Ask Layzie about Heroin Addiction/Doing Time In Prison

[Layzie]

[ QUOTE ]
You said you will be getting over your addiction for life,
however do you ever look at it from another perspective like,

...well whenever you have a thought linked to the desire to use,
you think about how strong you are compared to most humans,
who would/still have never conquered that addiction and will
most likely succumb to it.

Can you treat those thoughts as a reminder of what you have accomplished,
go look into the mirror and say, "I am a [censored] badass because as of this moment I have beaten heorin"?

While the desire to use again is real, and thusly you may not feel like a badass vs. heroin, I think the fact that you have pulled this far ahead is pretty goddamn badass.

What kind of mindset do you use against heroin as of now?
Can you rate your desire to use right now, compared to 2 years ago, 3, etc?
How do you imagine your mindset will be 5 years from now?

[/ QUOTE ]


I think being able to kick the addiction, and stay clean for so long puts me in the upper percentile of longer term heroin users. I do think in a way, that helps me from using again. So, yes I can use that information as a reminder that i'm fairly strong willed (or at least stronger than I once was). I rate my desire to use probably at a 4. I don't remember the last time I actually considered going out and doing heroin. I mainly think about the feeling of the high alot. I think about the euphoria, and then I think about another week of terrible pain, and how it would effect my family, my friends, my girlfriend, and every other aspect of my life. I think in 5 years it will still be something that creeps into my mind occaisonally. I'm not sure that it will ever go away. But, again, I haven't gotten to the point where i've actually seriously considered doing it. It's just the feeling I think about.

[Layzie]

[ QUOTE ]
hi layzie,

did you have any prior convictions before getting caught for what sent you to prison ? Also how did you get caught?

[/ QUOTE ]

I had a prior felony marijuana charge.

Edit: I was placed on probabtion for this charge. It was a simple possession charge (not distribution), but I had enough on me for it to be classified as a felony. Virginia recently made anything over a half ounce a felony to possess. The main thing that kept me from having to serve more time than I did when I caught the new charges was my probation officer testifying on my behalf, and the judge also mentioned that my graduation from high school as an honor grad was factored in him only giving me the 16 months.

[Layzie]

[ QUOTE ]
About Heroin, I once read where Keith Richards said the feeling from taking heroin was, "You are outside walking in the cold in a blizzard and you come upon a cabin and then walk inside and sit down by the fire. That's the feeling of smack. Warming up by the fire after being out in the cold."

Would you say this is pretty accurate?

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand what he's trying to say. You get a warm feeling throughout your body when you shoot heroin. But his analogy is very inaccurate because sitting next to a fire after being in the cold is far from euphoric.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

[ QUOTE ]

I don't agree with you when it comes to child molestation. I don't think people can be cured or reformed of a basic sexual orientation.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a friend who is a sexologist, and has taken part in treatment of many convicted pedophiles (it is his main job). He explained to me that the majority are not cured of their pedophilia even after long treatment. However, most get to a level where they realize it is wrong and can control their actions, but not all. It is the "but not all"-part which makes this a very difficult subject.

[Felix_Nietzsche]

After G. Gordon Liddy got out of prison he expressed a very low regard for prison guards. Basically he said many of them were $25K a year meglomaniacs that liked to mess with the prisoners to show them who was boss.

1. Do you have a similar opinion of prison guards.
2. Do you have to address the guards in a certain way (like Officer Jones)?
3. Do they address prisoners in a certain way? ("Imate Smith, come here".)


With regard to various races in prison did you find that with certain races you had to be:
1. More careful with.
2. Could show more trust towards.
3. Show less trust towards.

My personal sterotype towards the more honorable to less honorable would be:
a. Orientals
b. Hispanics
c. Whites
d. Blacks.
How would you rank the races in this regard.

[VarlosZ]

Did you ever try to detox yourself (that is, gradually step down your dosage until you were no longer dependent), or did you just go cold turkey? If not, why?

Have you ever been to an inpatient detox/rehab? If so, where, and what was the experience like?

