Latest / Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison / ROR 184: ERICK ESTRADA | PART 1

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ROR 184: ERICK ESTRADA | PART 1 · Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, everybody's read on your randy. Here we've got
0:04
Speaker 1: another guest. This one is actually really cool. First of all,
0:11
Speaker 1: the guy's legally giving birth name is Eric Estrada, and
0:16
Speaker 1: that's pretty freaking cool, does no not the actor from Chips.
0:23
Speaker 1: This guy, man, he's got a hello story. It's a
0:28
Speaker 1: good story. It's a sad story, but it is it's
0:32
Speaker 1: a good one. You know, he comes from he comes
0:35
Speaker 1: from California, He comes from the Hook. Spanish guy obviously
0:43
Speaker 1: had the good life growing up, but due to the
0:48
Speaker 1: circumstances of you know, geography, wound up in the gangs,
0:55
Speaker 1: wound up banging, lost his older brother, went sideways. From there,
1:01
Speaker 1: it just got worse. Went to prison, hanging inside prison,
1:06
Speaker 1: going to war with other gangs, other races, you know,
1:10
Speaker 1: selling drug, doing whatever it takes to survive, doing whatever
1:14
Speaker 1: it takes just to make it one more day in there,
1:20
Speaker 1: until that one day he just he had that moment
1:27
Speaker 1: and from there he started doing something different. He started
1:32
Speaker 1: walking in the same footsteps I walked in from the
1:37
Speaker 1: guys who went before us. Life is hard, it is messy,
1:47
Speaker 1: and it's some painting ass. He gets ugly, but you
1:59
Speaker 1: ain't beyond and this is where I hear's another story
2:03
Speaker 1: that proves what I said in the book. You ain't
2:06
Speaker 1: beyond saving, no matter where you come from, no matter
2:11
Speaker 1: your race, no matter your gender, no matter no matter what,
2:15
Speaker 1: you ain't beyond saving. And that's why we got Eric
2:22
Speaker 1: as a guest on our show, because he grew up
2:28
Speaker 1: a lot of ways similar to me. A lot of
2:31
Speaker 1: the things he's done, I've done, lived those parallel lobs.
2:36
Speaker 1: Me on the East Coast, him on the West Coast.
2:41
Speaker 1: He's got a podcast in prison called Change Talk, and
2:47
Speaker 1: he's trying to do the exact same thing I'm doing
2:50
Speaker 1: that me and my team have been doing for the
2:52
Speaker 1: last five six years. Whatever it's been change bro Fix
3:03
Speaker 1: was broken, stopped doing the dumpsh we grew up doing.
3:11
Speaker 1: I hope you I hope you enjoy listening. You know, No,
3:16
Speaker 1: I know it's been a little while since I'm kind
3:18
Speaker 1: of given an update, So I am going to take
3:20
Speaker 1: a few moments to give an update. Quite frankly, I'm
3:25
Speaker 1: not really going to go into a lot of details
3:27
Speaker 1: about what's been going on, simply because I can't do so.
3:32
Speaker 1: H The life has been extremely difficult for the last
3:37
Speaker 1: to two and a half weeks, got pulled up on
3:42
Speaker 1: them by the buzz, almost had to go to war
3:44
Speaker 1: with him for something somebody else put me in the
3:49
Speaker 1: middle of, you know, And that's why us doing this
3:59
Speaker 1: episode with Eric. It's perfect, Tom, It's divine tomic because
4:05
Speaker 1: it reminds me of what I'm fighting for. Thankfully, that
4:10
Speaker 1: situation I was through the grace of God and the
4:13
Speaker 1: strength of God, I was able to get that situation
4:16
Speaker 1: cleared up. They've gone about their business. I'm going about mind.
4:25
Speaker 1: But it just goes to show that man, life can
4:29
Speaker 1: take a turn. Because I was doing so good. I mean,
4:34
Speaker 1: things were moving in the right direction. Me and the
4:36
Speaker 1: wife are better than we've ever been, you know, where
4:42
Speaker 1: the podcast is growing, the books are starting to sell
4:45
Speaker 1: a little bit, you know, like things are looking on
4:51
Speaker 1: the up and up, and all of a sudden, bam,
4:53
Speaker 1: I get hit with it, tested right out of nowhere.
4:58
Speaker 1: It humbled me my pride. Damn sure. It took a
5:03
Speaker 1: blow because I had to walk away from something back
5:05
Speaker 1: in the day I never ever would have walked away from.
5:13
Speaker 1: But that's what it's about. It's about change, It's about talk.
5:21
Speaker 1: Because I was able to talk to the key people
5:26
Speaker 1: involved in this situation and actually calm the situation now,
5:30
Speaker 1: actually was able to fix the situation to where everybody
5:34
Speaker 1: walks away happy. Sacrifices they need to be met, And
5:45
Speaker 1: you're about to hear a story of sacrifice. You're about
5:48
Speaker 1: to hear a story of a man who defied his
5:51
Speaker 1: own game, who defied other games, who defied expectations and
5:58
Speaker 1: statistics of what he hosted people. He made some really
6:03
Speaker 1: really good sacrifices, and now he's doing something to kick back.
