Not the nutrionist of your choice. Let’s face it - allowing a prisoner to pick his own doctor who could then direct the prison on how the prisoner should be treated would be wide open to abuse.
The prison system hires its own medical staff and contracts for medical services (people like Qadgop). They will examine the prisoner and determine if he needs a special diet. If he does, he’ll be given it.
Prisoners get whatever medical procedures they need. The only restrictions are they can’t have elective procedures and they generally can’t receive experimental procedures.
You are exactly right, surviving in prison is all about projecting an image of strength. For white people in prison, the most effective method is to go skinhead. I know most people these days are all about holding hands across America, but if you go to prison, you are going to find out pretty quick that the black and hispanic inmates don’t give a damn how much of a diversity loving mutliculturalist you are. I was such an idiot that I thought being Jewish would give me some sort of “ghetto pass” in prison and that black inmates wouldn’t harass me, I actually thought my biggest enemy would be the “neo-nazi” gangs, because like most others, I was misinformed by TV shows like Oz, and prison movies, to think white “neo-nazi” gangs were the real “bad guys” in prison, preying on all the helpless non-white inmates. I learned pretty damn quick nothing could be farther from the truth. My first couple weeks there were a living nightmare, constantly heckled, tripped, spit on, shoved, bumped in line, kicked, and everything else under the sun, always by black inmates. My first friend was a guy with a swastika tattoo on each of his fingers, he really helped me out and exlained how things work and what I needed to do to make things easier for myself. And it wasn’t to turn me into a drug mule, or make me his “bitch”, in fact the gang he was with had a strict zero tolerance policy towards drugs and homosexuality. They all knew I was Jewish, looking at me it is pretty hard to miss, but I was never targetted or abused because of it.
After I got out, I went back and watched a couple episodes of Oz. I had a real wake up call about just how twisted media representations of white prison gangs are. I remember watching the Oz episode in which a “neo-nazi” inmate goes to the Indian dentist and harasses him for being Indian (which wouldn’t happen, I even knew half Indian “neo-nazi” gang member). The Indian dentist is offended and plays a prank by grafting some gum tissue from a black donor into the white gang member’s mouth while he is unconscious. When the other inmates find out the he now has some black gum tissue in his mouth, he is cast out of his “neo-nazi” gang for not being “pure” anymore. This was such a stupid premise all I could do was shake my head in disbelief. Even real life Nazis wouldn’t care about that, as grafted on gum tissue has nothing to do with your genetics, and certainly white prison gangs do not care. If such a thing did happen, at most a few jokes would be made while playing dominoes, and that would be the end of it.
Another inaccurate representation of prison life was Ashton Kutcher’s movie Butterfly Effect. In that he goes to prison, as soon as he enters a “neo-nazi” comes up to him, holds a knife to his throat, and says “blood on my knife or sht on my dck”, luckily Kutcher gets rescued by a Latino gang member. This one was so stupid I just had to laugh. This actually would happen, but it wouldn’t be a neo-nazi gang member doing it, and certainly a latino gang member is not going to “help you out”. If you went up to a Latin King and asked him to protect you from all the evil whites in prison, he would laugh his a** off, then kick your a**, or try and turn you into a drug mule.
Another stupid representation of prison life was American History X. He is a real racist, and goes to prison. He joins the white gang, they gang rape him in the shower after he refuses to sell drugs. Luckily he is rescued by the black gang after he befriends one of them. As I said, the white gang I was in, and the other big one I know of, both have a zero tolerance policy towards drugs and homosexuality (though both still happen sometimes). And a black gang member is NEVER going to protect you, period, no matter how friendly you are with each other.
This is a sensitive subject for me because I know these guys, and know they are good people at heart. They aren’t a bunch of little Hitlers running around dominating non-whites. They are just doing anything they can to survive in an enviornment that is extremely hostile towards those who are not black or Latino. Being white in prison is like being black with a white girlfriend in 1950’s Mississippi. No matter how much you hate “racists”, you are going to become one pretty much your first day in lockup.
Every single last thing I’ve ever read about prison life from people who have actually been there would confirm what you are saying. For all the talk about “white male privilege”, you don’t enjoy any white male privilege in prison.
Please stick around here and consider posting more about your experiences…this is interesting to read.
Pardon the hijack, but OZ also has about 2 murders per week and that’s in the “good” part of the prison (Em City). While I know that murders do happen in prison, are they really common?
