Release: The Brutal Truth
The audiobook version of Falling has just been released on Amazon and Audible. Over the next month or so I will be sharing with you some of my favorites stories from Falling to enjoy while you exercise on the treadmill or take your daily walk. InMinimum: After Parole Will I Fear a Person Wearing a Badge?
Release: The Brutal Truth
In the tender early days of parole, I rode the buses of Portland, Oregon, looking for a job. On every employment application was the question: Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
I rode buses for days. Each morning as I crossed the Burnside Bridge, I would see women I met in prison, rolling up a tarp, a cardboard box. One day I saw The Enforcer. Once a mighty Viking Warrior, now lost on a corner.
The women looked better when they were in prison.
In the tender early days of parole, I rode the buses of Portland, Oregon, looking for a job. On every employment application was the question: Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
I rode buses for days. Each morning as I crossed the Burnside Bridge, I would see women I met in prison, rolling up a tarp, a cardboard box. One day I saw The Enforcer. Once a mighty Viking Warrior, now lost on a corner.
The women looked better when they were in prison.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
Release: The Brutal Truth
Release: The Brutal Truth
Minimum: Big Buck Offers True Corrections
The audiobook version of Falling has just been released on Amazon and Audible. Over the next month or so I will be sharing with you some of my favorites stories from Falling to enjoy while you exercise on the treadmill or take your daily walk. InMinimum: After Parole Will I Fear a Person Wearing a Badge?
Minimum: Big Buck Offers True Corrections
The Department of Corrections uses discipline before problem-solving. I spoke to a few of the officers who tried to offer problem-solving advise, only to be burned by both inmates and staff. Most of the officers kept themselves, finished their shift and got the hell out of there.
The exception was Big Buck, our Maintenance Crew Boss. He was the first one in my experience to ask questions to our crew about how we plan to make it on the outside.
“Who has a place to live? Who doesn’t have a substance abuse problem? “How much money have you saved from your prison account? Go back to your unit and think about it.” Back on our units, we began talking to each other. We began to think again.
Miss Clever was released from The Hole after six months for making distributing, and consuming Pruno, homemade prison booze. If a woman was lucky enough to be released from The Hole, she returned to the general population emaciated, and tamed. I had to know what went on back there. Word had gotten around that I was writing. Miss Clever agreed to an interview.
“I was back there long enough to lose about fifteen pounds. Even my eyesight got weird. My ears echoed of months. I heard strange noises from the vent, I hallucinated. Some women swear they hear music or experience hot and cold phenomenon in the room, it’s called Seg-sickness.”
“I remember seeing you across the yard, in a dog kennel. You were waving and calling out our names. We were forbidden to answer. I felt sick inside. It was cruel and unusual punishment for both of us.”
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
Minimum: Big Buck Offers True Corrections
Minimum: Big Buck Offers True Corrections
Minimum: After Parole Will I Fear a Person Wearing a Badge?
The audiobook version of Falling has just been released on Amazon and Audible. Over the next month or so I will be sharing with you some of my favorites stories from Falling to enjoy while you exercise on the treadmill or take your daily walk. InMinimum: After Parole Will I Fear a Person Wearing a Badge?
Minimum: After Parole Will I Fear a Person Wearing a Badge?
Nearing Parole, I wondered: How would I react when I have an encounter with the police of anyone wearing a badge? Will I have flashbacks? How many years will pass before I am not affected? I learned the answer one night on “Snow Patrol.” The Captain of the prison and I worked shoulder to shoulder, trying to keep up with the snowflakes.
He complimented my work. He knew I held a shovel in my hands, he turned back to his task. He trusted me.
Photo by Jack Finnigan on Unsplash
Miss Clever was released from The Hole after six months for making distributing, and consuming Pruno, homemade prison booze. If a woman was lucky enough to be released from The Hole, she returned to the general population emaciated, and tamed. I had to know what went on back there. Word had gotten around that I was writing. Miss Clever agreed to an interview.
“I was back there long enough to lose about fifteen pounds. Even my eyesight got weird. My ears echoed of months. I heard strange noises from the vent, I hallucinated. Some women swear they hear music or experience hot and cold phenomenon in the room, it’s called Seg-sickness.”