6:10
Speaker 1: Listen and enjoy this man's story, because if he was
6:16
Speaker 1: over here doing time with me, this cat would be
6:20
Speaker 1: my road Dolf. We'd be sellies and we'd be doing
6:25
Speaker 1: our day and we would be changing everything around us.
6:33
Speaker 1: He ain't beyond saving. I'm not Erica, ain't neither of you. Hello.
6:42
Speaker 2: This is a prebate call from brand and Department of
6:46
Speaker 2: Correction read an in state prison to.
6:49
Speaker 1: Accept this colocrass hero, mister Randall bob aka on you, Randy.
7:01
Speaker 1: I'm currently serving one thousand, two hundred and fourteen years
7:05
Speaker 1: for capital murder and arm robbery now and finally at
7:11
Speaker 1: a level three fucking hair correctional center. Don't's throw from
7:16
Speaker 1: where I grew up. If you have any questions or
7:19
Speaker 1: comments and want to leave a message or whatever, I've
7:22
Speaker 1: got a voicemail line. That number is one eight eight
7:27
Speaker 1: eight five Suit four one nine three Suit. You can
7:32
Speaker 1: also visit my website which is new and improved and
7:36
Speaker 1: got different features and whatnot at www dot red on
7:40
Speaker 1: your Randy dot com. I hope you do. Let's get
7:45
Speaker 1: started with the podcast.
7:56
Speaker 3: Coming on.
7:57
Speaker 2: I'm gonna make pl and soon Lynn Boy Sanan doom
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Speaker 2: Cancio Cominanomican sol Mont Branks, Baragae Caminarsin, Camino, Baraquella Nostyle,
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Speaker 2: Baragain ar Boscano, Vestino Baraga comp me Gancio Alcaminogamy.
8:50
Speaker 3: Hey man. First off, thank thanks for having me on
8:52
Speaker 3: the show. Money is Eric and today I'm serving a
8:56
Speaker 3: serience of life without the possibility for here in California.
8:59
Speaker 3: Say to the corkorand I mom for the host of
9:02
Speaker 3: the podcast called Change. Talk a little bit about myself
9:06
Speaker 3: in my background. I grew up in a small, rough
9:08
Speaker 3: neighborhood in southern California. The gangs, drugs and violence was prevalent.
9:15
Speaker 3: For the most part. I had a happy childhood. Man,
9:18
Speaker 3: just like most people growing up. You know, I was
9:22
Speaker 3: out there, I had I had two brothers. Were all
9:25
Speaker 3: was out there, missing around, playing, having a good time.
9:28
Speaker 3: You know, I had a lot of friends. You know,
9:31
Speaker 3: everything seemed cool. So I got to a certain age,
9:34
Speaker 3: and you know, I just started realizing that my father
9:36
Speaker 3: was an alcoholic. He was abusive, and things started to change.
9:41
Speaker 3: Things started to change my household first of all, and
9:43
Speaker 3: then I started to realize that the neighborhood that I
9:46
Speaker 3: lived in was, you know, not such a great neighborhood.
9:50
Speaker 3: Like I'm saying. There was a lot of gangs, drugs,
9:52
Speaker 3: violins going on. And as a kid, I started to
9:55
Speaker 3: finally observe and started to see these things and recognize
9:57
Speaker 3: them and think that they were just normal. My I
10:02
Speaker 3: had my older brother. I started to realize he started
10:07
Speaker 3: drifting down the negative path, and as a little brother,
10:11
Speaker 3: I tagged along. Man, I wanted to do everything my
10:13
Speaker 3: older brother did, you know, and we were sick to
10:17
Speaker 3: see so to speak, you know, like I said, everything
10:20
Speaker 3: that he did I did. We were about five years
10:23
Speaker 3: different to part though, but nevertheless, he always took me
10:26
Speaker 3: with him. He always let him tag along, and you know, sadly,
10:29
Speaker 3: by the age of twelve, my brother was murdered by
10:32
Speaker 3: rival gang members. And so this this, this changed my
10:36
Speaker 3: life dramatically, you know, dramatically, this changed my life forever.
10:40
Speaker 3: And from there I spiraled, I firaled. Then I went
10:45
Speaker 3: down the negative path, you know, and I look back
10:48
Speaker 3: on it now and I realized, you know, this is
10:54
Speaker 3: at a time where I started drinking, when I started
10:56
Speaker 3: experiding with drugs, and and what I really was doing
10:59
Speaker 3: was just trying to kind of kill the pain, you know,
11:01
Speaker 3: trying to numb, you know, the hardship that I was
11:05
Speaker 3: going through. And eventually I ended up going to juven
11:09
Speaker 3: the Hall, yeah, you know, out there kicking it with
11:13
Speaker 3: the homies and you know, trying to do what everybody
11:17
Speaker 3: else was doing and kicking it with the wrong crowd.
11:20
Speaker 3: And then next thing, you know, them in Juveni Hall,
11:22
Speaker 3: you know, started breaking the loss, started selling cars, started
11:26
Speaker 3: just getting involved in in kicking things. And by age sixteen,
11:31
Speaker 3: I was surmount to the California Youthithority and it was
11:34
Speaker 3: turned up. It was turned up right there in the
11:36
Speaker 3: California Utithority. Because you know, kids can be badasses.
