Trip report/ask me about time in maximum (and minimum) security prison

[MyTurn2Raise]

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My sister was locked up at vienna. She was in the bootcamp though, its not the same grounds but is the same admin. The bootcamp was minminmin-sec.

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I am familiar. The male bootcampers would occassionally come through the regular prison gates for a day or two and do menial tasks. I kind of wish I was given the bootcamp option, but it's for people who have more time to do and the state's attorney wanted me to do 'real' time.

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A few friends of mine went through a similar situation to yours, and all ended up in bootcamp. My senior year of high school (spring 2001) four guys in my class were arrested for LSD possession with one arrested for intent to sell (approx. 200 hits on him). The county prosecuter tried to use the case for his political gain. The whole thing was being investigated for a few weeks after one guy (some random buyer) was found with a few hits on him when stopped in C-U (seeing LSD in a [censored] area of urbana sparked alot of interest from the police i guess). Anyways, the prosecuter had all the kids arrested at high school in the middle of the day, news cameras happened to be there, and the prosecuter was all over the local news bragging about how they had put a stop to a high school "LSD ring."
In the end, 3 of the 4 ended up with bootcamp (one got basically a slap on the wrist, it was always thought that there was some snitching involved, but don't really know). Those three were all initially charged with class X felonies (i'm not sure if they were the small or big class X ones), but ended up with bootcamp as they were all essentially first time offenders. Also, the kid with 200 hits was obviously dealing, and had actually sold to the random guy in urbana who was caught with 2 hits to start the whole investigation.

This was all at st. joseph-ogden high school, not sure if you're familiar, but it's right outside of C-U. There were also 2 kids arrested as a result of the investigation at mahomet seymour high school, but I have no idea what their fate was.

Just thought i'd share the story, it's a shame you couldn't have gone through the bootcamp program. From everything I remember at the time, it seems like it was designed almost specifically for cases like yours. Great story though, thanks for taking the time.

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yeah, I'm very familiar with St. Joe-Ogden. I'm pretty much a townie/student mix after the decade in the area. It really sucks that the criminal justice system works more toward the lower peons rather than busting the organizers/enablers of the drug rings.

I think since I was 19-20 when busted, I was at the upper end of the boot camp idea.

There was also a concern over my medical history. I had recently gone through ACL reconstruction and rehab and my second set of ingrown toe nail removals on both big toes.

[MyTurn2Raise]

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I'm curious if you heard of any child molesters inside.If so were they messed with by the others?I heard fom a family memeber who used to be a guard they were considered the lowest of the low.

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No one every admitted to being a child molester. I'm pretty sure they would get hurt badly if it became publicly known. It's not the type of guy that a guard feels sympathy with.

[MyTurn2Raise]

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Are you playing poker as a source of mani income now?

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Yep, I've been a professional gambler as my main and sole source of income for about 2 1/2 years now. This time of year is more sports betting than poker, but poker is the lion's share of my yearly income.

[MyTurn2Raise]

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Awesome thread. Read the whole thing - thanks for posting. My question is what were your feelings as you first go to prison? Were you freaked out/scared or had your already shut that down and gone into survival mode?

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I was very scared. I was on pins and needles...constantly alert and trying to learn the ropes while putting on a non-chalant exterior.

[MyTurn2Raise]

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Could you elaborate on the treatment of Asian-American inmates? Any specific incidents of note that was racially motivated?

On a related note, I found this gem in the inmate search. This guy really makes us look bad- check out his Offense:

http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsecti...sp?idoc=R46899

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the problem is that asian-americans didn't have a large enough group to be feared in the IDOC. They got their stuff taken and beat on constantly. Everything in prison is race-related. I remember the disgust the hispanics expressed when I was interested in the NCAA tourney basketball results; such as comments about 'monkey ball' and 'how good can a sport be if they are good at it.' All the gangs are developed along race lines.

It's disgusting

[cjmewett]

Prior to going to prison, did you routinely have butterflies-in-stomach anxiety about normal things like going to the doctor, taking exams, heights, etc? Were you a worrier? After a year of nearly constant fear, do you ever feel those "normal" anxieties as a free man? Has the constant tension of essentially fearing for your life made you basically fearless in "normal life"?

Great thread, btw, and thanks for having the nads to share.

[Hawklet]

If given the choice as an alternate to 10 years in min security prison, what is the most ammount of time you would spend in Joliet?

[MyTurn2Raise]

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MT2R,

Great thread. Almost makes me forgive your horrible 2p2 handle.

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I can only assume you are joking as my handle just screams pwnage.

[neuroman]

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On a related note, I found this gem in the inmate search. This guy really makes us look bad- check out his Offense:

http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsecti...sp?idoc=R46899

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What a sick monster.

[turnipmonster]

just wanted to say this is a really interesting thread and I have a lot of respect for how you handled all this.