AZ DOC Info From An Inmate

[bakerm71]

ARIZONA PRISON DEFINITONS

Hi folks my name is Matt. I was ADC Inmate # 219097 @ the Lewis Complex, Bachman Unit, Red Yard, House 5, C Pod, Bunk 11-upper. They'll never let me forget that one! I knew a lot of OGs between Alhambra and Lewis, and I would always ask them questions so I knew what was going on. I see so many posts in this forum here that I can easily answer. I'll start by kinda like making my own dictionary. OK here goes nothing:

ALHAMBRA: This is the first stop on an inmate's "tour of duty" It's the Reception and Intake
Center for AZ DOC. It's located @ 26th St. and Van Buren in Central Phoenix. This is where a guy gets classified, does his testing, sees the med doctor, sees the psych doctor, and gets ready to go to his yard. The average stay here is 7-10 days. Some guys get thru in as little as 3 days. Some stay as long as a month. It depends. It's a level 4 facility, meaning you're in a cell 23 hours a day, except for meals. You get 1 hour on the rec yard every other day. No phone calls. You get 3 envelopes and paper to write letters. They mail them for you free.

2 YARD: AKA "Camp Snoopy". This is where the minimum custody fellas go. They are housed in pods (we call 'em "runs") with the doors unlocked. Basically, it's open movement all day, except for count times. An inmate can spend $40/week on commisary. These units are: Ft. Grant (Safford), Gila, Maricopa, Papago, Eggers (Douglas), Picacho, Marana, Bachman (Lewis), Echo (Tucson), Florence North Unit, Florence West, Coronado (Winslow), and Cocopah (Yuma). You want to keep your classification scores and tickets (disciplinary actions) low so you can get here. They are the least restrictive, least political places to do your time.

3 YARD: AKA "Gladiator School". Medium custody. One hour of yard time every day. Most COs will let you have a smoke on your way to and from the chow hall too, and then it's back in the pod. You'll get a "heart check" definitley. You'll have to fight someone here at least once to show your meddle. Things "pop off" (race riots) all the time. The main 3 yards are Cimarron (Tucson) Stiner (Lewis), Cook (Eyman), and Cheyene (Yuma). $30 comissary per week.

4 YARD: Better man up, homeboy! You will give your fellow inmate your respect, or that respect will be taken from you. They are very dangerous gentelman, to be sure. You just mind your P's and Q's, keep your eyes forward, step over that guy who just got shanked, and you'll be OK. These are the general population, 2-man cellblocks. 1 hour of free-time every other day. $20 comissary per week. The big ones are Buckley (Lewis), Central Unit "The Walls" (Florence), Rincon (Tucson) and Dakota (Yuma).

5 YARD: AKA "Lockdown". You got nothin comin' to you here. These are the SMUs in Eyman, Morey (Lewis) and death row. Most of these guys are people that just keep getting tickets and getting into fights. Some are chomos, cheetos, snitches, switches and other undesireable and unmanageable inmates. I'll explain all that later. Single-man cells. You don't go to the shower, the shower comes to you. It's mobile. You read your mail on a closed-circuit TV monitor. Non-contact visitation, if you even get it at all. No phone calls. You are always handcuffed whenever you are out of your cell. $10 commisary limit per week, and it's hygeine only. I've never met a man who'd been on a 5 yard.

OK now for the terminology. Please keep in mind that these are not curse words. They are not insults. This is how the guys talk. All the races. To each other. It's not disrespectful. Most prison yards in America use these terms.Your husbands, boyfriends, and homies in the joint might be impressed if you know these. On the other hand, they might be pissed.