11:42
Speaker 1: Man.
11:42
Speaker 3: You know kids can be violent, and you know you
11:44
Speaker 3: took basically the worst kids from every gang in southern
11:49
Speaker 3: and northern California right there in one place, and what
11:53
Speaker 3: he expect's going to happen. So it was just it
11:56
Speaker 3: was always it was always jumping, it was walking and rolling,
11:59
Speaker 3: and so the game that I thought it was like
12:04
Speaker 3: survival to fit it, like you have to survive, man,
12:07
Speaker 3: you have to make it. And so sometimes that's like
12:10
Speaker 3: by any means necessary, and you already grew up rough,
12:14
Speaker 3: so it just plays in right there too, and you
12:16
Speaker 3: start picking up other bad habits. You could stay right
12:19
Speaker 3: there too, and you start really becoming criminal minded. I
12:24
Speaker 3: feel like that's where I was already in a sense
12:29
Speaker 3: of criminal minded at that age. But once you're around
12:32
Speaker 3: other people that are even more advanced than older people,
12:35
Speaker 3: you just start picking up different things. But nevertheless, I
12:40
Speaker 3: got out of the youth authority, and well, I got out,
12:44
Speaker 3: I could say worse than when I went in. And
12:48
Speaker 3: I continued in that negative lifestyle, that negative lifestyle that
12:51
Speaker 3: was around me, and I was entrenched in, I was
12:54
Speaker 3: englfed in it. And eventually I went to prison. And
12:58
Speaker 3: so let's come angela telephone number will be monitored and recorded.
13:04
Speaker 3: And so my my first time in prison, it was
13:07
Speaker 3: it was a very different experience than than why because
13:10
Speaker 3: even though why it was turned up and why it
13:12
Speaker 3: was jumping and everything like that, and in prison is
13:16
Speaker 3: as well, they were just more serious than prison, like
13:21
Speaker 3: and why you're fighting and and and yeah, there was
13:24
Speaker 3: some people that you know, when we got to like Yts,
13:26
Speaker 3: which was eighteen and older, like more people were getting
13:29
Speaker 3: stabbed and things like that, but Prisidon, you knew was
13:34
Speaker 3: more serious, like you know, like people were getting killed
13:36
Speaker 3: right there, like and you know, I remember the first
13:41
Speaker 3: save of nineteen on the yard like it was just
13:44
Speaker 3: you know, kind of like a scene out of a movie,
13:47
Speaker 3: you know. And it's crazy because it seems like everybody
13:50
Speaker 3: on the on the yard knows something's gonna happen in somebuddy,
13:52
Speaker 3: but that that individual you know, that gets as salted
13:57
Speaker 3: is like the one person that doesn't know and wonder
14:00
Speaker 3: like you can't feel it like the whole yard, you know,
14:02
Speaker 3: you know, something's going down, and so yeah, you know,
14:05
Speaker 3: the first time I've seen something like that, it made
14:09
Speaker 3: me realize, like, you know, ain't no games right here.
14:12
Speaker 3: In prison is for real. It's the keeps. And yeah,
14:16
Speaker 3: I've seen a lot. I've seen a lot on that
14:18
Speaker 3: first term. I moved around for a few prisons, ended
14:21
Speaker 3: up on the level four, one, eight, and so, you know,
14:24
Speaker 3: pretty much it was it was locking the roads and
14:26
Speaker 3: then you just slammed down most of the time. To
14:28
Speaker 3: be honest with you, Like when I got to newcorkin
14:31
Speaker 3: back then, we had just got off a nine month lockdown.
14:35
Speaker 1: And.
14:37
Speaker 3: Really it was it was some individuals had been as
14:40
Speaker 3: savvy and the officer in the tower shot and killed
14:45
Speaker 3: one of the individuals, and for fear of retaliation, they
14:47
Speaker 3: had us lockdown for nine months and so and one
14:51
Speaker 3: of things I kind of felt like that was like
14:53
Speaker 3: an excuse is to keep us lockdown. But it was violent.
14:56
Speaker 3: Prison was violent. It's still violent today, you know. But
15:01
Speaker 3: back then I was you know, I was, I was
15:05
Speaker 3: in the mix, so and I was on those yards.
15:09
Speaker 3: You know, today I'm on the lower yard where that's
15:11
Speaker 3: not happen to me. Like I haven't seen I don't
15:13
Speaker 3: think there's been a steven on the yard in two
15:15
Speaker 3: years that I've been here. And I'm thankful for that,
15:18
Speaker 3: you know, I'm glad to be in a place that
15:19
Speaker 3: I am now because of my lifestyle might change, but
15:22
Speaker 3: back then it was just different. It was just a
15:23
Speaker 3: different environment. So everything about people, it was just jumping
15:28
Speaker 3: and it was rolling when you are on your toes
15:30
Speaker 3: because you know it could it could walk in any second,
15:35
Speaker 3: you know, and it's like you're always on your toes,
15:37
Speaker 3: you're always watching your back. And it's not coming from
15:41
Speaker 3: a different a different race than it's young people. And
15:47
Speaker 3: that's just the way it was, you know, And it
15:49
Speaker 3: kind of played into that whole stack of violence, that
15:51
Speaker 3: whole stack of gangs and drugs and all that stuff
15:54
Speaker 3: just plays a part in everything. And it just continues
15:56
Speaker 3: since I was a young age, all the way until
15:58
Speaker 3: I'm in prison has seen this. So I ended up
16:00
Speaker 3: parolled in that figne and you know, I find myself, Uh,
16:06
Speaker 3: let's call Andrew a telephone number where they monitored and recorded.
