not built around any real, genuine fascist or Nazi ideology. What the are, is a way for white guys to blast attitude, to try to intimidate the prisoners of black or Hispanic race who vastly outnumber them. And nothing’s more intimidating than Nazi imagery, so this is why they adopt it.
The Hell’s Angels did the same thing…they don’t believe in Nazi ideology. Hell, I’ve seen photos of black and Hispanic Angels and one of their highest-up guys was Filipino according to Sonny Barger’s book about the club. They wear swastikas because swastikas are fucking intimidating.