“I remember seeing you across the yard, in a dog kennel. You were waving and calling out our names. We were forbidden to answer. I felt sick inside. It was cruel and unusual punishment for both of us.”
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
Minimum: After Parole Will I Fear a Person Wearing a Badge?
Minimum: After Parole Will I Fear a Person Wearing a Badge?
Minimum: Mean Mug School
The audiobook version of Falling has just been released on Amazon and Audible. Over the next month or so I will be sharing with you some of my favorites stories from Falling to enjoy while you exercise on the treadmill or take your daily walk. In Jail Meeting the Trio
Minimum: Mean Mug School
Halfway through my 6-year sentence, I believed I carried myself like a worthy seasoned felon. That is until I got set up by a conniving young woman with a pretty smile. Pretty Smile left me holding onto stolen property. I discovered the truth when I overhead a woman looking for the exact items before me on the table. I could have lost all my privileges. I could have been sent to The Hole. Sitting nearby were two women who witnessed the entire episode. I asked them, “Do I look like a punk?”
They both giggled, “You look like a lady from the suburbs,” said the regal Cleopatra. “Show me your mean mug,” demanded Cleo, jutting out her chin and crossing her muscled arms.
“Yeah,” said the second woman, Mi’ja. She crouched down and frowned, turning into a completely different person. She was frightening. “Mean Mug, OK, I know what that is,” I said. I thought about it like an actor. The girls both crouched forward, waiting and staring. Cleo rolled her jaw to one side. I took a breath, squished up my eyes, wrinkled my nose, and jetted my lips out in a pucker. The girls burst out in laughter. Cleo put her head on the table, her shoulder shook. Mi’ja lay backward on her chair, mouth open, no sound. Recovering, Cleo asked, You still got three year to do. How you gonna make it in here? Looking at Mi’ja, she said, “Maybe she should go to Mean Mug School, teach her the look?”
“I’m in!” I cried.
Miss Clever was released from The Hole after six months for making distributing, and consuming Pruno, homemade prison booze. If a woman was lucky enough to be released from The Hole, she returned to the general population emaciated, and tamed. I had to know what went on back there. Word had gotten around that I was writing. Miss Clever agreed to an interview.
“I was back there long enough to lose about fifteen pounds. Even my eyesight got weird. My ears echoed of months. I heard strange noises from the vent, I hallucinated. Some women swear they hear music or experience hot and cold phenomenon in the room, it’s called Seg-sickness.”
“I remember seeing you across the yard, in a dog kennel. You were waving and calling out our names. We were forbidden to answer. I felt sick inside. It was cruel and unusual punishment for both of us.”
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
Minimum: Mean Mug School
Minimum: Mean Mug School
J Unit: Meeting Miss Clever
The audiobook version of Falling has just been released on Amazon and Audible. Over the next month or so I will be sharing with you some of my favorites stories from Falling to enjoy while you exercise on the treadmill or take your daily walk. In Jail Meeting the Trio
J Unit: Meeting Miss Clever
Miss Clever was released from The Hole after six months for making distributing, and consuming Pruno, homemade prison booze. If a woman was lucky enough to be released from The Hole, she returned to the general population emaciated, and tamed. I had to know what went on back there. Word had gotten around that I was writing. Miss Clever agreed to an interview.
“I was back there long enough to lose about fifteen pounds. Even my eyesight got weird. My ears echoed of months. I heard strange noises from the vent, I hallucinated. Some women swear they hear music or experience hot and cold phenomenon in the room, it’s called Seg-sickness.”
“I remember seeing you across the yard, in a dog kennel. You were waving and calling out our names. We were forbidden to answer. I felt sick inside. It was cruel and unusual punishment for both of us.”
Miss Clever was released from The Hole after six months for making distributing, and consuming Pruno, homemade prison booze. If a woman was lucky enough to be released from The Hole, she returned to the general population emaciated, and tamed. I had to know what went on back there. Word had gotten around that I was writing. Miss Clever agreed to an interview.
