Wilmslow Waterstone's Signing

Pic of the day: Gab choking Dean

 People of all ages read Hard Time: this man is 93 years old.

 The joy of cockroch hand-stamping.

Tomorrow we are at Chester Waterstone's: Wednesday December 21st, 2011 - Waterstone's, 14 Eastgate Row, Chester, CH1 1LF (01244 345 066) from 11am until 4pm.

Click here for the previous signing blog

Shaun Attwood

Warrington Waterstone's Signing

Thanks to my team of helpers in jail outfits, today's signing in Warrington sold out all 100 copies.

With Nick from Warrington who popped in to say hello, and kindly helped with the sales.

Cockroach hand-stamping

Click here for the previous signing blog

Tomorrow we are at Waterstone's in Wilmslow: Tuesday December 20th, 2011 - Waterstone's, 29 Grove Street, Wilmslow, Cheshire (0843 290 8685) from 11am until 4pm.

Shaun Attwood

Liverpool One Waterstone's Signing

Mum restraining Wild John. 

A big thank you to everyone who helped and attended the Liverpool One signing today. We sold 100 copies. Again, I had barely any voice, but with Wild John unleashed on the friendly Scousers, sales racked up and up and up... The mechanical cockroach resurfaced at today's signing. Can you spot it in the picture? Click on the pic to make it big.

Tomorrow (Monday Dec 19th) we are at Waterstone's in Warrington.

Click here for the previous signing blog

Shaun Attwood

Manchester Waterstone's Trafford Centre Signing

Hardly able to speak and with Mum having a day of rest, I still managed to sell 125 copies of Hard Time today - my highest sale ever - thanks to the help of the five wonderful people in the pic above: Gab, Emily, Natalie, Iain, Lydia.

Click here for the previous book signing blog 

Tomorrow's (Sunday Dec 18th) signing is at Waterstone's, Liverpool One. Click here for more info.

Shaun Attwood

Eight Xmas Waterstone's Book Signings in the Northwest

Anyone who wants to help Mum and I smash our existing sales record is welcome to show up at any of the signings, hand flyers out, and dress as a prisoner. Six people are helping at the Trafford Centre, where we hope to sell 200 copies tomorrow.

Manchester Trafford Centre: Saturday December 17th, 2011 - Waterstone's, Trafford Centre, Barton Dock Road, Manchester, M17 8AA (0161 749 8623) from 11am until 4pm.

Liverpool 1: Sunday December 18th, 2011 - Waterstone's, 12 College Lane, Liverpool, L1 3DL (0151 709 9820) from 11am until 5pm.

Warrington: Monday December 19th, 2011 - Waterstone's, 23-24 Golden Square Shopping Centre, Warrington, WA1 1QE (01925 658 484) from 11am until 4pm.

Wilmslow: Tuesday December 20th, 2011 - Waterstone's, 29 Grove Street, Wilmslow, Cheshire (0843 290 8685) from 11am until 4pm.

Chester: Wednesday December 21st, 2011 - Waterstone's, 14 Eastgate Row, Chester, CH1 1LF (01244 345 066) from 11am until 4pm.

Wigan: Thursday December 22nd, 2011 - Waterstone's, 6 The Grand Arcade, Wigan, WN1 1BH (01942 497 095) from 11am until 4pm.

Birkenhead: Friday December 23rd, 2011 - Waterstone's, 188-192 Grange Road, Birkenhead, CH41 6EA (0843 290 8147) from 11am until 4pm.

Manchester Trafford Centre: Saturday December 24th, 2011 - Waterstone's, Trafford Centre, Barton Dock Road, Manchester, M17 8AA (0161 749 8623) from 11am until 4pm.

Shaun Attwood

North Nottinghamshire College Visit

I only managed to do three out of six talks at NNC before I completely lost my voice, and had to cancel all of my remaining school engagements this week. The staff at NNC in Worksop were some of the friendliest I've ever encountered, and I enjoyed the special atmosphere at the school.  

 Tom and Anna assisted by reading during all three talks. Tom's American accent was superb.

Shaun Attwood

Help demand the Resignation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio
How can America champion human rights when the beast called Arpaio is at large in America's back yard?

Click here to sign the petition!

Shaun Attwood

Xmas Message From T-Bone

Peace to all of the young women and men who have joined the T-Bone Appreciation Society on Facebook, and have posted good wishes to me and asked questions on my wall. All of your messages have been read and appreciated.

We are about to start a new year, so let’s never forget that life is what you make it. It’s a matter of choice, so let’s start by doing things that help others and by thinking in a positive constructive manner. Stop someone if you see them bullying another, speak up, don’t be afraid. We can make the world a better place for all of us. Things like drugs, rape and child molestation need to be stopped.

I feel so good reading your messages, knowing there are so many young, strong, good-hearted and intelligent people out there who want to make a difference. So keep making a difference in your community and schools. Keep saying no to drugs! Peace to you all, God bless you, and Merry Christmas!

Strength and Honor

Steel Embrace

Each One – Teach One

T-Bone

Click here for Letter 15 from T-Bone

Click here to join the T-Bone Appreciation Society 

T-Bone's Kindle ebook. UK version. US version. Or download to your PC from Lulu.com. All proceeds going to help T-Bone in prison.

