THE OLD CASTLE
♪ “COURT PLAYED ME SHORT.. …NOW I’M FACING INCARCERATION/…PACING….GOING UPSTATE IS MY DESTINATION/…HANDCUFFED IN THE BACK OF THE BUS…./40 OF US/….LIFE AS A SHORTY SHOULDN’T BE SO ROUGH”♪…………….”C.R.E.A.M.”- Inspector Deck’s verse…
I remember clearly when I got sentenced to my first state bid. I was fresh out of Riker’s Island in NYC and went out of town to Ohio. I was moving too fast in a small town that I caught a case immediately. I had to move with precision now because I was on 5 years of probation back in NYC, and my P.O. found out about the out of state arrest, so I was in violation for being out of state without his permission and catching a fresh drug case at that…
I made bond and was back in the swing of things……
My P.O. said that he wouldn’t violate me if I didn’t get convicted, but I already knew I had to cop out to the best plea that was offered……So I hustled HARDBODY and blew up in that small town….and not only did I eat good…I had a Big name throughout the town.
I ended up taking a plea 9 months later, and even though I ran like crazy….I got caught and extradited back to Ohio.
Within months I was sentenced and transferred to Ohio State Reformatory, which was in Mansfield, Ohio. I was 19 yrs old…about 150 lbs….wild as a MOTHAPHUCKER….not to mention that I was from Queens, N.Y. and was about to do a bid in Ohio.
It was about 12 of us that was cuffed and shackled in the transport van on our way to Mansfield…we on the van with the small talk chit chatter and jokes about this prison shit….for the whole ride which was almost a hour or so…..Until we seen the old castle…which looked like a haunted “Castle Grayskull” from “He-Man”…….
Just the look alone of this old ass prison made everyone get church mouse quiet…not a sound was made as we pulled up…..A white boy started crying loudly and that only made matters worse.
We each got called off the van 2 at a time, due to we are intertwined by the arms 2 at a time..on top of being cuffed & shackled…this was for no escaping procedures…and not to mention which I didn’t really want to..that the crying ass whiteboy’s arm is intertwined with mine…….
Once inside..we are uncuffed and all that other shit..photos tooken, finger printed…thoroughly examined mentally, physically… this was about a 3 to 4 hour process…it was very tiresome and depressing…the c.o.’s was very aggressive and putting their scared tactics in full blast…and it seem to really work because now all the whiteboys were crying tears.
The prison was built in the late 1800’s and had a pale and stale smell…you can tell it held a lot of history…as well as horror stories and dead bodies..
We were given bed rolls and a net bag consisting of 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, 4 superman under wears, 4 t shirts, 4 socks..1 towel and wash cloth…and it was far from new…..it was over used…
We were given a picture I.d. that you had to wear every time you came out of the cell. It had to be clipped to your front left collar….mine was white which symbolized that I was under 21 yrs of age…My assigned registered number was “R151-291″…as I grabbed my bed roll and net bag full of used clothes, and 1 bar of soap and generic deodorant.
We were lined up in a single file as we were led to a steel door that brought us to the center stage of the prison’s stairs.
Once the C.O. opened the door, we heard the prison’s life alive and well…It was 2 sides…a North side and a South side with 6 ranges /tiers…you can look up and see the whole tier…all 6 ranges/tiers of either side that you were on.
The prison was very, very old and was open iron bars..so you saw convicts standing in at the front bars of the cells…….From both sides we can feel the vibration of all the convicts in every cell on every range/tier on both sides shaking the front bars where they enter their cells…they were locked in their cells…..It was in the same rhythm and sound like a ritual song beating of heavy drums as they shook and screamed from all tiers..
“NEW PUSSY!!!!!…….NEW PUSSY!!!!!…….NEW PUSSY!!!!!……NEW PUSSY!!!!…”
The shit was unbelievable CRAZY….as we stood on the ground floor of the prison steel steps looking up at the 6 tiers…you can see from the bottom tier to the top…all steel bars as convicts from all races and sizes standing in their cell bar door way shaking the bars at that rhymthic pace screaming….”NEW PUSSY!!!……NEW PUSSY!!!!…..NEW PUSSY!!!!!!…” at the top of their lungs with the most menacing looks and glares.
SHIT WAS VERY FRIGHTENING……
That was the most scared I ever been in my life at that point, and I been in gun fights with and without a gun and did some of the illest shit in my 19 yrs of living….but this shit right here had me SHOOK..
