Latest / Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison / ROR 178: Celeste Blair | In the Absence of Paint | Part 1

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ROR 178: Celeste Blair | In the Absence of Paint | Part 1 · Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison

0:00
Speaker 1: It's been a difficult week here in federal prison. We
0:04
Speaker 1: were locked in for various reasons and ego was bruised,
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Speaker 1: someone was stabbed, fight after fight. There's no referee here,
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Speaker 1: no space to three.
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Speaker 2: Hello, this is a prebate call from an Apartment of correction.
0:24
Speaker 1: Read I'm in state prison.
0:26
Speaker 2: To accept this call Press zero.
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Speaker 3: This is Randall Bob aka red Onion Randy. I'm currently
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Speaker 3: forevery one two hundred and fourteen years for capital murder
0:42
Speaker 3: and armed robbery now and finally at a level three
0:49
Speaker 3: Buckinghir Correctional Center. So let's throw from where I grew up.
0:55
Speaker 3: If you have any questions or comments, or want to
0:57
Speaker 3: leave a message or whatever, I've got a voicemail a lot.
1:01
Speaker 3: That number is won eight eight eight five suit four
1:07
Speaker 3: one nine three suits. You can also visit my website
1:11
Speaker 3: which is new, what improved and got different features and
1:14
Speaker 3: whatnot at www dot red on your Randy dot com.
1:19
Speaker 3: I hope you do. Let's get started with the podcast.
1:27
Speaker 4: Well, I was dating a guy who got pulled over
1:32
Speaker 4: and got arrested. And I guess at the time he
1:37
Speaker 4: got arrested by the Tarrent County or he got arrested
1:40
Speaker 4: by the local law enforcement agency, and then the said
1:44
Speaker 4: had an ongoing case with a bigger scope of things,
1:48
Speaker 4: and he somehow got into that, and the FETs picked
1:52
Speaker 4: up that case. And later on I made I fuying
2:00
Speaker 4: drugs from someone and I introduced him to them as well,
2:04
Speaker 4: And so later on when it came out that there
2:07
Speaker 4: was a drug deal going on, and I was the
2:10
Speaker 4: one who introduced them, so I was put in the
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Speaker 4: last person on the conspiracy. When my attorney first approached me,
2:18
Speaker 4: she told me that I was looking at eight to
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Speaker 4: twelve years. And then the next time I saw her,
2:24
Speaker 4: she said she was sorry, but I had been assigned
2:26
Speaker 4: to McBride and if he was my judge, and then
2:29
Speaker 4: she said that, you know, she just couldn't help me.
2:31
Speaker 4: That any other court she would be able to work
2:34
Speaker 4: some things out, but that he was different, and that
2:37
Speaker 4: I'd be lucky not to get considered a career criminal
2:39
Speaker 4: and be given a life sentence, and that that was
2:42
Speaker 4: our new goal. Our goal was no longer to get
2:44
Speaker 4: me home in ten years. It was now to keep
2:46
Speaker 4: me from doing life in prison. Because in a court
2:49
Speaker 4: where there are three options for your judge, I was
2:53
Speaker 4: given him. And she made that very clear to me.
2:55
Speaker 4: As a matter of fact, she went on to tell
2:58
Speaker 4: me that if we tried to argue the drug quantities,
3:02
Speaker 4: because the day she gave me my PSI and like
3:06
Speaker 4: literally I pretty much had a stroke, I mean physically
3:10
Speaker 4: a stroke because I read it and I was just like,
3:13
Speaker 4: what you've told me? Something completely different? Where is all
3:16
Speaker 4: this coming from? And she was like, listen, if we
3:19
Speaker 4: argue the drug quantities in this, you're going to lose
3:22
Speaker 4: your three points for acceptance for responsibility. And so we're
3:25
Speaker 4: bound here, like there was no nothing else we could do,
3:29
Speaker 4: I mean as far as she said. And it definitely
3:32
Speaker 4: seemed that way because when I went back to my tank,
3:35
Speaker 4: like everybody knew, and in a hallway of women that
3:39
Speaker 4: in six to a tank, the ones that had one judge,
3:44
Speaker 4: they all got a certain amount of time. Pretty much.
