September 15, 2000

I went to school today to try to sign up for what’s called the Youth Offenders program. I was kicked out because they warned people not to attempt this if they were not qualified. I am not 5 years to possible release so do not meet the criteria of this program.

But I took the education worker’s word that it would be okay. Now I may have to wait another semester to start school. I tried it because it would have been free. Now I will have to pay. Or better yet someone will have to  pay for me. I shouldn’t have listened to the guy, but I did. And this brings me to another prison rule: don’t deal with homosexuals.
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Okay this is a little bit unfair on my part. I don’t really believe they are any different than anyone else, but this little story keeps me on the theme of prison rules. However, the truth is that in here, gay guys are a lot like drugs. And these “rules” are things the guys who’ve been around a while tell the fish right away. This particular guy goes by the name of Stephanie, a play on his real name. Many of them do that. He basically runs the education department so a lot of people are forced to deal with him that normally wouldn’t. But I do not make it a habit to talk to the “mo’s” or “punks” as they’re called here. But many guys I know have not listened to the warnings and have regretted it later. It’s not that they are bad people (although some of them are crazy as hell, this is prison). It’s more about what others are willing to do to keep them.