16:12
Speaker 3: I found myself facing a life things and I think,
16:19
Speaker 3: you know when I when I was sitting there, you know,
16:21
Speaker 3: when I and I found myself in the worst conditions
16:24
Speaker 3: possible because because of my background and because of everything else,
16:29
Speaker 3: you know, I found myself stuck in the hole and
16:31
Speaker 3: solitary to find me. And I think it was the
16:36
Speaker 3: first time that I wasn't thought about my you know,
16:39
Speaker 3: my life and you know, how did I get here?
16:45
Speaker 3: You know, how did I get to this dark place
16:46
Speaker 3: in my life of despair where you know, I'm fighting
16:49
Speaker 3: my life stings? And you know, I had even though
16:53
Speaker 3: I was caught up as a kid and everything like that,
16:56
Speaker 3: I had a lot going from me. You know, I
16:57
Speaker 3: could have I could have done, I could have made
16:59
Speaker 3: different and you know, I was doing music at one time. Man,
17:02
Speaker 3: I was on tour with some of the biggest raps
17:04
Speaker 3: and ning the Mexican rap and just different things like that.
17:08
Speaker 3: And here I am now sitting in here, and I
17:12
Speaker 3: was I was upset, you know, I was upset. I
17:14
Speaker 3: was mad, you know, and I thought about my family,
17:17
Speaker 3: you know, And that was the first time that you know,
17:20
Speaker 3: I thought about making that change. And it's like, how
17:24
Speaker 3: do you how do you you know, I can imagine
17:27
Speaker 3: a life other than what I knew, and it's like,
17:31
Speaker 3: how do you how do you find change? You know,
17:34
Speaker 3: That's that's the big thing. What a change even looked like?
17:36
Speaker 3: You know, that was the question that I had. But nevertheless,
17:40
Speaker 3: during that time, you know, I had been leading the Bible,
17:43
Speaker 3: and I was searching for answers just for my own face,
17:48
Speaker 3: you know, for my own personal understanding, like you know,
17:51
Speaker 3: because I think a lot of times we ask like,
17:53
Speaker 3: you know, why God? You know this? Man, I'm thinking,
17:56
Speaker 3: like why do we say that? If if if we
17:59
Speaker 3: believe in God. But I'm not following God, you know,
18:02
Speaker 3: because I know, uh deep within, like God sure wouldn't
18:06
Speaker 3: want me to live in this lifestyle, you know, if
18:08
Speaker 3: there was a God. But yet every time something goes wrong,
18:11
Speaker 3: I'm saying, like why God, you know, like why God
18:13
Speaker 3: you let this happen? Why do you let that happen?
18:16
Speaker 3: And nevertheless, you know, I just continued reading, you know,
18:20
Speaker 3: reading despite what was going on around me, because it
18:22
Speaker 3: was it was treacherous to where I was at in
18:24
Speaker 3: the county jail and that solitary confinement, and you know,
18:27
Speaker 3: things are happening all around me too, and so you know,
18:30
Speaker 3: but I I just kept on reading, kept on reading.
18:33
Speaker 3: And then finally I came to a point one day
18:34
Speaker 3: where I said, you know what I believed. You know,
18:36
Speaker 3: I believed in Christ. I believe that this is true.
18:40
Speaker 3: And once once I once I believe that and I
18:46
Speaker 3: believed in God. I knew that, you know, I couldn't.
18:51
Speaker 3: I couldn't be half setting, like because I thought that
18:54
Speaker 3: if I knew that I should be doing something right
18:56
Speaker 3: and I wasn't, then at some point or another, I
18:59
Speaker 3: was going to falter in that lifestyle and more unlikely
19:02
Speaker 3: to to do with capitalize on that. And I didn't
19:04
Speaker 3: getting myself hurt. So I made that decision to say,
19:08
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm gonna walk away, you know. And
19:10
Speaker 3: that was the hardest decision I had ever been at
19:12
Speaker 3: that up until that point, because like I said, I
19:14
Speaker 3: felt like it was it was kind of just walking
19:18
Speaker 3: away from a lot, you know, a life, that's all
19:21
Speaker 3: I knew. But I believe so much in God that
19:27
Speaker 3: I had to have faith, you know, I had to
19:29
Speaker 3: have faith in and and just some vi there whatever
19:32
Speaker 3: happened despite my my decision, you know, then I was
19:36
Speaker 3: okay with that. I have peace with it, you know,
19:38
Speaker 3: because I knew that, you know, in the same token,
19:41
Speaker 3: like maybe somebody might try to get me because of that,
19:43
Speaker 3: maybe you know, the homies would feel a certain way
19:46
Speaker 3: and and you know it, but it's a trick because
19:50
Speaker 3: instead of that happening, it was the exact opposite, and
19:53
Speaker 3: that was what surprised me the most, because I was
19:55
Speaker 3: back to what people that were. You know, they were
19:58
Speaker 3: trying to be somebody in that and in that lifestyle,
20:00
Speaker 3: and you know, everybody stuck here in the whole, like
20:04
Speaker 3: this is where everybody goes. And you figured that, you know,
20:08
Speaker 3: they're going to be vascinantial for making that change, but
20:10
Speaker 3: instead they were just they were supportive of it. They
20:14
Speaker 3: were like, man, just just walk that path, man, and
20:16
Speaker 3: stay stay on that path. And since then, I've never
20:19
Speaker 3: looked back. That was twenty twelve, and I continued in it,
20:22
Speaker 3: and it's been a process, but I did. I ended
20:25
Speaker 3: up doing seven years in solitary confinement all together, and
20:28
Speaker 3: then I got released in twenty sixteen. And so once
20:32
Speaker 3: I got released, it was still it was a level four.