3:47
Speaker 4: We all were there for the same exact thing, with
3:49
Speaker 4: pretty similar criminal histories, you know, with a little bit
3:53
Speaker 4: of a variance, but it was it was pretty much
3:57
Speaker 4: known if you had Nick Bride, you were going to
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Speaker 4: get twenty or thirty or forty years. No if fans
4:02
Speaker 4: or butts about it, there was no difference. I don't
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Speaker 4: know one person that got less than that from him.
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Speaker 3: Personally, everybody today, I have a special guest who did
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Speaker 3: a little time in her youth in the Florida Women's
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Speaker 3: Correctional Center or prison system whatever, and she also did
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Speaker 3: a little fed tom And that's mostly what I'm interested in,
4:27
Speaker 3: is the differences between state time fed time, but also
4:33
Speaker 3: the differences between doing time in a women's prison and
4:39
Speaker 3: a time in a male prison. Oh so, everybody, this
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Speaker 3: is Celeste Blair. Celeste welcome.
4:48
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for Andy, Thanks for having me on.
4:52
Speaker 3: You're welcome. We all have a story to tell, and
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Speaker 3: yours is kind of interesting. So Michael phel me in
5:00
Speaker 3: a little bit that you know, like I said just
5:03
Speaker 3: a second ago, you've done some time in uh in
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Speaker 3: your early twenties in the Florida system, and you got out,
5:10
Speaker 3: and you stayed out for quite a long time, and
5:15
Speaker 3: then wound up getting caught back up in what to
5:20
Speaker 3: me sounds like a Rico case, which for an introduction, basically,
5:28
Speaker 3: you've introduced your boyfriend to somebody and you spent ten
5:33
Speaker 3: years in prison on a thirty year sentence.
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Speaker 2: That's right. That's the only thing is that it was
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Speaker 2: actually Texas that I did stay timing response. Yeah either
5:46
Speaker 2: either way. Yeah, that's it's true, And it felt like
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Speaker 2: a Ricol case for sure, even though they didn't technically
5:53
Speaker 2: crassify it like that, and in the sense it doesn't
5:57
Speaker 2: take much to get shooated like a ricokay, right, and conspiracy,
6:03
Speaker 2: which I won't go into how I feel about conspiracy,
6:08
Speaker 2: but basically, you know, my understanding, my whole line so
6:11
Speaker 2: is that you had to fell to an undercover or
6:14
Speaker 2: be arrested in possession or be found in possession with
6:17
Speaker 2: an illegal substance in order to be convicted.
6:21
Speaker 3: But that is not the truth, right, And there's tens
6:27
Speaker 3: of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people just
6:32
Speaker 3: in simply America alone that are locked up for that
6:37
Speaker 3: exact same reason.
6:39
Speaker 2: Exactly, I think more often than that's the.
6:43
Speaker 3: Judge, right, So we can we can dive into that
6:50
Speaker 3: a little more if you'd like. But for me, though,
6:54
Speaker 3: I'm really really curious about the feed system because I
6:58
Speaker 3: don't know how much you know about me or my background.
7:02
Speaker 3: I came to prison when I was eleven years old.
7:05
Speaker 3: I did seven years in the juvenile system. I got
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Speaker 3: released very very briefly, like long enough to take about
7:12
Speaker 3: a half of Breath before I got locked back up
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Speaker 3: on capital murder and all robbery and everything as an adult,
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Speaker 3: and I've done twenty seven years in the adult system.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually I had watched some of your videos.
7:27
Speaker 2: They're very inspiring. And today I took the time to
7:31
Speaker 2: watch the HBO documentary. Our dinner conversation last night here
7:36
Speaker 2: at my household was about solitary confinement, and I've been honest,
7:41
Speaker 2: one of the most important things to me is to
7:44
Speaker 2: use my aunt to really highlight the injustices and this
7:50
Speaker 2: severe situation as solitary confinement. And that documentary really you
7:57
Speaker 2: really brought it home for everyone to see how how
8:01
Speaker 2: real cruel that is. Like ibsolute you for coming out
8:05
Speaker 2: of you know, on top of emotionally and mentally, I
8:09
Speaker 2: noticed a couple of those guys weren't doing very well,
8:13
Speaker 2: and it's a it's a difficult situation. I've said some
8:17
Speaker 2: time in solitary, but it was nothing like what you
8:20
Speaker 2: got to have experienced, and so, you know, my heart
8:24
Speaker 2: goes out to you for that, and I think that's
8:27
Speaker 2: so strong individual obviously, so I was.
