"Gang of one"

One friend here, 190cm black Moslem pimp, recommended a great book "Gang of one" by Gary Mulgrew (or Malgrew).

The author was one of "Enron" accountants, British, he was extradited by the UK to USA and has been sentenced to 3 years in "Big Springs" Texas prison.
The book he wrote is about his experience, culture shock and life before and during his imprisonment.
If you find any interest about how it's like being a foreigner prisoner here, this book is the real deal.
According to one of the guards here, this guy been through this facility as well.

 

One man's journey from a Glasgow orphanage to a notorious gang-infested prison in Texas 

The teardrop tattoo

It's pretty easy to know and tell if and who relates to any knufiya; they have tattoos, they tell about their memberships... once you eat a few meals with them... you get to hear all the stories, including the ones I can not write about...
The vast majority has some tattoos; only a few have all their body, only one here have his face. Some carry a "tear drop" tat at the corner of their eye(Wikipedia: "The teardrop tattoo or tear tattoo is a symbolic tattoo that is placed underneath the eye. The tattoo can have several meanings, including signifying the number of years spent in prison, the loss of a loved one or fellow gang member,^[1] or the fact that the wearer has killed someone.
The tattoo can have several meanings. In the United States, it can signify that the wearer has killed someone.^[2] Alternatively in Mexico, the number of teardrops may indicate the number of times the wearer was raped while in prison.^[3] It may also indicate the wearer has been imprisoned or indicate the loss of a loved one or fellow gang member.^[1]
According to The Devil's Front Porch, a book written by Lester Douglas Johnson about serving 1927 to 1957 in Kansas State Penitentiary, the tattoo denoted a member of "The Old Fraternity", referring to the Biblical Cain who slew his brother.^[1][4]
It is sometimes worn by the female companions of prisoners in solidarity with their loved ones.^[5]
")

I stand alone... only trouble could go with relating to any group or gang.

7 Most Notorious Prison Tattoos & What They Mean:

Bingo for "Memorial Day"

"Memorial Day" here; kind of like in our country, but with lots of commercials and shopping. They like to celebrate their memorial, we rather grief.
So imagine how amazed I've been, sitting today's early morning in the main hall, at the pc, when suddenly, a guard comes in pushing one of those steel-prison-carts, carrying a ***bingo*** setup, cards, balls ("golden"), raffle machine, the whole setup!

I stared at him like he's a man from the moon, and he looked at me and said: "bingo"

OK, so I got up and got two bingo cards, together with like, at least, half of this block habitants. Yes, that's how exciting it was!
For the next 10 minutes, he kept reading the numbers, way too quickly, so my celli helped my sleep-overwhelmed eyes to check the cards.

Bottom line: no one won a damn thing; the whole thing started and ended in like 10-15 minutes, and was meragesh as sheleg de'eshta'kad. I went back to sleep till they woke up for a sfira. Must love ha'makom haze, it's a real diamond.

It's 12:30 pm now, I have another whole day to waste. For those of you who still wonder why not "reading something" or "studying", I'll just say, come, come over with your books and all your stuff; sit here with me for 3 hours, then we'll see what you have to say ;-)))
If you spend 3 hours in the Kofiya and still want to (or actually can) read, I'll then be convinced you're much better, & sophisticated then I am; by far. ("by far" rights registered to Vered, I'll pay tamlugim).

That's all for today's report, my beloved free humans; I still owe you the tale about "Alabama", another unique habitant.

...

Boker Shabat

In the Kofiya. Woke up at 6, after sleeping 1-2 hours on/off for the whole night; I wake up 3-5 times each night.
So I woke up at 6, they don't wake you (me) up in here; instead there is a loud click of the door lock. Since I sleep (like everyone else), in my clothes, all I need is to get down for a continental breakfast. So I had my usual carton-pieces-style-bran-flakes, mixed with one (almost) cooked packet of quaker (no boiling water, just hot). Delicious.

Now I'm going back to sleep, I have no work on shabat, try to keep it that way, don't like my boss emailing me all the time.

Remember Chucky?

I told you about that crazy doll of the horror movies, actually living here. If you recall, he actually looks like the doll named after him, same look, same eyes... the same. He's got Chucky tattoo on his leg, and one of his girlfriends tattooed his portrait on her thigh... BTW, she works as a stripper. Anyways, about a week ago he went to court for his sentence. He's affiliated with one of the most notorious knufiyut exist: MS-13(Mara Salvatrucha (commonly abbreviated as MS-13) is a transnational criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles and has spread to other parts of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America.Members of MS distinguish themselves by tattoos covering the body and also often the face, as well as the use of their own sign language. They are notorious for their use of violence and a subcultural moral code that predominantly consists of merciless revenge and cruel retributions.) .
In here for murder (what else, he has that name to keep), he's one of the most sympathetic guys around, for real. He also find lots of interest in Jerusalem, he's a great torah believer, and I already invited him to visit. Don't worry, it won't happen anytime soon... as I was saying he went to court for sentencing... the guy is ben 23. gzar-din: 20 shana. He is going to appeal, but even then, it will take years before you can meet the real, living, breathing Chucky.

What's the point then? Oh, there is one: when the judge (BTW, it's also my judge, The Honored District Judge Ms. Melinda Harmon), read his gzar-din, she already been furious cause the guy just before Chucky, answered back to her and wouldn't agree to leave the stand. The Marshals could barely remove him from court. So, Chucky takes the stand in front of an angry judge, believing nothing he will say will matter (probably true)... the judge asks him if he's got anything to say before gzar-dino, and he, in a loud, confident voice answers back:
LET IT BE KNOWN THEN!
Everybody in the court room went quiet...

Do you smell this?

With everything that happen for the last few months, I completely forgot to tell about something crazy happened to me:
I lost my sense of smell, since I've been imprisoned. Lost as in, I can barely smell anything. I don't know if it's kind of defense mechanism or if it's something else; I just can't smell. It is so sever that people already told me something is wrong. It is, however, kind of a good thing when your (my) cell mate is sitting on the toilet located just 2 meter from where you sleep (where I sleep, that is). I can smell if it's really an intense kind of smell, like on early morning, the ventilation spread kitchen smells; or if I nose-touch a bar of soap. Other than that, nothing.

Just another of this makom nifla miracles.

When you find yourself sitting in jail

When you find yourself sitting in jail, surrounded by Mexicans, gang-members, white criminals and black ones(many of them look frightening), watching an animation movie on TV ("The Guardians"), and communicating with criminals during the commercials.
You know that you are at your worst (al-hapanim) when you're emailing your friends, and have no clue when you'll ever see them or when you we will be back home.