I been in the wildest jail in the U.S……Riker’s Island…where you had to fight for EVERYTHING from sneakers, place to sit, commissary, to phone time….shit was bananas, but I was able to adopt to that environment and I had gold teeth in my mouth, which was a very big demand on the robbing list in Riker’s…….But this shit took the cake…I was scared shitless as the whole reception part of the prison ( 12 ranges/tiers in total…65 cells per tier totaling 780 cells…2 man cells totaling 1560 convicts on the bars screaming
” NEW PUSSY!!…..NEW PUSSY!!!!!………. NEW PUSSY!!!!….NEW PUSSY!!!!!”
We were led by the C.O. who was so use to this reaction and also enjoying it as he dropped us off on the six range South tier…As the C.O. who ran the six tier opened up the grill to let us on the range…taking our bed cards and told us what cell we were going in…to stand in front of that cell when he calls your name and tell you your cell number…
my name was called…”Edwards”…….”Yeah?”…..”cell # 27!!”…..
So I walk down the tier with bedroll under my arm and net bag on my shoulder as convicts is still on the bar grill screaming ” NEW PUSSY!!”… shaking the bars looking mean……I walked or should I say tip toed to cell #27, where there is a darkskin, medium built cat with an afro standing in the bar doorway looking at me with the killer looks…gritting….He got his shirt off and looked like he just did 10,000 push ups…… I stood in front of the cell…looking at him as he sized me up and gritted like he hated my guts….I’m thinking like “Damn…I’m have to kill this niggah….” as I sized him back up and put my New York mean mug face on….
“Stand clear of the moving gates!!” the C.O. yelled letting the convicts know to not have their arms or hands in the bars…for they were about tho roll open……As the bar grill rolled open…….
“Step in!!” shouted the C.O. as the new arrivals all stepped into their assigned cells….I walked in the very small cell as my celly stood in the back by the toilet..which was only walking steps away…as he stared at me…..
“Clear!!!!” the C.O. yelled to let it be known that the bar grill was rolling shut so stand clear…because those rolling bar grills will crush your hands, arm, head…whatever body part that got in the way….You was being CRUSHED…. and believe me when I tell you..the C.O.s looked forward into a dummy being stupid enough to get caught up in the moving bar grills……As the bar grill slammed shut making that noise of heavy steel slamming into steel…letting you know that shit was very real…
I looked around the cell…it was a steel double bunk bed soldered into one side of the wall… 2 rusty steel locker boxes halfway under the bunk….no chairs or nothing…a toilet in the back and a leaking sink…the cell was so small that I could stand in the middle of the cell…stretch my arms out and touch both sides of the wall with my fingertips….. there was a lightbulb socket that dimly lit the cell above the sink on the wall…and a very tarnished steel mirror that barely showed back it’s reflection….the paint was peeling everywhere and the walls were so dirty that I couldn’t tell what the original color was or what exact color it was now…..shit was fucked up…that’s the only reasonable way to describe it…..
” Where you from?” asked my celly, who had a deep hoarse voice…probably from screaming…”NEW PUSSY!!” for the past 15 minutes straight…
“NEW YORK” I responded
“New York?…where you was at in Ohio?”
“Lorain”
“My name is Tim Stacks…I’m from Cleveland…off of Kingsman” as he put his fist out for pound…..
“My name is ShaKim, but you can call me N.Y.”
“You Muslim or something?”
“Nah…I’m GodBody”
Within 35 minutes of talking…I knew everything about Tim Stacks….come to find out he was probably the most friendliest convict in the Ohio prison system…. especially O.S.R. Mansfield…He was doing 3 yrs for 4 counts of receiving stolen property…as I was beating him in card games of Casino… we sat on his bottom bunk across from each other using one of the rusty locker boxes as the card table….He been sitting here for 6 wks…waiting to ride out to a medium facility named London……
“Its going take like 5 wks to class you..N.Y…..how much time you doing?” he asked
“A little nice number” I responded
I didn’t want him or anyone else to know that I was under a year and I just started my bid and was going home soon already…..we stayed in the cell all day….everyday…only to come out 3 times a day for chow…which was a nice walk to the mess Hall and back…we had recreation 3 times a week for 1 hour and showers 3 times a week….right after our rec….other than that and commissary once a week…we stayed in the cells…waiting to get designated to a prison facility…… After 2 days…I knew just about everyone on the range and we communicated with others on different ranges by shouting back & forth to all ranges through the bars and through the cell’s vent on both the south and north sides…so you got familiar with many of the convicts by their voice…we joked…traded war stories and tall tales… which many were just telling…trying to outdo the other… not everyone was able to live the life they claimed…getting all that $ in the streets…and couldn’t even afford a 29¢ stamped envelope…. we laughed and joked on everyone… no one was speared..
