by | Oct 21, 2015 1:20 pm | Comments (1)
A sad day in Otisville today. A fellow inmate, Gabbai Shayni, who grew up in New Haven on Goffe Street, a fellow mortgage fraud attorney, was sent to the SHU (aka “the hole”). An MP3 player was found in his locker.
Continue reading ‘Smuggled MP3 Leads To Solitary Confinement’
by | Oct 12, 2015 12:20 pm | Comments (12)
I had a frightening experience at 4:30 this morning in jail.
by | Apr 10, 2015 11:48 am | Comments (5)
One of the inmates here hid some videos in the warehouse, movies that got smuggled into the camp. None of the inmates got caught in the act. So nobody got in trouble.
by | Apr 3, 2015 9:00 am | Comments (2)
It was a big day for the Jewish community in this prison: A band showed up to cheer us up before the holiday of Passover, which begins Friday night.
by | Mar 30, 2015 7:56 am | Comments (9)
Paul Bass Photo
I just got word from Connecticut that former Gov. John Rowland, who was sentenced to 30 months behind bars, has requested to check into this prison camp.
by | Mar 25, 2015 2:27 pm | Comments (3)
Yesterday afternoon things warmed up over here. Snow was melting. The sun was shining. It felt like summer. Guys got together for a soccer game, on the blacktop near the tennis and basketball courts. The first game of the season.
by | Mar 20, 2015 12:47 pm | Comments (0)
Springtime in prison: The snow is melting, mud everywhere. Inmates are melting too.
by | Mar 10, 2015 1:06 pm | Comments (3)
Russian inmate Pinkerstein was promoted to be the personal assistant to the Head Blue Boy in Charge of this section of the prison (aka the “HBBIC”). Another inmate was in training for the job for a few weeks, but either declined the position or quit. Either way, the Russians now have complete control over the camp.
by | Mar 5, 2015 3:49 pm | Comments (8)
Yesterday there was a big shakedown over here at the corner cubicles.
by | Mar 2, 2015 3:32 pm | Comments (1)
I got cursed out a few days ago by the inmate who teaches the anger management classes.
by | Feb 27, 2015 1:15 pm | Comments (0)
A new inmate arrived at the warehouse. As the prison tailor I was in charge of fitting him for new prison clothing.
by | Feb 24, 2015 12:59 pm | Comments (3)
There was some action today in the prison complex, as there was a lockdown at the medium-security prison next door.
by | Feb 20, 2015 5:40 pm | Comments (7)
Last night a group of guys got together in the prison shul for a kumsitz, one inmate playing the acoustic guitar and guys singing. Mostly Jewish songs. A few songs from the 1960s.
by | Feb 12, 2014 5:03 pm | Comments (1)
(Opinion) Something dangerous is developing inside the state’s prisons. It’s not an infectious epidemic, wild government waste or even the expected corruption, but a new law tacked to the underside of Governor Malloy’s gun bill that will inevitably threaten public safety by eliminating parole supervision for offenders convicted of violent crimes.
Continue reading ‘Public At Risk From Parole Supervision Cutback’
by | Dec 24, 2012 12:12 pm | Comments (14)
“Hey whores!” called a guard as he circled our cell doors to deliver mail. “Letters from y’all’s sugar daddies!”
I began to understand why prostitutes settle into a lower caste in prison.
by | Dec 3, 2012 1:21 pm | Comments (4)
The thrill of going commando lasts only so long. It had been five days since I last wore underwear.
by | Nov 22, 2012 10:36 am | Comments (1)
Angie, an inmate in the cube next to mine, would come back to North Dorm at 6:30 every evening in her hounds tooth checkered pants and white scrub shirt — a prison’s kitchen uniform — stinking of onions and Pine Sol.
She posted a sign on her TV, the prison kind of TV: clear plastic, showing all electrical innards and exposing any contraband the sneaky prisoner tries to hide in it. The sign read: “Do the women run this bitch or what?”
Continue reading
‘Behind Bars, Two
Reasons For Thanksgiving’
by | Nov 15, 2012 1:16 pm | Comments (5)
“They sayin’ Sandy is gonna get us locked down. Who is she?” one woman asked.
Continue reading
‘In Prison, Sandy
Packed A Different Punch’
by | Nov 8, 2012 1:16 pm | Comments (0)
A fellow inmate — a mother of two — approached me for help. The state accused her of violating the terms of her probation by obeying her probation officer’s order for her to work. The problem was that she worked in Rhode Island and crossed state borders without permission every time she clocked in.
by | Oct 31, 2012 11:17 am | Comments (1)
The color black is a gang neutral.
by | Oct 24, 2012 3:21 pm | Comments (4)
I held my fellow kitchen workers at York Correctional Institution in rapt attention, not because my lesson was so good, but because we were all finally allowed outside.
by | Oct 15, 2012 3:02 pm | Comments (1)
When I arrived at York prison, a corrections captain who knew my educational background advised me to apply to join the inmate writing group.
“Oh, thank you, but I don’t think I’ll be here long enough to join.” Those words came out of my mouth in March 2008.
by | Oct 2, 2012 12:35 pm | Comments (0)
When I came to prison, I thought that all the childish “Reindeer Games” played on the outside would become more brutal on the inside, heated up with aggression, insults and even violence, making my practice of joining the exiled much harder. But no one sits alone in prison.
by | Sep 27, 2012 11:30 am | Comments (4)
Someone was tampering with my mail by delaying it, ripping it or just tossing it.
Whenever I complained, the same excuse reared its head: I was under investigation for a misunderstanding with a guard and my mail needed to be reviewed.
by | Sep 19, 2012 12:08 pm | Comments (1)
“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful, girls!” taunts “Gino,” a former Navy boxer, in his Brooklyn accent.
The women he teases fall short of girly: Gino is a senior food supervisor at York Correctional Institution. Since 1993, none of the tough broads here have walked away without a memory of Gino.