20:35
Speaker 3: It wasn't a one to eighty, but it was a
20:37
Speaker 3: level four yard. And once again it's still very, very viole.
20:43
Speaker 3: It's probably more violent this time when I got out,
20:45
Speaker 3: because everybody had got released, it had done you know,
20:49
Speaker 3: twenty thirty, some people had been forty years in solitary confinement,
20:52
Speaker 3: and so they're all being released out to the yard
20:56
Speaker 3: and Obviously they kept these people in solitary confinement because
20:58
Speaker 3: many of them were very violent. So obviously the yard
21:02
Speaker 3: they got parent up even more. And so yeah, there's
21:05
Speaker 3: a lot more violent, more violence than I had ever
21:08
Speaker 3: seen before every im prison. But nevertheless, to fight all
21:11
Speaker 3: the violence of what's going on, I had already made
21:14
Speaker 3: a choice and that and that choice was to follow God.
21:17
Speaker 3: So once I got out to you the security housing UNI,
21:22
Speaker 3: you know, I started getting I went straight to church.
21:30
Speaker 2: Paso, may come in, will come in, recordando lokerasamores, Lamu, selvino,
21:42
Speaker 2: elasmos askepro novendra paso, record ronelvilo, than trelvian esrellmans comosie
21:56
Speaker 2: and been so video's sake.
22:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, but again come in, come in. But again
22:09
Speaker 4: I know snyle, but again that musty so this penal.
22:16
Speaker 4: But again yell, I'll come in no more, dammy, yell more.
22:41
Speaker 3: So I got when I got involved with you know,
22:43
Speaker 3: I got right involved with church, and there was individuals
22:47
Speaker 3: and that was serious too. You know, it wasn't a lot,
22:50
Speaker 3: but it was a good handful of individuals that were,
22:54
Speaker 3: you know, serious about their change. And I knew that
22:58
Speaker 3: if I really wanted to change. I needed to surround
23:01
Speaker 3: myself with people that were like minded, you know, that
23:04
Speaker 3: wanted to change. Like just like when I was in
23:06
Speaker 3: the streets, I put myself a down individuals that were
23:08
Speaker 3: like minded, whether that be you know, out there making
23:14
Speaker 3: money or whatever that was. And I knew it in
23:18
Speaker 3: my change that that's what I had to do too,
23:21
Speaker 3: because especially down that level four, there was more people
23:24
Speaker 3: doing that. I mean, man, that whole damn place was
23:28
Speaker 3: going off the hook, right, So there was only certain
23:30
Speaker 3: individuals that were, you know, really trying to change. And
23:34
Speaker 3: it wasn't a lot, but there was that crowd of
23:36
Speaker 3: individuals there that were making changing. So I put myself
23:39
Speaker 3: around them, and I got involved in U in South
23:43
Speaker 3: South classes like anger management, CGA, criminal gangs, anonymous. I
23:48
Speaker 3: got involved in in college. You know, college was huge, man,
23:53
Speaker 3: because they had just started Bakersfield College at that time,
23:55
Speaker 3: and you know, they had brought they had bought the
23:59
Speaker 3: professors in, you know, and they're coming up to this
24:01
Speaker 3: level forour man. I remember I had this English professor.
24:04
Speaker 3: He was the first first person, first professor that got
24:07
Speaker 3: there and I was part of that class and he
24:09
Speaker 3: was like, what did he say? He said he said, yeah, man,
24:12
Speaker 3: he goes, you might be in prison. He's like, he's like,
24:15
Speaker 3: but when I walk in here, he's like, you're on
24:17
Speaker 3: Baker's Field campus. He's like, and you're gonna listen to
24:20
Speaker 3: what I say. And I'm just thinking, like, man, dude,
24:21
Speaker 3: you're on a level for a prison.
24:23
Speaker 1: Man.
24:23
Speaker 3: You know, like you're on a level four year prison
24:25
Speaker 3: and you're talking like that. But you know, it's both
24:28
Speaker 3: of them. And I respected him for saying that, man.
24:30
Speaker 3: And you know what, he was the best teacher I
24:32
Speaker 3: think that I ever had in bakers for college. And
24:34
Speaker 3: not that there weren't other good ones that were, but
24:37
Speaker 3: you know, he just really was. He just really helped
24:42
Speaker 3: me a lot. You know, he was really a good
24:43
Speaker 3: teacher when it came to English, and I love writing,
24:46
Speaker 3: so you know, I played into a lot of the
24:49
Speaker 3: you know, the things that I wrote later on for
24:51
Speaker 3: college essays and different things. But I was pretty cool.