“I was back there long enough to lose about fifteen pounds. Even my eyesight got weird. My ears echoed of months. I heard strange noises from the vent, I hallucinated. Some women swear they hear music or experience hot and cold phenomenon in the room, it’s called Seg-sickness.”
“I remember seeing you across the yard, in a dog kennel. You were waving and calling out our names. We were forbidden to answer. I felt sick inside. It was cruel and unusual punishment for both of us.”
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
J Unit: Meeting Miss Clever
J Unit: Meeting Miss Clever
G Unit: The Lowdown on Hookers
The audiobook version of Falling has just been released on Amazon and Audible. Over the next month or so I will be sharing with you some of my favorites stories from Falling to enjoy while you exercise on the treadmill or take your daily walk. In Jail Meeting the Trio
G Unit: The Lowdown on Hookers
My new cellmate slowly paced the cell in a way that accentuated her curves as she talked about the women in prison. She was a teacher and entertainer of full-immersion prison school. I wanted the material. My next lesson was hookers.
“See that one by the call-out board? Girl ain’t got no game. She thinks she’s all that but she ain’t nothin’ but a flat-backer.” She stayed at the window and kept looking at her. “I know God don’t like that blue eyeliner. Umph.” Then she walked back to my bunk and turned her pretty peepers on me. I laughed. My new Celly was cute alright, but she worked it.
“OK, I’ll bite what’s a flat backer?”
“Flatbacker is a hooker who actually has to lay down to get paid. Listen,” said Mittens, “not everyone’s meant for the game. Why should I wear some paper hat and stay in grease all day? I can make a whole day’s wages in ten minutes.
“Ok, I gotta write this down. Is that OK? I have been writing since I first went to jail, just to make sense of my new world. I think I might write a book.”
“Somebody gotta do that, right?” Said Mittens.
“If I do, you’ll be a star, “ I said. She liked that and preened in the wavy mirror.
Photo by Obi – @pixel7propix on Unsplash
My new cellmate slowly paced the cell in a way that accentuated her curves as she talked about the women in prison. She was a teacher and entertainer of full-immersion prison school. I wanted the material. My next lesson was hookers.
“See that one by the call-out board? Girl ain’t got no game. She thinks she’s all that but she ain’t nothin’ but a flat-backer.” She stayed at the window and kept looking at her. “I know God don’t like that blue eyeliner. Umph.” Then she walked back to my bunk and turned her pretty peepers on me. I laughed. My new Celly was cute alright, but she worked it.
“OK, I’ll bite what’s a flat backer?”
“Flatbacker is a hooker who actually has to lay down to get paid. Listen,” said Mittens, “not everyone’s meant for the game. Why should I wear some paper hat and stay in grease all day? I can make a whole day’s wages in ten minutes.
“Ok, I gotta write this down. Is that OK? I have been writing since I first went to jail, just to make sense of my new world. I think I might write a book.”
“Somebody gotta do that, right?” Said Mittens.
“If I do, you’ll be a star, “ I said. She liked that and preened in the wavy mirror.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit: The Alpha of the Prison
The audiobook version of Falling has just been released on Amazon and Audible. Over the next month or so I will be sharing with you some of my favorites stories from Falling to enjoy while you exercise on the treadmill or take your daily walk. In Jail Meeting the Trio
G Unit: The Alpha of the Prison
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
I broke 20 bones in the car accident that led me to prison. I didn’t know if I would survive six years in a women’s full-custody prison. Yet, my greatest fear was: Who are are the women, what have they done, and how do they decide who will be in the cell with you?
On my first day with the general population in Jail, I heard a gravelly voice over my shoulder, “Hey, Snow White, don’t stand with you back to the room.” That day I met the unforgettable Trio: Silver, Tizzy, and Buzz Cut, who taught me my first harsh lessons of incarceration. In Jail Meeting the Trio
In the morning, the four of us would be going to prison. As we celled in for the night, Tizzy called down from the row of cells, “You’ll survive, Karen. “We’ll keep and eye on you, but if you fuck up, you’re on your own.”