WOODS: Caucasian-Americans
KINFOLK: African-Americans
CHICANOS: Mexican-Americans
PAISAS: Mexican Nationals. Word means "countyman" in Spanish.
CHEIFS: Native Americans
TRUCK: Stupid person. Big, dumb, loud and slow.
COP: Correctional Officer. They hand out the tickets and generally make life miserable for the guys.
PC: Protective custody
GP: General population
SNITCH. Confidential informant. Duh.
SWITCH: A renouncer from an STG who can't hang with their set anymore and has to PC up.
STG: Security Threat Group AKA prison gang. Aryan Brotherhood, Nazi Low Riders, Surrenos, Nortenos, Black Guerilla Family, Texas Syndicate, etc.
TICKET: A disciplinary infraction. There are 2 classes of them: majors and minors. A major ticket would be dropping a dirty drug test. rioting, brewing hootch. They can cost you "good time" aka your parole time. A minor would be for discrespecting the cop, not being at your bunk for count time, refusing to work, not shaving. Not very serious, but keep in mind that 3 minors equals 1 major.
HOOTCH: Prison alcohol. The best hootch is made with orange peels, ketchup, sugar, and topped off with Jolly Ranchers to make it more bearable to drink
TR: Tentative Release. This is 77 days off your sentence. Only for non-dangerous, non-repetative crimes. You have to have your functional literacy certificate (8th grade diploma),
do all your assigned programming (work and school) and be free of any major tickets for the last 3 months.
ERCD: Earned Release Credit Date. 54 days off your sentence per each year you serve. In AZ you have to do 85% of your time. The ERCD is your 15% parole time. This is pretty much automatic. You'd have to mess up pretty bad to lose this. But I've seen
people truck this off.
POP-OFF: Race riot. A very frightening spectacle indeed. They can go on for hours. Most inmates will use their MasterLocks as shanks. They'll cup them tight and bash you over the head with them. Ouch. When these things happen the cops will lock themselves in the bubble and in the administration building until the boys work it out of their system. Then they will come out with their Mega-Devastators and start spraying guys.
MEGA-DEVASTATOR- It looks like and is shaped like a fire extinguisher. It's powerful pepper spray. Your eyes will burn and you will cough up. In other words, you will be mega-devastated.
KITE: An inmate letter. If a guy needs something from the cop he'll submit a kite. There are also kites that inmates send out on each other. These are notes that tell one guy to "get" the other.
KEESTER: The act of stuffing contraband up one's rectum. This is done with drugs from the drops so they can get them thru the searches.
DROP: When an inmate's family member or friend leaves drugs or other contraband on the side of the road, usually under a rock, for the inmate to pick up when he is outside the fence while working on road crew or fire crew.
MATCHBOX: a marijuana joint the size of a toothpick that sells for around $8- $10. Very pricey but VERY good bud.
BUBBLE: The cop's office. Most 2 and 3 yard houses are designed on a hub-and-spoke pattern, like on a bike wheel. The hub is the bubble and the spokes are the pods/runs. The cop has AC in the bubble. The rest of us have swamp coolers. On a hot summer Arizona day you can see the condensation on the window of the bubble while the rest of us suffer. Really ticks me off.
OG: Original Gangster. An inmate with an older prison #. A guy who's been around a while.
FISH: A inmate with a recent ADC #, fresh out of Alhambra. The new guy.
SMASHING: A 3 or 4-on-1 severe physical beating, usually done in the bathroom, where the cop can't see you from the bubble. You will get carried out on a stretcher, and taken to the hospital in an ambulance. But keep in mind, that you are a convicted felon. Priority # 0.That paramedic gets paid by the hour. He's in no rush to save your life. It's not like you are a
"productive member of society". These things are very common on 3 and 4 yards.
RAINBOW: A smashing done by the top torpedo of every race. This happens when you piss the whole yard off. I almost got rainbowed when I snuck my water bottle into the chow hall to get an extra glass of fruit punch. Luckily, I talked my way out of it and the heads just grounded me instead. I had to stay on my bunk for 48 hours.
HEAD: The head of a set on the yard. Usually an OG. Each race has their own head.
TORPEDO: The head's enforcement official. They're the guys who do the smashing. They are politically motivated, want to be accepted into the STG. Smashing other inmates is required to be a torpedo.

OK that's all I can think of now. If anyone has any questions for me, then please send me a private message, and if I don't know the answer to your questions, then I'll FIND the answer. Good luck to you and your friends and loved ones inside. -Matt

NOTE TO ANY AND ALL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS WHO READ THIS:

I am perfectly within the scope of the law to be writing this. I am not commiting ANY crime here, and you know it. My civil rights have been restored, and this falls under my 1st Amedment constitutionally guaranteed rights. I am explicity referring to Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, his henchman County Attorney Andrew Thomas, AZ DOC Director Dora Schirro, and those bumbling keystone cops in the Tempe Police Department. Kick rocks, you losers! HA!

[chintath]

This is great. I am sure someone will be calling upon you. I know I will be PMing you in a few minutes.

Glad you made it!

[BJ2010]

Yes Matt thank you for stepping forward and giving us your insight!! For that in itself deserves respect.

I look forward to you sharing more posts with us and hopefully your views from what it's like in there. I visit every weekend so I get a pretty good idea from my guy what it's like hearing from his stories, but to the new people and the one's who don't visit I'm sure you will be a great help!!!

HEY what about "Rat"? Isn't that someone who snitches on another inmate?

[ToTheSimpsons]

Originally Posted by bakerm71

I am explicity referring to Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, his henchman County Attorney Andrew Thomas, AZ DOC Director Dora Schirro, and those bumbling keystone cops in the Tempe Police Department. Kick rocks, you losers! HA!

can we get some of those rolling around LMAO smilies, cause this last paragraph made me pee my pants.