24:56
Speaker 3: And that's the beginning, you know, the beginning I seened
24:59
Speaker 3: with excepting Christ to my li life. And I was
25:00
Speaker 3: making those changes back there while I was in the
25:02
Speaker 3: shoe just we need studying and just uh, you know,
25:06
Speaker 3: reflecting on myself. And then when I got out, I
25:08
Speaker 3: got to put a lot of that into action. And
25:12
Speaker 3: you know, the difficult part, I think, I think the
25:14
Speaker 3: most difficult part of change for me is just, you know,
25:22
Speaker 3: having to be viewed as as not you know, one
25:26
Speaker 3: of the you know, one of the guys anymore. You know,
25:30
Speaker 3: like you're you're you're not accepted by that. But yet
25:34
Speaker 3: I found a new a new a new crowd of individuals.
25:37
Speaker 3: Was that's okay, man, you know, because you know, we
25:41
Speaker 3: want to make change, and to make changes difficult. Everybody
25:44
Speaker 3: can do what everybody's doing. You know, that's easy. But
25:47
Speaker 3: to make change on a on a level four prison yard,
25:50
Speaker 3: you know what you've got. You know, you got these
25:53
Speaker 3: members out there. You got some people out there that
25:55
Speaker 3: are just you know, calling shots and doing everything else.
25:57
Speaker 3: And here you walking across the yard with the Bible.
25:59
Speaker 3: Like for me, that takes a lot of strength, you know,
26:01
Speaker 3: when people are judging me and looking at you. But
26:05
Speaker 3: that's what that's what that's what it takes to make
26:07
Speaker 3: that change. Anyways, from from that point on, from that
26:10
Speaker 3: point on, I ended up being an inmate minister here
26:14
Speaker 3: on the yard. I ended up facilitating the same classes
26:17
Speaker 3: that I was taking before and then that led to
26:21
Speaker 3: that led to me becoming a drug and alcohol counselor
26:24
Speaker 3: through a program called own CP. It's a acumation occupational
26:28
Speaker 3: mental certification program and basically there's there's none none like
26:33
Speaker 3: it in the state of California other other than that
26:37
Speaker 3: and maybe maybe even anywhere else. But but here they
26:40
Speaker 3: certified us to be drugging alcohol counselors and they give
26:42
Speaker 3: us a shot. And so there's like I think there
26:45
Speaker 3: was like thirty six thousand applicants that find up and
26:49
Speaker 3: there's only a few sites and there's thirty six people
26:52
Speaker 3: that could put in a cohort. And so because I
26:54
Speaker 3: have been doing good and I have been making those
26:56
Speaker 3: choices to do good, I had clean time now for
26:58
Speaker 3: the first time, you know, I had year between now
27:00
Speaker 3: and so I got accepted right into the program. And
27:03
Speaker 3: it took a few years because it was through COVID.
27:05
Speaker 3: So it was difficult because we're going on lockdown after
27:07
Speaker 3: lockdown because of COVID now, and so it took a
27:11
Speaker 3: two years, which is really like a nine month to
27:13
Speaker 3: a year program. We ended up taking two years to
27:15
Speaker 3: go through that program. But I took the state exam,
27:18
Speaker 3: I got fully certified, and you know that's what opened
27:23
Speaker 3: the door for the podcast because even at that time,
27:26
Speaker 3: I had to begin a newsletter here, and so, you know,
27:29
Speaker 3: media has kind of been my thing because I used
27:31
Speaker 3: to do music on the streets and do videos and
27:34
Speaker 3: stuff like that. So that's, you know, part of that
27:36
Speaker 3: whole thing from before. But now that I was doing
27:38
Speaker 3: something positive, you know, I was just using some of
27:41
Speaker 3: those maybe things I was using negative before as far
27:45
Speaker 3: as like what I was talking about in my music.
27:47
Speaker 3: Now I was doing something positive, and so I pitched
27:51
Speaker 3: the idea to do a podcast. And you know, to
27:53
Speaker 3: be honest with you, Corkoran is a rough prison man
27:55
Speaker 3: like corkorand is not known for like programming for violence.
28:00
Speaker 3: Like that's just the way this prison was. You know,
28:03
Speaker 3: like there's some prisons that are known for, you know,
28:05
Speaker 3: have to go lecky type of prisons, and then there's
28:07
Speaker 3: those ones that are not, and Corkoran was not that one.
28:10
Speaker 3: So when I was talking about doing a podcast, I remember,
28:12
Speaker 3: like even one of my boys was like, hey, bro,
28:15
Speaker 3: you need to get your head off the chowds, like
28:16
Speaker 3: they're never gonna do a podcast here, and I was like, man,
28:18
Speaker 3: I ain't asking you bro, I'm chousing me. This is
28:20
Speaker 3: what I'm gonna do. You know, I'm gonna ride a proposal.
28:23
Speaker 3: And I'm a daughter. And now if they say no,
28:24
Speaker 3: then that's fine. But I'm not going to just go
28:27
Speaker 3: off for your offer. You telling me not to, you know,
28:30
Speaker 3: believe that it could happen, because I'm like, why not?