8:34
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
8:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, It's one of the things I was interested to
8:38
Speaker 2: know is like, well, how did you keep your balance
8:41
Speaker 2: and keep your standardy all those years?
8:43
Speaker 3: As trite as the answer is nowadays, God simple. It's
8:49
Speaker 3: just as simple as that. You know, God has a
8:51
Speaker 3: purpose for my life, and he saved guarding me. He
8:55
Speaker 3: did it in a different way than he you know,
8:58
Speaker 3: he does his you know with normal people, because there's
9:01
Speaker 3: nothing normal about me. I did not grow up in
9:04
Speaker 3: a normal environment. I did not grow up with a
9:07
Speaker 3: normal mindset. You know, the things that were beat into me,
9:10
Speaker 3: the things that were talk to me, and just that
9:14
Speaker 3: anger and rage I had inside me. I could not
9:18
Speaker 3: be reached in a normal way like normal people. So
9:22
Speaker 3: God reached to me, reached me through fantasy. I don't
9:25
Speaker 3: know if you've ever read Robert Jordan's series The Wheel
9:29
Speaker 3: of Time.
9:31
Speaker 2: Now, they'd like you go ahead, I'm saying no.
9:33
Speaker 3: It's as if you find time on the street to
9:38
Speaker 3: read that series, you're a saint woman, because it's it's
9:42
Speaker 3: fourteen books, and I think the shortest one is like
9:47
Speaker 3: eight hundred and eighty pages or something, usually around eleven
9:51
Speaker 3: twelve hundred.
9:53
Speaker 2: Wow.
9:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I've read that series multiple times, which is
9:58
Speaker 3: easy to do in solitary. Of course, that's That's how
10:04
Speaker 3: he reached me. Though there was a character in there
10:06
Speaker 3: named Land Manager Gorn, and he wasn't a main character.
10:09
Speaker 3: He was just a support character, and he's actually not
10:12
Speaker 3: that prevalent throughout the entire series. But the way he
10:18
Speaker 3: was written, his they he just he touched something inside
10:23
Speaker 3: of me. And one day I was sitting in solitary
10:26
Speaker 3: and I was just daydreaming and wishing I was like
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Speaker 3: Land and I just like a voice just come up
10:32
Speaker 3: out of my gut and it just said, the only
10:35
Speaker 3: difference between you and Land Manager Gorn are the choices
10:39
Speaker 3: that you make. And Wow, from that moment on, everything
10:44
Speaker 3: in my life changed because God.
10:48
Speaker 5: Was able to use a fantasy.
10:49
Speaker 3: Character that was a side character and everything now is
10:55
Speaker 3: because of that one moment.
10:58
Speaker 2: Wow, that's awesome.
11:04
Speaker 3: So yeah, Actually, since we're talking about solitary, what what's
11:09
Speaker 3: the solitary like in the FED system? You know, how
11:12
Speaker 3: much time do you normally do and you know what's
11:16
Speaker 3: it like, what do you get in solitary?
11:19
Speaker 2: Well, okay, so that's a really good question. So in
11:23
Speaker 2: the FED they have in the Men's usp they have
11:28
Speaker 2: a different level of solitary that I've never experienced. And
11:33
Speaker 2: in the female said, And I imagine that there's a
11:37
Speaker 2: super kind of maximum security for females that I have
11:42
Speaker 2: no experience with, but so I can only speak for
11:45
Speaker 2: a more lower security. And what they do is that
11:50
Speaker 2: they put you in a cell with another person. And
11:54
Speaker 2: so I think that ease is some of the pain.
11:56
Speaker 2: Like I noticed where you were talking about how you
11:59
Speaker 2: were talking to it events to just to kind of,
12:02
Speaker 2: you know, have some kind of fraternity and contact. But
12:07
Speaker 2: in the sage, if you go do what they call
12:09
Speaker 2: it this special housing unit, and the time, the average
12:14
Speaker 2: time in the special housing unit is significantly less than
12:18
Speaker 2: over the randon. It could be like up to a year,
12:23
Speaker 2: but it's generally four to six months at the most.
