Latest / Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison / Praying for a Lockdown

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Praying for a Lockdown · Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison

• 0:13
  Hello, this is a pre big call from and make it the Virginia Department
• 0:17
  of Corrections. Read on in state prison to accept this call, Chress zero.
• 0:25
  This is Randall vab And I'm serving one thy two hundred and fourteen years
• 0:29
  in Wallace Ridge State Prison and Big Stone Gap, Virginia for Capitol murder.
• 0:33
  This is my podcast for red Onion Randy. I hope you enjoyed listening to
• 0:37
  me today. Today I'm going to talk about something that I mean, I
• 0:42
  have touched on it before, but I'm gonna talk about lockdown. What a
• 0:46
  lockdown is, what it means, and why it's kind of so important to
• 0:50
  me at this moment. The rumor is tomorrow morning we're going on lockdown for
• 0:57
  two weeks so the institutional staff can and shake every single cell down, every
• 1:02
  single pot down, searching for knives, searching for drugs, searching for escape
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  attempts, any type of contraband, which there is an awful lot of in
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  prison no matter where you go. I needed I'm looking forward to. This
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  is the first lockdown in my thirty three years of doing time in prison that
• 1:23
  I'm looking forward to, like I need this. I need to get away
• 1:27
  from these guys, I need two weeks in a damn cell by myself.
• 1:30
  I need a vacation. I have been so so frustrated. Everybody in here,
• 1:38
  damn here has been getting on my nerves. They've been getting drunk left
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  and right. And I mean when I say getting drunk, I mean getting
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  faced drunk, knock your in the dirt drunk. I mean dudes are stumbling
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  around. One dude got so drunk he walked up the steps, barely could
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  make it up the steps, and he got right around in front of my
• 2:06
  door and he started wabbling and he fell up against the railer. There's a
• 2:10
  big opening in between the railing. He almost went through the damn thing head.
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  First thought I was gonna have to I didn't have to. He was
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  able to catch himself, but I was standing at the door, and I
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  thought I was gonna have to jump out and grab him to keep him from
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  falling and breaking his damn knack or killing himself. They're just getting loud.
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  They're just getting on my damn nurse. I mean they're getting on my last
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  nurse. And it's not just one or two people, it's damn near everybody
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  in the pond. I come over I'll get on the phone, I'm trying
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  to talk to someone. I'm trying to talk to a friend or a loved
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  one, and I can't hear. And one day it was so bad.
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  I was talking to Nicole, my girlfriend now, and I kept having to
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  ask her, what'd you say? I'm sorry, can you repeat yourself?
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  I couldn't hear you. And I had to do that so many times that
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  it gave her a nightmare that night. It brought back a lot of things.
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  It'd be like bad things that happened to her, and like nobody was
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  coming, nobody could hear her, and she was screaming for help. And
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  because I kept saying I can't hear you, I can't hear you, get
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  triggered that stuff like and I mean when she told me that, yeah,
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  yeah, yeah, that brought up some old stuff from me because I wanted
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  to punish them for that. So I'm looking forward to it, like I
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  need this, you know. And I got so much on my plate just
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  because you know, I got sent down to Sussex and VCU for the medical
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  run, and then when I got back up here, it took so long
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  for me to get my property, and it just you know, I'm so
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  far behind in emails. I'm so far behind and the stuff that I'm working
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  on, my projects, and you know that I'm trying to do to make
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  me feel better about myself, that I'm trying to put something good out here
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  in the world. I'm trying to be creative. I'm trying to trying to
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  build something. I'm tired of destroying. I'm trying to hurt and I'm tired
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  of tearing stuff down. And it's just like, I need two weeks.
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  I need two weeks in a still to way. I'm not coming out to
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  sell. I can catch up on all my emails, I can get as
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  much work done as I can, and I can just be by myself.
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  The pod is going to be quiet for the most part. Every now and
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  then you might have one or two people get on the doors and talk to
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  one another for a few minutes here there, or screaming that them, Hey
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  man, you got some girls showing her asks on TV, which I'll always
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  respond out loud, dude, act like you've seen it before. I need
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  that rest. And that's the thing, like I realized, the closer and
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  closer I get to going home to giving my time back, I have a
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  lawyer coming up to see me. It's going to cost me fifteen thousand dollars
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  to pay for her. You know, I decide to hire her. I'm
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  not just just because she's coming and talk to me doesn't mean I'm paying her.