[freejoelewis]

No offense Matt, but you have posted some disinformation, and that can sometimes be very counter-productive to what you are trying to achieve, as the public needs correct information, and not disinformation. A level 5 yard SMU 1, SMU 2, Central Unit, do not have mobile showers, the showers are at the front of each run, and you are handcuffed to and from the shower. Furthermore, you receive your mail around 7 pm every day but Sunday, no closed circuit tv, it is delivered just like every other yard. Outside of silly fights, which usually occur in front of the officers, (a serious violation under the convict code) there is very rarely any race riots or stabbing these days, so please becareful not to glorify the prison experience. Prison is a very boring part of one's life, however, it can be used as a very productive part of ones life also, as you can obtain a great education there, and learn a lot about yourself, if you stop long enough to look in the mirror. On a side note Matt, the statistics of us returning to prison only increase to 96% after 5 years of freedom, we never get back to 100%.

[Tre's Treasure]

Just a few corrections Level 5 SMU 2 they get all the mail, they are not handcuffed during visits just one the way to and from. A kite is "any" unofficial inter prison correspondance. (meaning you can send a kite to your CO4 or the educations department" The $10.oo limit is idegent status only otherwise it is $40.00 unless it is a major ticket item like a TV or clothing. Visitation is one or 2 visits a week depending on th level ie/ 5/5 or 5/4 a 5/5 get 1 per week and 1 5 min phone call.

[outlawsgirl]

And if anyone is curious about the women......there are two prisons for he women. Perryville and SACRC (souther az coreectional release center) Perryville is in Goodyear and SACRC is in Tuscon. They are both Camp Snoopy, there are no heads or race wars, and the day a group of womn can stick together long enough not to jump fences in an arguement much less a riot< I know Ill die of shock. But everything else is pretty much the same.

[dannysbabyblue]

Thanks for posting that - my husband has used quite a few of those terms and I figured most of them out but you cleared up a few I wasn't sure of!

Stay safe

[TheBigBad]

Originally Posted by bakerm71

NOTE TO ANY AND ALL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS WHO READ THIS:

I am perfectly within the scope of the law to be writing this. I am not commiting ANY crime here, and you know it. My civil rights have been restored, and this falls under my 1st Amedment constitutionally guaranteed rights. I am explicity referring to Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, his henchman County Attorney Andrew Thomas, AZ DOC Director Dora Schirro, and those bumbling keystone cops in the Tempe Police Department. Kick rocks, you losers! HA!

Well Matt. You learned quite a bit in your four months at Alhambra. Some of the facts about the yards and how things are run are incorrect. The terminology is pretty correct, but very incomplete. There's so much more, but a 219 number wouldn't learn them all.

Before you say your commitment is up, you should go take care of the absconding detainers.

Because we don't want you back, we need the bed space.

[briandi]

Oh snap! Why would DOC release someone in October 2007 if there was a detainer in September....things that make ya go HUMMM. DOC doesn't update the computer system very well now does it!!

[TheBigBad]

Just like everything else. Mistakes can be made.

[christyca]

My hubby is in a 4 yard and he can spend $60.00 a week.......

[AMomFirst]

SMASHING: A 3 or 4-on-1 severe physical beating, usually done in the bathroom, where the cop can't see you from the bubble.

You will get carried out on a stretcher, and taken to the hospital in an ambulance. But keep in mind, that you are a convicted felon. Priority # 0.That paramedic gets paid by the hour. He's in no rush to save your life. It's not like you are a"productive member of society".

These things are very common on 3 and 4 yards.

I have been in the EMS field for about 13 years and we do NOT treat prisoners any different then we do John Doe off the street. I have yet in all my years seen an EMT or Paramedic treat a prisoner any different then any other patient. Yes, there may be a delay in getting to the prisoner because of all the searches we have to go through to get in but that is something beyond our control. Please do NOT put ALL EMT's and Paramedic's in a catergory with 1 or 2 you may have had a bad experience with. You may not be as you put it in your own words " a productive member of society" but you are still a human being and we WILL treat you with the same kindness and compassion as any of our other patients!

[AMomFirst]

PS I live in Colorado now but I worked in the EMS field in Tucson AZ and responded frequently to calls at the DOC on Wilmot Rd

[Tre's Treasure]

The EMS staff are usually great where the problem lies is when the DOC'S staff chooses to call. My man was severely injured by a staff member and was taken o St Marys in Tucson by VAN not Ambulance and admitted to an ICU unit. Reason for the Van if they call for an Ambulance it must be imediately reported to the Warden. By the time the Warden got the report the 2 days later. The stories were all matching and all evidence ??????. I do know he received excellent care at St Mary's however in my current job I currently interact with Medical personal seeking Dr consults for DOC patients and some of the comments they make floor me.