Also, what about the black Muslims in prison? Do they tend to be more or less violent towards whites than other black inmates or about the same?
Muslims are usually the best group in prison overall. Everyone else knows it’s a bad idea to mess with a Muslim - you mess with one Muslim and every Muslim will come after you. So nobody starts trouble with the Muslims. And unlike some groups, Muslims generally don’t start problems themselves. They’re not looking to run drugs or protection. So basically their attitude is “We don’t start any trouble with you and you don’t start any trouble with us.”
Zero tolerance towards butt rape in the shower. Which is a good, unless you are into that?
Yes, they had good hearts many of them. I don’t mean the ones who were in for gruesome crimes, I mean just the average guys like myself who were in for drugs, armed robbery, assault, etc. Traps that any of us could fall into given the right circumstances. I was in for drug trafficking, given ten years, but only served three luckily.
Well, mainly he was just a friend. Which is the first step towards making any situation liveable. Like your first couple weeks at a new school, it is hell until you make your first friend. He helped me out using the canteen first off, I bought some stuff, and traded him a couple of the chicken Top Ramen I got for some of his beef Top Ramen. Then he showed me a way I could smoke, he had rigged up a battery with a gum wraper, and a piece of toilet paper, to use as a lighter, and gave me one of his hand rolled cigarettes from his hiding spot. I was so thankful, I tried tp give him the two Top Ramen’s he’d traded me back to him, but he declined. We then played dominoes, and talked about his swastikas and me being Jewish. Like previous posters mentioned, he told me I should try and qualify for the kosher meals. He told me the inmates who work in the kitchen are pigs and spit in the food, drop it on the floor etc. but that the kosher meals are brought in by an outside company so are cleaner and much better quality. He said he would like to try and qualify for them too, then joked about but with his swastikas tatoos it would be unlikely. Over the next couple weeks we hung out a lot and he showed me who I should watch out for, things I could do to fight back but not get in trouble, who the friendly people were, how I could get tobacco, etc.
I don’t really feel comfortable going into gang specifics, but it was all about us watching out for each other. If someone spit on you, like the black guys often did to me when I first arrived, then we would fight together as a group to get payback on that individual. I notice prison shows like to harp on this point and spin it to sound like the “evil neo-nazi” gang is forcing its members to do their violent bidding. There is nothing sinister about it, if they have my back fighting for me when I get pushed around, then of course I am expected to get their back and help out when one of them is getting messed with.
Even the prison itself has a zero tolerance policy towards that. But some cellies still get busy with each other when the lights are out. If you are openly gay in prison, your biggest problem is going to come from the black guys. They will torment you during the day, then try and have sex with you when no one is looking. So many “down-low brothers” in prison, they are so paranoid their homies will find out they are into gay sex that they over compensate during the day by making life a living hell for any openly or suspected gay inmates.
This is really interesting stuff! Am I the only one thinking this stuff should be in a movie or tv series or something? The neonazi with swastikas on both hands befriending the obvious Jewish guy, and bonding over a lighter made of an old battery.
Trying to get you to tell more, who should you watch out for, how do you fight back but not get in trouble, who were the friendly people?
Yes. A lot of prisoners were themselves the victim of child abuse so they are often looking for revenge against child abusers. And I noticed a strange phenomena - child abusers can’t shut up. Apparently the same compulsion that makes them abuse children also makes them talk about it.
Another group that are targets are anyone who committed a crime against the United States. Criminals are often surprisingly patriotic. If you were some guy who was selling military secrets to the Chinese, you’re going to have problems.
The whole thing is a response to the fact that prisons are overwhelmingly non-white, and whites find themselves a vulnerable minority behind bars. Any young white male, for instance, is at high risk for rape and brutalization by black inmates. The book Fish, by T.J. Parsells, confirms this. White = weak and possibly homosexual to these guys. So they have to band together into a tight group of their own and project a lot of intimidating attitude to avoid violence, and also be able to fight back if they have to.
To authority figures like CO’s, counselors, etc they claim to be innocent, with other inmates they brag about their crimes and usually play them up in fact. I was always honest about what I had done as I knew any appeal would be a complete waste of time. Plus for a reduction in sentence for good behavior it is important to “own up” and take responsibility for what you did, in their eyes. At least I felt that was the case.