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
G Unit was the discipline unit and housed the roughest women in the prison. Whether you are a from the Country Club or skid row, it is where everyone begins their prison time. It was where this volleyball mom met Celly, the Alpha of the prison, and my new cellmate.
I had heard about her since my first days in the Intake Unit. I expected her to be hard-hearted and distant but, from the moment she entered the cell, she said hello with a sweet smile and a tattoo near her eye. As she settled onto her bunk. She began singing in soft beautiful voice. I wasn’t afraid.
“I like that little tattoo by your eye, it looks like a teardrop,” I said. She stopped singing immediately and peeked her head over the edge of the bunk, grinning.
“You’re really green. You don’t know what that means, do you? I shook my head. “It means you have been to prison or you were ordered to do a hit, and you succeeded. I can mean you were raped.” She withdrew and didn’t offer an explanation for her tattoo.
I the days that followed, one on one, late into the night, she told me the details of who she was. She was the step-daughter of a dominant Los Angles gang chief. She told her story in a soft voice that didn’t match the razors of her world.
Jail: Meeting the Trio
The audiobook version of Falling has just been released on Amazon and Audible. Over the next month or so I will be sharing with you some of my favorites stories from Falling to enjoy while you exercise on the treadmill or take your daily walk. In Jail Meeting the Trio
Jail: Meeting the Trio
I broke 20 bones in the car accident that led me to prison. I didn’t know if I would survive six years in a women’s full-custody prison. Yet, my greatest fear was: Who are are the women, what have they done, and how do they decide who will be in the cell with you?
On my first day with the general population in Jail, I heard a gravelly voice over my shoulder, “Hey, Snow White, don’t stand with you back to the room.” That day I met the unforgettable Trio: Silver, Tizzy, and Buzz Cut, who taught me my first harsh lessons of incarceration.
In the morning, the four of us would be going to prison. As we celled in for the night, Tizzy called down from the row of cells, “You’ll survive, Karen. “We’ll keep and eye on you, but if you fuck up, you’re on your own.”
I broke 20 bones in the car accident that led me to prison. I didn’t know if I would survive six years in a women’s full-custody prison. Yet, my greatest fear was: Who are are the women, what have they done, and how do they decide who will be in the cell with you?
On my first day with the general population in Jail, I heard a gravelly voice over my shoulder, “Hey, Snow White, don’t stand with you back to the room.” That day I met the unforgettable Trio: Silver, Tizzy, and Buzz Cut, who taught me my first harsh lessons of incarceration. In Jail Meeting the Trio
In the morning, the four of us would be going to prison. As we celled in for the night, Tizzy called down from the row of cells, “You’ll survive, Karen. “We’ll keep and eye on you, but if you fuck up, you’re on your own.”
I broke 20 bones in the car accident that led me to prison. I didn’t know if I would survive six years in a women’s full-custody prison. Yet, my greatest fear was: Who are are the women, what have they done, and how do they decide who will be in the cell with you?
On my first day with the general population in Jail, I heard a gravelly voice over my shoulder, “Hey, Snow White, don’t stand with you back to the room.” That day I met the unforgettable Trio: Silver, Tizzy, and Buzz Cut, who taught me my first harsh lessons of incarceration. In Jail Meeting the Trio
In the morning, the four of us would be going to prison. As we celled in for the night, Tizzy called down from the row of cells, “You’ll survive, Karen. “We’ll keep and eye on you, but if you fuck up, you’re on your own.”
I broke 20 bones in the car accident that led me to prison. I didn’t know if I would survive six years in a women’s full-custody prison. Yet, my greatest fear was: Who are are the women, what have they done, and how do they decide who will be in the cell with you?
On my first day with the general population in Jail, I heard a gravelly voice over my shoulder, “Hey, Snow White, don’t stand with you back to the room.” That day I met the unforgettable Trio: Silver, Tizzy, and Buzz Cut, who taught me my first harsh lessons of incarceration. In Jail Meeting the Trio
In the morning, the four of us would be going to prison. As we celled in for the night, Tizzy called down from the row of cells, “You’ll survive, Karen. “We’ll keep and eye on you, but if you fuck up, you’re on your own.”