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  I'm gonna choose her to represent me. You know, she's gonna have
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  to answer questions. She's gonna have to talk to me and convince me that
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  she can get me out. I'm not just giving you fifteen grands so you
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  can represent me, you know, half ass, and I spend the rest
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  of my life in prison and I just made you richer. That's not gonna
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  happen. If if I don't have an absolute confidence in her, yeah,
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  she's not gonna happen. I'll be patient and wait. So you know,
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  I mean like I need to prepare for that, you know, and that
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  that being on lockdown is going to help you with that. But like it
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  seems like the closer I get to that date of going home, the harder
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  and harder it gets for me to deal with these guys. Like everyone knows
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  how much I hate sussex one. If you've ever listened to any of my
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  podcasts, you know I hate Sussex One more than I hate anything in this
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  world. I hate Sussex One more than I hate child molesters. And this
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  part has gotten so it's not the actual part. I like the way they
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  run this part because basically, I get podreck from around six o'clock in the
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  morning till around eleven thirty in the afternoon. We come out around one thirty
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  two o'clock and we stay out till five o'clock, and you know, every
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  now and then on night Ship we'll get thirty minutes. So this night Grave,
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  that's a good thing. Like, I'm looking forward to it. I'm
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  sorry I got twisted around it. I got distracted by other people around me.
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  I apologize. I hate Sussex oneing, but I'm at the point the
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  dudes in here are getting on my nerves so bad that I would rather go
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  to Sussex One. Like, I don't know what's going on with my leg
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  yet. I haven't got the results back from the biopsy yet, but like,
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  I'm looking forward to going to Sussex One when they because I'm supposed to
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  go down there for a couple of months while they do the surgery and I
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  heal up and all that. Stuff like. These guys have gotten on my
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  damn nerves in this part so bad with the backbiting. All they do is
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  gossip. All they do is crowd All they do is talk about Yeah,
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  man, I killed this dude. Back in the day, I was shooting
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  this dude on the street. I was walking this dude asked I was doing
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  this, I would doing that. He told on me, though, Chris,
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  he told on me. Hold wait a minute, dude, you just
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  went from being a killer to crying about him. Tell him go kill him.
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  Then, if you don't want to do snitching on you, why ain't
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  you doing something to this dude. Yeah, I'm not trying to hear it,
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  man, carry you ask my I hate to see who's coming in the
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  cell, tearing everything apart, throwing it in the floor, walking on it.
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  I'm just I just need to get away from the damn nbas That's the
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  only problem, because I have to say, look, in the last couple
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  of months, the new warden's up here, although they've been here for about
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  five months now, so I guess they can't really call him new anymore.
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  But like they've got it, they've got to place fixed. Like when I
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  first got here, all we spent was time on lockdown. Lockdown after lockdown,
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  after lockdown, you'll come off for three week lockdown, you'll be out
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  for one or two days. Somebody will get to fight, and they'll put
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  you back on lockdown for three more weeks. But now it's just that part.
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  They don't lock the whole compound down for what one person or two or
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  three people do. And I think that's the damn problem, man, because
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  I don't know. I just it's just getting so much harder to deal with
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  people. It's getting so much harder to be patient, you know. And
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  I guess I got so many good things going for me in my life.
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  I mean, I finally found that woman I want to be with, I
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  want to marry, I've got I've got friends that I never thought I would
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  have. And the cool thing is they're all from these different walks of life.
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  They do different things. I got people from professors to journalists, to
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  guys who own their own business, to guys who work instruction to stay at
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  home moms. Like that's amazing to me, Like this is my eyes have
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  been open to so much, Like I guess because I want to go home
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  so bad, like I want to actually be out there and be a part
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  of real life again. You know, I want to have that chance again.
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  And it's just like I see these guys in here. They don't want
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  to do nothing. They don't want to do anything to better themselves. You've
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  got a couple of guys that are so close to going home, like I
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  mean, they are within months away from actually getting released in prison and going
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  home. And I have conversations with him and I said, well, what
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  are you gonna do when you go home home? I'm gonna start my own
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  clothing lot. Okay, what do you know about that business? Do you
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  know how to run a business? Do you know what a spreadsheet is?
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  Well, dude, man, how come you ain't how come you ain't got
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  your people to go and buy you a couple of business books so you can
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  sit up in to sell and read these books and line of this stuff.
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  And you can't tell me you people don't got money because they just spent three
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  hundred and fifty dollars on you know, in Islamic you know holiday thing for
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  Rama Doc. You just spend one hundred and twenty five dollars on the holiday
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  package, the quarterly package that we get every three months. I mean,
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  you spend seventy five dollars a week in commonsly like you have plenty of money.
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  But they don't even want to do it, Like they don't even want
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  to put no work in and they think they're just gonna go home and start
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  a clothing line. Like, Okay, show me some of your designs.
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  What are you working on, man? What are you up there drawing?
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  And you say, oh, man, I don't have nothing, Man,
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  I do it all in my head. But seriously, man, you think
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  you're going to go home and be successful. You're not doing no work in
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  prison. The only thing you're doing is playing cards. The only thing you're
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  doing is getting drunk. The only thing you're doing is stripped and getting high.