“Yo…New York!!!!”
“Yo!!!!”
“Why you New York dudes come to Ohio??…Ya”ll can’t hustle in your own town?..I think you got ran out of N.Y…you probably was a crack head , who ran off with the pack and came to Ohio”…….LAUGHTER filled the Southside tiers as I was being joked on…….
“Nah….I came to Ohio after meeting your mother at a Run-DMC concert…she thought I was DMC and asked me for an autograph… so I gave her that and the dick”……as everyone fell out in laughter
“You New York niggahs come out here with that slick city bullshit…and get fooled and come to prison all the time”……
“Yeah….You right…..your brothers and sisters got mad that I was fucking Moms like that”………… LAUGHTER…
“
You aint shit New York!!”
“Before I came into your mother’s life…she was going to Kentucky Fried Chicken’s to lick other people’s fingers…. I had her eating that Red Lobster’s… BITCHASSNIGGAH!!!!! GET OFF OF MY DICK!!!”
THE WHOLE SOUTHSIDE WAS LAUGHING…..
Ohio was big on that homosexuality and homo talk that you had to be careful who you talk to…Dudes will talk and invite you to their dick and to me that was a very serious violation….If you didnt know who disrespected you…you challenged them by telling them to put their name and number on the wall.. which meant to say your name and I.d. # so they could know who you were and look for you if they wanted to pursue the issue of beef…
“New York…You a Bitch!!!”
“Get off of my dick!!”
“Fuck you!!”
“Put your name and number on the wall then..you Bitchassniggah!!!”
SILENCE……
“I thought so…you Ohio Bitchassniggah!!!!”
Going to chow…we had to line up when the range opened up the bar grill of cells…it was always a fist fight from beefs from cell shouting of convicts selling each other death during lock down….walking back and forth to the chowhall gave us the chance to see other convicts from other tiers……going to the showers was crazy…we went in groups amongst ourselves and stuck together because the booty bandits was also in the showers looking to victimize weaker inmates…It was nothing to be in the showers..which was actually a big musty dark gloomy room with a pipe running from one end to the other in the air with very cold water spraying out on both sides of the pipe…that it was called “the carwash”…..for we had approximately 8 minutes to soap up..wash up and shower before the water was turned off on us….It was nothing to be in the showers and see a weaker inmate washing the back of a known booty bandit…who was looking to rape someone….washing his back was a symbol showing that dude was a bitch and chose the booty bandit as his man….shit was sickening………going to commissary was also crazy…for dudes was getting robbed for their commissary and cigarettes… this happened weekly non stop….I was GOOD…I had to make a couple examples to show that “New York” as I was called wasn’t taking no shorts or losses……going to recreation…. …..there was always a fight going down…we stay fighting with the words thru the bars…that it got to the point where one was challenged…..
“Put your name and # on the wall!!!”…. so you either put your name , # and range you were on on the tier or you shutted up…..some played games and put someone elses name out there
“Rivers!!!!!……#142110!!!!!!!”
“Man…..Stop it …..we already know that’s you Tim Stacks!!!!!”
“Stop sucking my dick and telling” screamed back Tim……
There was so many flies flying around…more flies than Africa…the summers was terrible…no air…no fan…no nothing…. winters were just as bad if not worse…freezing as the cold air breeze came through the broken old windows…..we entertained each other by rapping our made up raps or someone else’s songs…singing…..telling jokes or trading war stories…unless you knew someone in general population who sent you a walkman radio…… there were roaches of every color and sizes everywhere…. mice,…. rats…….everywhere…birds flying around in the inside dropping shit everywhere…. and the food they served was TERRIBLE!!!!!…… and the next drop of of new arrivals..we were now on the bars shaking them screaming “NO PUSSY!!!!!…..”NEW PUSSY!!!!!” …just like how we were done………….but no matter what…one never forgot where he was at…..you were in the OLD CASTLE!!!!!!!!!!!…the c.o.’s were very racist and ready to cuff you up so they can beat you came kick you to sleep and drag you off to One South which was the hole…which I made it there a few times……I can never forget ..THE OLD CASTLE…..
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