12:29
Speaker 2: On average, it's like thirty days to ninety days. And
12:36
Speaker 2: you know it's usually but it's for like minor infractions
12:40
Speaker 2: like if you get caught with drugs or you're in
12:43
Speaker 2: possession of drugs, or you assault or disrespect an officer,
12:49
Speaker 2: or you refuse housing or something like that. And so
12:53
Speaker 2: while you're there, you can purchase just recently they made
12:58
Speaker 2: it FCM houscal where you could purchase a little bit
13:03
Speaker 2: of some snaps, sound commissary and a couple of items
13:07
Speaker 2: of hygiene, and so it's way better. Yeah, and so
13:14
Speaker 2: a female prison, I think, and especially the thing about
13:18
Speaker 2: this says is what I noticed, being able to compare
13:21
Speaker 2: it to my time in state prison, is that beads
13:25
Speaker 2: to have a little more protection over them, you know.
13:28
Speaker 2: That's what it kind of seems like. In Texas, they
13:31
Speaker 2: treated us like dogs. We worked like dogs in the
13:34
Speaker 2: field when they locked us up. We've got locked up
13:38
Speaker 2: big time, you know. And I did, you know, nothing
13:41
Speaker 2: compared to what you've done. But I've done a year
13:44
Speaker 2: of solitaryist I'm in Texas, so I kind of have
13:47
Speaker 2: a little bit. That's why I'm so impressed by your mentality.
13:52
Speaker 2: And now I did it that it was all very spiritual,
13:55
Speaker 2: but actually that I think that was probably the hardly
13:59
Speaker 2: huge fine now that I think about it. You know,
14:03
Speaker 2: but in the several prisons, those women they're they're kind
14:08
Speaker 2: of entitled, Randy. And one of the things that I'm
14:11
Speaker 2: going to bring up is that, you know, as an
14:14
Speaker 2: Americans in federal prison, especially the females, they think that
14:19
Speaker 2: they are they deserve a lot. And I'm not saying
14:23
Speaker 2: they don't deserve anything. I'm saying that their point of
14:26
Speaker 2: gratitude is harder to pin down, and oftentimes I would
14:30
Speaker 2: tell them, you know, there's people in this world, that
14:33
Speaker 2: there's mommies in this world that their daughters are dying
14:37
Speaker 2: in their arms and they don't have water.
14:39
Speaker 3: You know.
14:39
Speaker 2: And so here you are complaining that the salad is
14:43
Speaker 2: just fresh, or you know that the showhol doesn't have
14:47
Speaker 2: what you want today, you know. And I feel like
14:49
Speaker 2: I think that anytime on this earth, gratitude is the
14:54
Speaker 2: strongest emotions that we can tap into for power, you know.
14:59
Speaker 2: And you know, what do you think about all that?
15:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's absolutely me and Michael. You see, right now,
15:11
Speaker 3: the Virginia prison system is undergoing renovations, so they've created
15:18
Speaker 3: something called a Virginia model, and so they're actually creating
15:22
Speaker 3: and I'm in one right now simply because I've been
15:26
Speaker 3: charged three for nineteen and a half years. And it
15:28
Speaker 3: was based off of one of my earlier podcasts and
15:32
Speaker 3: my ideas for incentives and so on and so forth.
15:36
Speaker 3: Oh wow, well, they they damn sure didn't give me
15:42
Speaker 3: credit for it. And as a matter of fact, they
15:44
Speaker 3: started this program over a year ago with Lawrenceville Correctional Center,
15:49
Speaker 3: and I was actually denied originally, and then I got
15:54
Speaker 3: transferred here on a regular transfer, and then they turned
15:58
Speaker 3: this prison into a senate prison while I was here,
16:00
Speaker 3: and because of nineteen and a half years charge three and
16:03
Speaker 3: they're going to open up three more before the years
16:06
Speaker 3: over with, for a total of seven, they basically had
16:09
Speaker 3: no choice but to kind of leave me here just
16:11
Speaker 3: to build the space.
16:14
Speaker 2: So yeah, but you're good there that you're done in
16:17
Speaker 2: a solitary consignment to the time being, how long have
16:20
Speaker 2: you been out of solitary.
16:23
Speaker 3: I got released from solitary from actual long term, long
16:28
Speaker 3: term solitary November nineteenth, twenty and nineteen, and then I
16:39
Speaker 3: did thirty more days in the hole basically in the
16:43
Speaker 3: pod I was in because there was a SAMPOD, a
16:45
Speaker 3: shared allied management pod, but they didn't run that pod
16:50
Speaker 3: like you know, the SAMPOD was supposed to be wrong
16:53
Speaker 3: with groups and exercises and community and stuff like that.
16:57
Speaker 3: It was just basically a twenty three and one pause.