28:32
Speaker 1: Man?
28:32
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Because Corkoran was changing, you
28:35
Speaker 3: know it, It was changing to a more positive place,
28:38
Speaker 3: even though it was still kind of cracking on some
28:40
Speaker 3: of these yards. They were making lower level two yards.
28:44
Speaker 3: They had just made the first two level two yards
28:47
Speaker 3: of this prison. And so once you start creating let's
28:50
Speaker 3: call and you are telephone numbers, are they monitored and recorded?
28:55
Speaker 3: Once you start creating like lower level prisons yards in
28:59
Speaker 3: your prison, that means these jars are less violent. So
29:04
Speaker 3: that to me told me that they were trying to
29:05
Speaker 3: change the face of Corking, and I had already heard
29:07
Speaker 3: that in the first place. So that being the case,
29:11
Speaker 3: I was thinking, it's probably the perfect time to try
29:14
Speaker 3: to do something like that. And you know, everybody's like,
29:16
Speaker 3: you got to go to San Quentin, you gotta but
29:18
Speaker 3: see what a lot of people don't know is it.
29:20
Speaker 3: San Quentin right now is like a face of rehabilitation
29:23
Speaker 3: for California. Right, But you know, twenty years ago that
29:27
Speaker 3: was the most violent prison, probably not even in just California,
29:31
Speaker 3: maybe the nation, you know, because that prison was just
29:33
Speaker 3: the worst. So they changed too, and the way they
29:36
Speaker 3: changed that too by you know, taking out those level
29:39
Speaker 3: fours and creating level two prisons and trying to change
29:42
Speaker 3: the atmosphere and trying to change the culture. And so
29:45
Speaker 3: that's what we've been trying to do here, and so
29:46
Speaker 3: I've been trying to be kind of on that front
29:48
Speaker 3: line of that. And you know, since we you know,
29:51
Speaker 3: we you know, so they accepted the podcast, and you know,
29:56
Speaker 3: we got one of the institutional film specialistics here. You know,
30:02
Speaker 3: he was on board with the project, thep was on
30:04
Speaker 3: board with the project, like the ward and support of
30:06
Speaker 3: the project, and so it is, you know, a change
30:10
Speaker 3: talk was born. And then you know, I just started
30:13
Speaker 3: bringing on different people, different staff, different inmates, and we're
30:16
Speaker 3: just talking about you know, we're talking about different topics,
30:18
Speaker 3: different issues I brought on. You know, one of the
30:21
Speaker 3: most unknown persons I brought on so far was a
30:25
Speaker 3: doctor of Stephanie Cousinson. You know, she wrote a lot
30:28
Speaker 3: of books. He wrote a lot of South House books.
30:31
Speaker 3: She was on the Oprah Winfrey Show. You know, she
30:34
Speaker 3: came on. She talked about, you know, how trauma correlates,
30:40
Speaker 3: you know, with addiction, you know, early on in life,
30:42
Speaker 3: you know, like childhood trauma. And so that's an important
30:45
Speaker 3: topic that a lot of people needed to hear, and
30:48
Speaker 3: a lot of people teams me to live. That was good.
30:50
Speaker 3: I brought in, you know, I brought in a different
30:53
Speaker 3: people to talk about differ stuff. I brought onto of
30:55
Speaker 3: the guys that had just got sound suitable after thirty
30:57
Speaker 3: years of being in prison and they were in not
31:00
Speaker 3: waiting process to get out, and they came on and
31:03
Speaker 3: they talked about, you know what was key to do
31:07
Speaker 3: sound suitable for parole, you know, which is important to
31:09
Speaker 3: a lot of people because there's a lot of LIFs
31:11
Speaker 3: in here, right, you know, and it gives hope, right,
31:14
Speaker 3: gives hope to see these two men out here that
31:16
Speaker 3: god sound suitable after thirty years. And it's like, man,
31:18
Speaker 3: if they could do it, I could do it, because
31:21
Speaker 3: you know they were me, you know, fifteen twenty years ago.
