True Stories of Doing Time: Entry Three

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True Stories of Doing Time: Entry Three:
by Terry Chandler (TC31)

You know, it seems like everyone in prison has their own opinion on the best way for doing time, but there was one incident that made me realize that I had to figure out for myself how to do my time.

When I was on the prison bus heading to Lompoc I sat near the guy who ended up becoming my cellie and ended up talking with him. He was telling me how he has done a bunch of time and if I needed any advice all I had to do was ask him. Then when we got to prison and he ended up being my cellie I thought I was lucky as now I could ask him any questions I might have. Well guess what? Within two weeks of being there he moved out and ended up strung out on drugs and doing sexual favors to support his drug habit. Umm,… in my eyes that is not the way to do time. I may have been young and inexperienced on how to do time, but I knew that was not the path for me. The crazy thing is that not but a week after he moved out I had this older guy in my unit stop me on my way home from chow one day and offer to pay me to give me oral sex. I politely said NO, then went straight to the guy I met when I first got there and told him what happened. He asked me what I told him, and I told him I said “NO”, then he explained to me that the guy always asks the young new guys that but if you say no he will never bother you again. But then he also said, if I changed my mind the guy’s money was good, YUCK!!!!!!! I don’t care how much time I have to do, I will NEVER engage in sexual acts with another man. Here in the Washington State prison system they have “PREA” (Prison Rape Elimination Act) postings everywhere now. They do not tolerate any type of sexual conduct in this prison system. But back then in the federal prison system there was sexual acts going on all the time. I have seen many things that I wish I hadn’t over the years 🙁

After being there about a month I caught a break and got a job working out on the rec yard taking care of one of the softball fields and that’s when I met someone who made me realize the caliber of people I was locked up with as he turned out to be a hit man for the mob. In the feds you have terrorists, drug king pins, mobsters, bombers, arms dealers, international jewel thieves ( I actually met one and became friends with him ), and lots of bank robbers. The caliber of inmates in the feds is completely different from here in the Washington State prison system.

Next time I will tell you about a reporter supposedly calling and saying he heard I had been stabbed and killed and was looking for a story that landed me in the hole right before the 1995 crack riots broke out throughout the entire federal prison system.