Question Time

Liam: You came to our school recently, Rivington and Blackrod High school, I would like to take this opportunity to say, thank you for coming into my school. I found your story about life in prison interesting, it's hard to believe prison life is so bad, with the parasites and gangs, how did you manage to cope with it?

Early on in the jail before the blog started, I was with lots of people who were arrested with me, including my big friend from my hometown, Wild Man, who the gangs respected for his fighting skills. So he looked out for me. We were classified as independent, so we didn’t have to join the gang, but we had to play along with the gang rules. I was split from my codefendants after the first year, so then I had to rely on my people skills, Englishness, education etc. Then writing blogs about other prisoners enabled me to make some powerful alliances, including with Two Tonys, a Mafia mass murderer, and the mighty T-Bone.

Liam: How is T-Bone? I joined the group for him on Facebook which lead me to your blog.

T-Bone gets out soon. Here is his latest letter.

Liam: I have been reading some of your blog, and find it disturbing that someone could perform murder or rape even when they are in prison, especially gangs such as Aryan Brotherhood, ordered to murder even if they had a small sentence for what? a longer life in prison?

A lot of them are already serving life, so unless they get the death penalty, murdering someone is no big deal to them. They have many ways to not get caught for example giving someone a “hot shot” – shooting someone up with a heroin overdose, so it looks like a junkie OD’d. Video of Aryan Brother murdering an inmate in Arpaio's jail.

Liam: I think it's useful that you have been talking to other schools and find that the talk was helpful and even made me and my friends think about our actions. I used to be the "bad boy" of our year, however I went through punishments and anger classes etc which helped me to think about my actions, kind of like a mental prison, and I am interested in finding out more about your prison life. Your book "Hard Time" is there anywhere to get this book?

Hard Time is available in Waterstone’s bookstores across the UK, or click here for the Amazon link.

Liam: And for you, what was the worst thing about prison, and what was the most horrific thing about it?

The violence and the cockroaches crawling on me at night. One of the first guys I saw get smashed ended up looking dead with yellow fluid leaking from his head. Brain fluid.

Liam: Also when you told us the police took away your money, I thought that was pathetic, you was in prison for dealing drugs right?

Yes, but I broke the law, so I accept all of the consequences, including losing my assets.

I hope your doing well in life, and your family.

Many regards,

Liam

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   Shaun Attwood