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  And you think, if you're gonna give your time back, you're gonna
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  get released in prison to go home and you're going to start this business and
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  you're actually going to be successful in it. You know, you've got another
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  guy. He wants to go home and get his CDL, get his trucker's
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  license. He wants to start his own little trunk in business eventually. Okay,
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  what are you doing? And the crazy thing about this situation is they
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  actually have a DMV app on our players for free. You get it for
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  free and it has that whole manual for your CD A license. Are you
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  reading it? Are you studying it? Or no? I'm gonna do that
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  like a month before I go home. That way, I know it really
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  good. Yes, sure you are, buddy, I believe you. Come
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  on, man, you don't even believe you. What are you doing?
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  Like? This is the stuff I'm dealing with. I've written two children's novels.
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  I'm working on a movie script. Granted that is taking a lot longer
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  than it should have one. I am trying to make it really good.
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  I'm trying to come out the gate swinging. But I'm working on another fantasy
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  novel. I've got a podcast. I did some stuff for the University of
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  Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan on Nomadic Storyteller. Like I'm working on all of these
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  damn things. Why Because if I don't do it now, I want to
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  do it when I hit the streets, I'm just going to go home and
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  fall into the same old pattern, the behavior that I did that got my
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  ass put in the prison in the first place. So as much as I
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  hate going back on lockdown, as much as it reminds me of long term
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  solitary confinement and the eighteen and a half years total that I did on that.
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  Like, I don't want to be trapped in the self. I want
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  to be able to come out and email people and get emails and get pictures
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  from my friends. I want to be able to come out and get on
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  the phone two, three times, sometimes five times a day and call somebody
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  and talk to them and see how they're doing and seeing what's going on in
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  their lives. So that gives me that little mental escape from prison that I
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  need. That stuff strengthens me. But I'm at the point like you know
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  what, man, my friends are just gonna have to give me two weeks.
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  They're just gonna have to wake Like I need to get away from these
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  people, Like I don't want to talk to nobody in this part anymore.
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  Yeah, two weeks in solid here and I literally got on my knees and
• 13:03
  prayed and asked God to make sure we go on lockdown tomorrow. When I
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  heard the room, I think I heard the rumor around Wednesday or Thursday of
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  last week that we're supposed to go on this Monday. I'm like, man,
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  yes, thank God, Please please lock my ass down for two weeks
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  so I don't have to deal with nobody, so I don't have to listen
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  to them, so I can just get away. And the sad thing is,
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  it's really it comes down to three people in the pod. If we
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  could just get rid of three inmates, if they would just transfer them to
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  red Onion, Sussex, one release their ass from prison. I don't care.
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  If they would just get rid of three particular people in this pod,
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  the pod would change. It would be so much better. All the gossip,
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  all the backbiting, Like I'm actually quite pissed off. I wouldn't even
• 14:00
  sure if I was going to talk about this or not. But I went
• 14:03
  and I talked to somebody two weeks ago, and I'm like, look,
• 14:05
  man, let's make a meal for four of us. And uh, it
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  was me and Cartoon and two other guys. I'm not gonna mention their names,
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  so I paid twenty some dollars for it. Cartoon he bought a sausage,
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  He bought a block of mozzarella cheese and a bag of chili, and
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  uh, the one of the other guys gave me a sausage and a block
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  of cheese, and uh, you know, he was supposed to put some
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  other stuff in anybody didn't. The fourth guy was supposed to make apple pies
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  for all four of us. So I sit there and I cook up this
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  huge log and I eat cartoon eats his. The other two dudes take theirs
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  back in the cell, and that night we came out for podreck you have
• 14:50
  one minute remaining. It was like, yeah, it was good, dude,
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  Like did my face was like yeah, it was good, man,
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  Like, I appreciate that, thank you. I come out the next morning
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  and I'm out walking around doing my thing, and I see two other guys
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  eating these meals. The two dudes that I cook for, The two dudes
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  that agreed to do all this and didn't pay for it, except for one
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  sausage and one block of cheese. They gave what I gave them. Like,
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  that's the type dudes I'm dealing with in here. That's why I need
• 15:18
  a break, man, Like I need a break, so damn bad.
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  It's yeah, but unfortunately I ran out of time. I appreciate you listening
• 15:26
  to me. Don't forget in the US, I have a soul free number
• 15:30
  one eight eight eight five two four, one nine three two all international calls,
• 15:37
  just put a plus in front of one. Check out my website redonion
• 15:39
  Randy dot com. I'm on Twitter at red Onion Randy and take care,
• 15:45
  stay safe, and pray for me. I need it. Thank you for using GTL