By Daniel Genis I was a good cook before I went to prison. I’d cooked all my life, seducing girls with my culinary skills and impressing college ramen eaters by flipping and dicing without ever looking. I was also well-traveled and proud of having sampled an array of unmentionable organs and hideous fish. On better […]
By Mike Enemigo Stanley “Tookie” Williams cofounded the notorious Crips street gang in 1971, at the age of 17, with fellow teenager Raymond Washington. By 1981, Tookie was on California’s death row at San Quentin State Prison after being convicted or two robberies and four murders. While doing a seven-year stint in the “hole” after […]
By Mike Enemigo A prisoner serving a life term as California State Prison and Substance Abuse Treatment Facility in Corcoran published his confession to the brutal murder in January 2020 of two convicted child molesters with whom he was housed. Jonathan Watson, 41, sent a letter in February 2020 to the San Jose Mercury News, […]
By Mike Enemigo Prison food is notoriously terrible, and it’s not like you can go out to a drive-thru when you get hungry between meal-times. But prison inmates are famous for their amazing creativity – and when they’re not making shivs and other improvised weapons, they’re creating some truly bizarre food items. Here are 10 […]
By Mike Enemigo On May 21, 2019, a 143-page federal indictment was filed that described criminal violations allegedly committed by Ronald Yandell, Daniel Troxell, William Sylvester, Travis Burhop, Brant Daniel, Donald Mazza, Pat Brady, Jason Corbett, Matthew Hall, Samuel Keeton, Michael Torres, Jeanna Quesenberry, Kevin McNamara, Kristen Demar, Justin Petty and Kathleen Nolan. The indictment […]
By Mike Enemigo There’s any number of reasons why a man might learn how to cook in prison. On the inside, the food served during chow is notoriously low-quality, hopelessly bland, and served in meager, rationed portions. Cooking with commissary items like ramen noodles, canned tuna, and butter packets – as unappetizing as that may […]
By Mike Enemigo Shaka grew up on the east side of Detroit in the same neighborhood as street legends The Best Friends, Chambers Brothers, and White Boy Rick, where he sold crack during the 80s. After getting shot on March 8, 1990, Shaka became paranoid and vowed to never leave home without his gun. He […]
Iceberg Slim is credited with creating the street-lit genre with his 1967 autobiography Pimp: The Story of My Life, and though he sold over 6 million books before his death in 1992, it was Donald Goines who really ran with the genre. Goines, after learning about Iceberg Slim’s book Pimp while serving time in prison, […]
By Frederick Ray Most prisoners are completely ignorant of the law and the process used in the practice of law and litigation. As a result of this lack of knowledge, prisoners become victims of manipulation by “fraudulent” jailhouse lawyers and “incompetent” attorneys. Living within a pervasive environment and culture of hopelessness in prison, it’s easy […]
Seth Ferranti rocked the literary world in 2004 when he launched his publishing company, Gorilla Convict Publications, from inside a federal penitentiary, and began penning and publishing raw, uncensored tales about life inside America’s prison system, street legends, and other aspects of the criminal underworld. Not since Jack Abbott’s In the Belly of the Beast, George […]