Are you a member of any support groups, such as NA? If so, how helpful do find them?


Thanks so much for the great thread, and congrats on staying clean. I can sympathize with you; I've always liked the opiate high very much, and if they started selling Vicodin over the counter I could easily see myself having a problem. Good luck.

[Layzie]

"After G. Gordon Liddy got out of prison he expressed a very low regard for prison guards. Basically he said many of them were $25K a year meglomaniacs that liked to mess with the prisoners to show them who was boss.

1. Do you have a similar opinion of prison guards.
2. Do you have to address the guards in a certain way (like Officer Jones)?
3. Do they address prisoners in a certain way? ("Imate Smith, come here".)"

There were a couple of guards that were genuinely good people just trying to earn a living. The prison I was in was in an area where it was a major source of jobs for people living around it. There are, of course, guards that were complete assholes and got their rocks off by messing with the inmates.

We usually just called the guards by their last names.

They usually just called us by our last names, and in some cases, guards even referred to inmates that had been around for awhile by their "street" or gang names.


"With regard to various races in prison did you find that with certain races you had to be:
1. More careful with.
2. Could show more trust towards.
3. Show less trust towards.

My personal sterotype towards the more honorable to less honorable would be:
a. Orientals
b. Hispanics
c. Whites
d. Blacks.
How would you rank the races in this regard."


This goes on a case to case basis. As a generalization though, there were more white people I didn't like than any other color (i'm white). Most of the Hispanics were really cool. Alot of them were very religious. I didn't see many Asians at all. Black people are tougher to generalize because there are black muslims, christians, crips, bloods, etc. As I said before, the hardest people to deal with were generally black gang members under 23 or so. They felt they had to prove themselves.

[Ortho]

I read your earlier stuff about working/not working, but didn't really understand it.

-Did you have to work while you were in prison?
-What kind of jobs were there?
-If you didn't work, would you have to serve a larger %age of your sentence before you were eligible for release?
-In a situation like this, if you refused to work or refused to follow some other rule and were willing to accept the punishment, would you be subject to harassment from the guards or other prisoners?
-Is the answer to these questions different in "prison" as opposed to "jail"?

Very interesting thread, btw.

[Layzie]

"-Did you have to work while you were in prison?"

When I first got to prison, I was in a high security area and nobody worked. After about 3 or 4 months I was transfered to a unit where everyone had a job. I worked in the warehouse where all the supplies and food were stored. In order to work there my criminal record had to be thoroughly screened because I had to go outside of one of the gates.



"-What kind of jobs were there?"

Kitchen work, just general janitorial work, and if you were low enough security, there were jobs in the property department (packing up inmate's stuff), commissary (bagging up food people ordered), warehouse, and there were a couple people who worked in the admin building where the warden's office was. There were also people who cut grass and did landscaping.



"-If you didn't work, would you have to serve a larger %age of your sentence before you were eligible for release?"

The thing is, if you didn't want to work, then you probably wouldn't have been transfered to a work unit. You could stay in a section of the prison where you didn't have to work, but this makes time go by very slowly. Technically you could lose your good time if they gave you some kind of charge for refusal for work, but chances are they would just transfer you, and maybe give you some time in the hole. Most people have to serve 85% of their sentence in Virginia.



"-In a situation like this, if you refused to work or refused to follow some other rule and were willing to accept the punishment, would you be subject to harassment from the guards or other prisoners?"

No, probably not. It's not that big of a deal.




"-Is the answer to these questions different in "prison" as opposed to "jail"?"

In the jail I was in, there was a "trustee" unit where the workers mopped floors and did kitchen work. But all jail is is a holding area for people either waiting for court, or people waiting to get transfered to prison. In Virginia jails, the most amount of time you can serve is 1 year. However, you can sometimes wait longer than 1 year to be transfered to prison if they are really backed up.

[orange]

Layzie,

great thread. Apologies if this question has already been answered but..

Are the child molesters/rapist stories true? Do they get hammered in prison as rumors tell?