17:02
Speaker 3: So even when I could start coming out for one
17:05
Speaker 3: hour a day, I still I had to do an
17:07
Speaker 3: additional thirty days. So technically speaking is December nineteen, twenty nineteen,
17:13
Speaker 3: when I was able to actually walk out of myself
17:15
Speaker 3: with other inmates and no shackles and handcuffs and guns
17:19
Speaker 3: pointed it.
17:21
Speaker 2: Wow, So can I ask you? Can I ask you
17:25
Speaker 2: a question? Well, I learned you talking a lot about
17:31
Speaker 2: you know, your childhood and stuff like that, and you know,
17:34
Speaker 2: I just that was it was so compelling. Like I've
17:38
Speaker 2: dealt with so many women who grew as a mentors,
17:42
Speaker 2: many women who grew up in such extreme abusive helphold
17:47
Speaker 2: and I just you know, I can't help but wonder like,
17:52
Speaker 2: was there any any connection in your life that where
17:56
Speaker 2: you felt love as a child.
18:01
Speaker 3: I had brief moments. I'm not sure if I talk
18:06
Speaker 3: about it on the on the documentary because I've never
18:11
Speaker 3: seen it. They were supposed to play it, but after
18:14
Speaker 3: it came out, they shut that down quick fast and
18:18
Speaker 3: in a hurry, so I'm not sure if it what
18:22
Speaker 3: made the cut or not. I know I talk about
18:24
Speaker 3: this on the podcast though. There were a few moments.
18:28
Speaker 3: It was very rare, but usually whenever my dad would
18:33
Speaker 3: take me to go to work with him, if he
18:35
Speaker 3: had to stop by the store, you know for gas
18:38
Speaker 3: or cigarettes or you know, six pack of beer or
18:41
Speaker 3: whatever the case may be, for himself. He would get
18:44
Speaker 3: me a little I believe it was a twelve ounce
18:49
Speaker 3: glass dr pepper and a three mustardeers bought and I
18:55
Speaker 3: didn't have to share it with my brothers or anything
18:58
Speaker 3: that when if it was just me and I got
19:00
Speaker 3: that all to myself. So like that little moment right there,
19:05
Speaker 3: you know, is where I felt looked. I felt like,
19:08
Speaker 3: you know, my dad saw me. I felt like, you know,
19:11
Speaker 3: he cared a little bit.
19:14
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know what I really got out of what
19:17
Speaker 2: I learned about you is that like if I were you,
19:20
Speaker 2: I just kind of felt like this, like the community
19:23
Speaker 2: let me down, you know, because you were just a kid,
19:27
Speaker 2: you know. And I feel like that's something we need
19:28
Speaker 2: to pay more attention to in America, is you know,
19:32
Speaker 2: the attention we get children who are in a bad
19:35
Speaker 2: spot and how we handle them when they act out
19:39
Speaker 2: in the way they were learned that the way they
19:41
Speaker 2: learned to act. You know, I think that's so incredibly important.
19:48
Speaker 3: And that's absolutely no go ahead.
19:51
Speaker 2: Sorry, So if you've ever talked about that, I haven't
19:55
Speaker 2: seen it, but I imagine have you. Have you spoken
19:58
Speaker 2: about that on any of the podcast?
20:01
Speaker 3: Yeah? I have, Yes, I do feel you know, feel
20:06
Speaker 3: that I was let down, uh, because I've reached out
20:10
Speaker 3: to people. You know, when I when I was a teenager,
20:13
Speaker 3: I genuinely tried reaching out even you know, when I
20:18
Speaker 3: got out of Bonemont, the last time I reached out
20:20
Speaker 3: to the military. If if that recruiter would have just
20:26
Speaker 3: simply told me on the sly look, just hang up
20:31
Speaker 3: and call back again and don't say anything about being
20:34
Speaker 3: on juvenile probation, I'll sign you up. I would have
20:38
Speaker 3: made it because I crazed discipline. I craved you.
20:42
Speaker 2: Have one minute, you got a step, time for one
20:48
Speaker 2: more call of course, absolutely.
20:53
Speaker 3: Of course one second, A thank you? All right, that's uh,
20:58
Speaker 3: that's all.
20:59
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21:02
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21:08
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Speaker 3: And also I want to just let y'all know that
21:38
Speaker 3: I have four books out now. I have two children's books. Also,
21:43
Speaker 3: I have the cookbook out You're going to Eat That,
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