Shaun Attwood

TV (Part 2)

Just got back from London. The interview lasted for over an hour and could not have gone any better. They are enthusiastic to proceed and want to meet again in January. They also want to meet my sister, Karen, to get the family perspective. The exact nature of the TV show has not been decided, but they want my jail experience and how I’m helping young people now to be a part of it. Looks like 2012 is going to start out well.

Click here for Part 1

Shaun Attwood

TV 

Got an interview tomorrow with a chance of being in a TV series. Will it be my big break? I've learnt not to get my hopes up, but it would be nice getting prisoners stories to much bigger audiences.

Shaun Attwood

Student Review of My Talk (by Lydia Rainford) 

Shaun Attwood came to The Oldham College on the Thursday 3rd of November and Friday 4th of November and presented a talk about his life before he was inside Arizona’s toughest prison, whilst he was inside the prison and what it is like and also about how it has affected his life.

Whilst in the talk we learned about how the prison is in the control of the “gangs” rather than the guards. It was also brought to the attention to audiences what the “gang” members also did to the other inmates. The majority of incidents often lead to many fights and even deaths in the prison. He told us about all different events that he had witnessed and the violence he saw.

Lydia is next to me in the above pic.

Shaun also mentioned about the conditions that was surrounding him and the other inmates in the prison. This involved Cockroaches that “flooded” the room whilst you slept and the spiders that bite the inmates and the treatments that involved squeezing the wound until all the “puss” had left them and then that they placed salt onto the bite to reduce the bacteria as it is the prisons policy not to treat insect bites. During the talk Shaun also mentioned the reality of what happens to young members that enter an adult prison for the first time, and how the media portray that they are going to be going into the prison and be having fun and relaxing. When the reality is that they are more than likely to be robbed, raped, abused and be stabbed by the handmade knifes called “shanks” that the inmates make at night.

Shaun also mentioned other inmates and how he got their stories out of the prison and onto the internet. He also mentioned that because of this that he had a lot of protection around the prison. This was because that he was their only contact to the outside world. One of the prisoners he mentioned was called T-Bone. T-Bone protects the young inmates that look like they are going to be raped because as I have mentioned they are an “easy target”.

In conclusion I think that Shaun’s talk to the college makes you think about the choices you make and what could happen to you if you make the wrong choices in life. I think that students learned; the realities of drugs and prison against their glamorisation, the consequences of choosing drugs and a high-risk lifestyle, the realities of being a prisoner, and the future consequences of the choices they make now. I also think that Shaun’s talk was very eye opening because the realities that we were being told about his time in the prison were unbelievable. The talk was also graphic with the images he was showing and the stories that he was telling were very strong and powerful images. Since Shaun had short intervals with students from the college reading parts of his book had people wanting to read the book “Hard Time” as you wanted to read more about his experience.

 Guildford Book Signing This Tuesday and Wednesday Dec 6th/7th

    Waterstone's, 71-73 High Street, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 3DY 11am - 4pm. 
    Click here for the Xmas week signings in the northwest  

     Shaun Attwood

Terminating Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Petition to demand the termination of Joe Arpaio. To demand that U.S. Attorney Dennis Burk bring federal criminal charges against Sheriff Joe Arpaio for $100 million illegally misspent funds, abuse of power and corruption.

Click here if you want to sign the petition.

Sir Roger Manwood's School (Sandwich, Near Dover) Visit

Shaun Attwood

Beechwood Sacred Heart School (Tunbridge Wells) Visit

Shaun Attwood

Winchmore School (Enfield) Visit

 Shaun Attwood

Forest School (Horsham) Visit

 Shaun Attwood

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

Click here for the previous Question Time

   Shaun Attwood

Question Time with T-Bone

·                                  Rhys Tubuscus Richardson

What are thinking about doing when u get out?

·                                  Tom Hart

What do you plan to do when you get out?

T-Bone answered:

I am going to work, continue my education in O.H.S.A. (Occupational Health and Safety Act), continue working out, spreading the good news and have a decent healthy relationship. I will come to Europe one day, and hopefully be able to speak to the same enthusiastic open-minded intelligent young people with Shaun. Further out, I hope with Shaun that we can turn my life story into a movie.

Click here for Letter 15 from T-Bone

Shaun Attwood

Question Time

Tom asked: I was wondering now that you’re out of prison, what are you going to try and become or do you think that it will lead to something bad again? What are some of your other ambitions you want to do now that you are out of jail?

My response: My ambitions are to keep telling my story to young people in the hope they don’t make the same mistakes I did, and to make people worldwide more aware of what is going on in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail via my blog and book. Mike Stauffer, the man running against Sheriff Joe, has read my book and is disgusted by the conditions. He told me on webcam that if he gets elected, he will make positive changes in the jail. Like I mentioned in the talk at your school, I still hear the wolves howling for me to come out and party, but I channel my energy into positive activity now such as karate, yoga, BodyCombat… so I don’t see my life becoming bad again. 

Matthew asked: is what you said in the talk actually what happens in jail and the conditions, are they that bad?

Yes, they are. And that’s all I could fit in the one-hour talk. Click here for a website that tracks the deaths at Arpaio's jail.

Here's a video of an Aryan Brother murdering another inmate at Arpaio's jail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSOKgLrlAeg&feature=related

Click here for the previous Question Time

Shaun Attwood