31:24
Speaker 3: And so it just came to making you know, making
31:27
Speaker 3: no changes, making some different choice and better choices, and
31:33
Speaker 3: that's been it. So so you know, that's what I'm
31:37
Speaker 3: I'm doing over here at Corkeran, you know, at California
31:40
Speaker 3: State Prison, Corkering in California, and trying to make change
31:44
Speaker 3: at this prison. And so one of the things that
31:47
Speaker 3: you know, I'm needing liightned to do that is a
31:49
Speaker 3: podcast and so you know, there's a lot of people
31:51
Speaker 3: been interested in it, and I just continue to try
31:53
Speaker 3: to grow it here if this prison and continue to
31:55
Speaker 3: just try trying to shine a good light, you know
31:58
Speaker 3: here and try to thing is the atmosphere and the
32:01
Speaker 3: culture and make a difference. You know, Like my first
32:06
Speaker 3: half of my life, you know, I made a lot
32:10
Speaker 3: of bad choices, man, you know, and I look back
32:16
Speaker 3: on that now and I realized, you know that I
32:22
Speaker 3: was affected by my brother's death and a lot of
32:23
Speaker 3: different things. But at the end of the day, I
32:25
Speaker 3: just have to take accountability for it and say, you
32:27
Speaker 3: know what, that doesn't have to be the end of
32:29
Speaker 3: my story. Though, regardless if I can get out of
32:31
Speaker 3: prison or not, I can still affect change. And so
32:37
Speaker 3: you know, that's what I'm doing. But you know, anybody's
32:39
Speaker 3: tuning in today. You know, I thank you for allowing
32:43
Speaker 3: me a chance and allowing me to get on your
32:45
Speaker 3: platform in order to just share my story, you know,
32:49
Speaker 3: my background, and about the Change Talk podcast and anybody
32:53
Speaker 3: else is that wants to go check it out. You know,
32:55
Speaker 3: my people on the streets, you know, they run on
32:59
Speaker 3: social media there and so you can kind of check
33:02
Speaker 3: out just little things I do over the tablet and
33:05
Speaker 3: just hear a little bit about my life story or
33:07
Speaker 3: some of the people I've interviewed through the tablet and
33:10
Speaker 3: just put on there. The actual podcast that I do here,
33:14
Speaker 3: it isn't available to the seat yet because it's inside prison,
33:17
Speaker 3: but it's grown, you know, like you started off, and
33:19
Speaker 3: it just was on the institutional channel. That means that
33:23
Speaker 3: the few thousand people here that are at corporated they're
33:25
Speaker 3: able to watch it from the TV sets and so
33:27
Speaker 3: we can leave. We submitted all the episodes that I've
33:30
Speaker 3: been We send the Sacramento Sacramento loved it. So when
33:33
Speaker 3: state wide, so it goes to every prison in California
33:36
Speaker 3: and hopefully down the line, you know, maybe there will
33:38
Speaker 3: be an opportunity will it will be able to get
33:40
Speaker 3: out there. To the public because I think it. I
33:42
Speaker 3: think it could impact you know, people out there, and
33:45
Speaker 3: you know, the the high point that we're trying to
33:47
Speaker 3: promote it just you know, reducing the citivism then you know,
33:51
Speaker 3: making change and just changing the culture. So I think
33:55
Speaker 3: that that that happens from the inside out. And so
33:58
Speaker 3: once again, Man, I appreciate it, and I just thank
34:00
Speaker 3: you man for giving me this opportunity to come on
34:02
Speaker 3: your podcast and just just share a little bit about
34:05
Speaker 3: what we got going on here in California and then
34:08
Speaker 3: quarker in and so with that much love and signing
34:11
Speaker 3: out for quirking, I'm out.
34:14
Speaker 1: All right, That's that's all the time we have for now.
34:17
Speaker 1: I appreciate you listening to me more than you'll uh
34:21
Speaker 1: you'll probably ever know. I just want to let you know,
34:25
Speaker 1: you know, don't forget to check out my website right
34:28
Speaker 1: on your Randy dot com. And for those of you
34:33
Speaker 1: who want to hear more or you want to listen
34:36
Speaker 1: to the episodes commercial free, or hear me and my
34:41
Speaker 1: editor discuss a little bit further into the episodes, please
34:45
Speaker 1: go to Patreon, join me, support me. You know, it's
34:50
Speaker 1: only five bucks a month. And also I want to
34:54
Speaker 1: just let y'all know that I have four books out now.
34:57
Speaker 1: I have two children's books all so, I have the
35:00
Speaker 1: cookbook out You're going to eat that.
35:04
Speaker 3: And the book.
35:05
Speaker 1: I'm extremely proud of that. Me and my editor Michael
35:08
Speaker 1: worked really hard on you ain't beyond saving. Please go
35:15
Speaker 1: and check this book out. Look, it's not for me,
35:18
Speaker 1: it's not about the money. I genuinely believe you're going
35:23
Speaker 1: to love this book. I genuinely believe this book will
35:27
Speaker 1: help you. Everyone who has gotten it and read it
35:30
Speaker 1: so far raves about it. And as a matter of fact,
35:34
Speaker 1: I might actually get them to maybe review it for
35:39
Speaker 1: me on here or something. We'll see you. But all
35:42
Speaker 1: you have to do is go to Amazon, type in
35:45
Speaker 1: randol vyah R A N D A L l V
35:50
Speaker 1: I A and those four books will pump. They will
35:54
Speaker 1: pop up. Excuse me, they will pop up. Please check
35:58
Speaker 1: them out. It's it's it's something that I'm proud of.
36:03
Speaker 1: It's something that has a lot of meaning to me
36:08
Speaker 1: because for a long time, books were my only friend.
36:15
Speaker 1: I've always dreamed of being a published author, and now
36:19
Speaker 1: I'll published four. Listen more and what the Please do
36:26
Speaker 1: yourself a favor. Get you Ain't beyond saving. You know
36:31
Speaker 1: the other three. I'll leave it up to your tastes
36:33
Speaker 1: and desires, but I really really think you should get
36:37
Speaker 1: you Ain't beyond Saving. That one is a It's a
36:40
Speaker 1: great book and it really will help you. Thank you,
36:46
Speaker 1: I appreciate, appreciate you all support.
37:17
Speaker 3: Thank you for using GTL