First of all I am

First of all, I am a survivor from Hell and back and Hell again. 1989 I went to prison in Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). What an experience. Joliet has its ghosts. I was on lower tier because I'm an epileptic (a head injury from the military, Beirut era). Once I got put on the Bluebird bound to the pen, I was shackled with 45 killers and other. Joliet is/was the most highest security pen (not true). 15 bars across, eight steel planks. [illustration here] No windows, toilets was made of porcelain. The flush handle was separate. The mattress was made out of pure cotton like in '20s and 1895, pillow same thing. My graphics are close. It's been some 40 plus years ago. Ghosts within my memory. The guards are brutal if you're indigent and unplugged. Unplugged means (not in a gang). I stood alone, but I had my men in military incarcerated, being I was retired as a wounded officer (DCO). I was a captain (USMC) divisional commanding officer in Beirut. So my training got me past the drama. Solitary confinement is hell. Rats, mice, roaches, darkness, wet dripping off the bars. Over 450 men in darkness. Control is what any prison or jail makes clear. Domination is second, abuse every day, one way or others. In Joliet, the guards would tell the men who's coming in and what your convicted for, from murder 187 to sex offenses. And your breaking into prison starts on the Bluebird bus. Chained at your ankles with all 22 men on each side of the bus. Then you got to pee, stand up pee in a 5-gallon paint bucket and sit down. The last visit to freedom is looking out the bus window. The bus and state police escorts only take routes, junctions, or roads, never a freeway. Their job is to get you trapped in "what you lost" for the next 15 years up to 45 to life. Black African-Americans in Will County prison called Joliet are 50%, 40% white, 10% Mexican. Once off the bus, chains come off and strip off everything, body searches. in front of 45 men, plus men and women guards, then your given your clothing issue. 2 pairs of Levi jeans with "Prisoner" painted on one side of the jeans, two pairs of long sleeve jean shirt with a pocket, then one pair black leather military World War II boots. They must be polished (I used butter or hair grease). Then one pair of white cotton gloves, a lined winter coat and a summer coat (thin windbreaker), two pairs of white tube socks, a prisoner hat, two packs of Camels, one box of matches, one bar of soap and one pair of shower shoes, one mattress, one pillow, one blanket, two sheets. Your bunk must stay made if you're not in it. 24/7 in solitary confinement and in regular housing cells. If your doing calendars, then your choice education, a very powerful unit which leads to college degrees; work kitchen is a good job with pay, industries the best job which has many jobs. Commissary, auto repairs, housekeeping, mechanics, slaughterhouse, clothing. Your paid to make an assembly line everything, secretary work. I'm sixty years I'll tell it like it really was. An ex-con won't. Former inmate will or they won't. But it needs to be told. IDOC has a code: L, N, C, K, A, B, M that goes before your number. Being IDOC was created in racist times, "B.L.A.C.K.-M.A.N." was to ensure lock-ups of African-Americans more than whites and Mexicans. My number was B-*****. Richard J. Daly former mayor of Cook County influenced IDOC in the 40s to the 00s. The B# is for the 90s; the A# is for the 60s; C# is for the 1970s, N# is for the 1980s, M# is for Millennium 00s. For the 50s is K# for the 40s is L. The Goal Rumor was lock up all the Blacks before the next century. My family has Dutch/Africaan blood and German, so I look white, but the last name is African-American known. Skinheads, Aryan Nation, KKK, Hell's Angels, bikers, ran the independent whites. Those mixed black were with the Black Nation, Mexicans with the Latin King Nation (LKN) even in Illinois. I've seen showers where these long 3-inch pipes from the ceiling between the fourth floor and the third floor. Look and whistle at those showering. [illustration] If unprotected and young inmates, they become property of the gangs as prostitutes. Correctional officers are the gangs' inside security who pulls them first. A test first, three cons address them, like me, "Yo punk, give up your blanket!" I said, "The only punks I see are you." I used aggression I learned in the Marine Corps. I would challenge them common chumps, "F. W. me! You so bad?" They'll come with shanks (knives) so kill or be killed / do or die is real in a maximum penitentiary or prison. Illinois will transfer you around the state. I've been to Statesville, next door to Joliet, then Dixon, then Galesburg, Menard, Big Muddy Rivers, Graham, Centrallia, Pontiac, Hill correctional, Logan, Lincoln, in six years. I actually seen from my cell a 22-year-old white kid get beat up in front of everyone. Once he fell, the Hell's Angels stripped him while awake. They sexually assaulted him like a long train, he was punked cell by cell through the bars. Guards did nothing (their lives are at risk). Gangs run the prisons and jails. I wasn't going to be a hero, so I turned my cassette player and put on Megadeath "Countdown to Extinction." Max prisons are the worst to go to, I've been to three out of four max prisons in Illinois, built in 1860 to 1880. In 1996 Joliet was closed indefinitely.I've seen fires, murders, rapes, beatings, and abusive force. The 27 year old that was tried got aids. Five inmates raped him in the kitchen back in '95. He was deaf and mute. Whites did him and hooked him cell by cell. Those that want it, pay for it, and those that don't, stay out of that kind of scene. (Diabolical) And he knew what he was doing, he got HIV and doctors told him this. He tricked the gangs. Each one had him got AIDS, he set them all up. On death row, he lost weight down to 120 pounds. He went PC, left a card to each one and said "Your dead." He fell to 50 pounds and died, and others were doing the same. Eighty men contracted AIDS. You see people dying. I then went to Dixon IDOC in Lee county, northern Illinois. It was barracks in World War II and Korean war and they left it that way for 50 60 years. Dixon are 1 floor housing units wit 10 rooms, each room consisting four beds and a medium yard, one chain link fence. Less drama, more respect, and better jobs. The compound was 25 barracks, mess hall, kitchen, yard you can walk all around, plus rec yard free weights 1 carton of cigs, 1 box of matches, you can buy a hot pot. Those who worked at the East Moline slaughterhouse came back with meat. (I love my Levi jeans this prison don't put "Prisoner" on the outer legs like the max prisons. You've got more freedom. Lee county is near Rockford, near Iowa. I seen bucks (deer) in the winter. We have no bars on any windows, or locks. Sure, guard towers (but I felt like that's to keep people from breaking into Dixon IDOC. (Humor) When I was transferred downstate to Galesburg, IL (medium yard), we drove to Logan prison where the women made our lunch bags. Logan is in Logan county. Next to Logan IDOC was Lincoln IDOC. Both prisons are minimum yards (no fences) and both are co-ed. Yep! Men and women living in the same units, some 1000 pregnancies in 1997. Only four minimum prisons in Illinois, Vienna on the Kentucky line, then Logan in central Illinois, Centrallia in southern Illinois, and East Moline on the Mississippi River. Galesburg is near East St. Louis, Illinois. People with two to five years go to medium or minimum yards. Anytime higher goes to other prisons like Menard, where John Wayne Gacy was and died in 1995. To be doing time, now 25 years, accrued in Illinois for something I never did, is wrong. But I'm indigent, so who cares? Final When I was in southern Illinois on parole in 1992-1994, I came upon KKK cops, judges, and prosecutors. How wrong this is 60 years, I never had sex. ever Why don't trip the prisons see me as a prisoner. If you're interested editor, it's called wrongful conviction, no evidence, mistaken of identity based solely upon name and fingerprints by someone with same name I have, but he never was in U.S.M.C. - Ret. If interested, let me know. Good night 11:30 PM (2330 hours) Semper fidelis Teu Felhunden