I broke 20 bones in the car accident that led me to prison. I didn’t know if I would survive six years in a women’s full-custody prison. Yet, my greatest fear was: Who are are the women, what have they done, and how do they decide who will be in the cell with you?
On my first day with the general population in Jail, I heard a gravelly voice over my shoulder, “Hey, Snow White, don’t stand with you back to the room.” That day I met the unforgettable Trio: Silver, Tizzy, and Buzz Cut, who taught me my first harsh lessons of incarceration. In Jail Meeting the Trio
In the morning, the four of us would be going to prison. As we celled in for the night, Tizzy called down from the row of cells, “You’ll survive, Karen. “We’ll keep and eye on you, but if you fuck up, you’re on your own.”
Audio Excerpt of the Upcoming Audible Version of Falling
Finally, the audiobook of Falling is in the final stages of production. In prison lingo, it has been a stretch of time. Although the book is doing well, the best way to get the women inmates’ voices over the wire, is by producing an audiobook. I offer an audio sample of my favorite passage: The Stars, a fire drill under night sky with the Lifers.
Audio Excerpt of the Upcoming Audible Version of Falling
I began my research for the audiobook over a year ago. The studio production cost of a book half the size of Falling was $5,000. I would have figure out how to do it myself. First, I needed a voice coach. I took a chance and asked my favorite actor, K.T. Vogt of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to listen and advise. I chose provocative pieces such as Mitten’s life as an exotic dancer and my favorite passage: The Stars. When I finished, she looked at me with tender eyes, “Your voice is fine, Karen.” You have to do it. The voices are in your head.
I needed a home recording studio. I googled DIY home recording studios and found all kinds of pandemic home options. But the press on foam pads for my office closet would run at least $1,000. I stared out my office window onto the back yard. A lonely patio table and chairs awaited healthy guests. “That’s it!” I shouted. “I have twelve chair pads!” I scooped them up giggling and hoping. As a trial, I placed a large one on the floor and made a igloo around me.
“Testing 1,2,3. Mayday, Mayday. Tramps like us baby we were born to run! This is going to work.”
I moved the cone of silence to the top of my desk lay pads underneath and against the windows. Thankfully, my publicist, Cornelius Matteo is still with me. One of his many talents was producing podcasts. He suggested a good microphone, we did a test recording and we were in business.
I spent days and months in the cone of silence. Inside the walls, I created charts with sketches of the women, the staff of DOC and my family. For example, for Buzz Cut I crossed my arms and made wild eyes and a crooked smile as I read. For Sinful, I leaned forward, put one hand on my thigh and thought to myself, listen you dumb shit. For Big Buck, tilted my chin down, and looked through my eyebrows and thought, capisice? I was isolating again, but I had the company of the women of Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. My heart grew tender when I read Mittens and Celly. I laughed with Hippie Chick. Over the months, I allowed myself to feel a deeper layer of heartbreak when I read the voices of my children.
When I finished a section, I would send it to Cornelius. He shaved of the highs and lows and sent if back for my approval. The voices of the women had different inflections and cadence but alas, they all were read with my lingering Minnesota accent. But in spite imperfections, the story must be told.
Reading the first pages, I remember the terror before I went in. I wondered if I would survive. Would I experience a medical complication from the car accident? Would my family still love me? Would I get beat up? Would I lose heart and become hard?
The experience did change me but not as I expected. It tenderized me. Despite their tragic histories, It was the very women I feared that showed me the way. Falling is a promise to free the women’s voices so that the American public would have a profound look into the lives of women inmate of a full custody prison.
In 2022, Colette Peters formerly the Superintendent of Oregon Corrections read the book and ordered it to be in every prison library in the State. In August, 2022, Colette Peters has been promoted to the Director of Federal Bureau of Prisons in the United States. Perhaps now, the audiobook has a chance to shine the light to millions. A better way up and out with prison reform.
Audio Excerpt of the Upcoming Audible Version of Falling
Audio Excerpt of the Upcoming Audible Version of Falling
Photos by Federico Beccari and Jukka Aalho on Unsplash
