While in the SHU in Elkton i started working out everyday and trying to get my self back in shape after i heard i was transferring back to a medium. i did this for several reasons. one i didn’t know what type of yard i would be going to and i would have to fight anyone immediately for unspecified reasons, prisons are like that some times and with the natives i found out its hit or miss what type of time they are on. and two i screwed a lot of people over in Texas and the prison world is a small world where news travels fast and i didn’t know if there would be people waiting for me to show up ahead of time and i needed to be prepared to defend myself in the event that i had a hit on me.
my work outs consisted of cell room calisthenics. total body workout using only my body weight. i pretty much know how to work out because i loved working out before i got locked up and being forced to be sober on lockdown was a good motivator to get myself back in shape just for general purposes. so for nine months i sweated my ass off every day and ate three square meals a day with lots of peanut butter and apples when things got really tough during the covid scare and there was no one to cook the food because all the kitchen staff had tested positive for covid.
when they finally did call me out and transfer me i was back in tip top shape. fortunately when i got to Pekin Illinois and was put in quarantine for two weeks it gave me a chance to reflect on all my actions that caused me to get were i was. i saw this as an opportunity to start over. so i refocused my efforts to remember all my Jitsu training and kept working out getting my self ready to hit the yard and look for those MMA aficionados that are at every prison.
they put me in the unit that was already on lockdown for covid and i was introduced to some dungeons and dragons geeks so i spent a little while making them feel comfortable with my presence because when you first meet me with razor shaved head and goatee i look pretty intimidating especially to child porn sex offenders whom they were. but even though i look scary and got tattoos that make me look like a hardened criminal I’m pretty laid back which they soon found out. i like to laugh to much and i hate being miserable and i hate seeing others miserable so i try to always lighten the mood by cracking jokes. this i did and even joined them playing dungeons and dragons while we were locked in. we were in a ten man cell that all new inmates go to before being given a cell, which incidentally violated covid sanctions about staying 6 feet away from each other.
when the unit did open up and i met the Native speaker of the unit he explained that this was a fairly laid back yard and if i wanted to do my own thing i could as long as i didn’t bring any trouble to the group by doing stupid shit like going in debt or disrespecting other races. i was totally on board. then i met a guy who really changed my life and showed me what i was capable of achieving when i put my mind to it and actually being there for people who come to depend on me.
his name is Arthur Hermes. he was a ex army ranger turned contract killer and had 2 life sentences plus 90 years before he could even think of seeing freedom. but he was a great guy and some how he was talking about Jiu Jitsu and i mentioned that i know a few moves to which he immediately called me on to perform for him. so i laid down on the ground on my back and told him to sit on my chest with both his knees on either side trapping my arms. he looked at me like i was crazy. but he did it and i said okay attack me try to tap me out. as soon as he started moving i easily put him into my guard and then put into a leg triangle until he tapped out. i let up and transitioned into an arm bar to a double arm bar and then a omoplata.
he sat back astonished and asked me if the leg triangle would actually put him out. i said yes so he said to prove it. so i put him back into the leg triangle and squeezed until he passed out which actually takes about 3 to 4 seconds if y you do it right. when he woke up with all his homies staring at him and me standing above him smiling he asked how long he was out. we only let him sleep for about 30 seconds before waking him back up. so from there he was my best friend. he asked if i could teach him everything i knew and i said yes. then he agreed to pay me for it because this was knowledge he could keep for the rest of his life that he might need one day because he had enemies in the system and he might run into one some day and not have his shank on him. he did kick boxing on the street and Shotokan karate but all that really goes out the window in actual street fighting especially in a cell. close quarters combat and wrestling are a necessary skill to develop in medium and high security environments especially when you run with a group that you feel beholden to. not everybody has the luxury of running by themselves. it’s hard to explain.
so i was in a ten man holding tank with a very large bathroom that was completely off camera and had a linoleum tile floor so it was nice and smooth if a little hard so we wore home made knee pads. these knee pads were basically a pair of socks with the ends cut off and folded over and stuffed with additional pairs of socks because we practice on our knee a lot. my knees however from years of doing this are dead to pain and i didn’t have to wear knee pads. their were our version of a white belt.
Arthur was very dedicated and he brought in another guy with a 30 year sentence and i begin a tutelage to them that lasted three years. i found that teaching beginners is a very different experience in that having to take them through the absolute basic techniques step by step is a learning experience for the teacher as well. i taught at first how i was taught. the first step is to get used of someone putting their whole body weight on top of you and not panic when you cant breathe. Arthur freaked out and had a panic attack because i hugged him and stayed on top until he tapped out from anxiety. fast forward to my last lesson with him i laid on top of him and he remained completely still even when he was at the point of passing out. he learned to hold his nerve and wait for the opportunity to get even the smallest breath to last a bit longer and he learned how to conserve his energy without depleting his oxygen levels during sparring sessions.
teaching Jiu Jitsu gave me a greater insight to what is possible and from taking my students through each little nuance showed me new moves that i would have never discovered on my own. even though i used to draw the techniques i knew when i was bored and had no one to practice with taking these guys through those same moves live gave me new insight to and i found new techniques. i compiled a note book full of these new moves and through out the 3 years of teaching have discovered over 200 moves that i didn’t know before coming to Pekin. i am thankful for the chance to be a leader and someone that others could look up to and i am very thankful that it was Jiu Jitsu that opened the door the my awakening.
we practiced every day for about 3 to 4 hours just like when i was first learning. i taught them the basic positions and theory behind proper balance. then after they learned what i call the first five, which are the armbar, leg triangle, arm triangle, kimura, Americana, and guillotine, and practiced them each at least 500 times apiece we moved on to the more advanced moves that i had recently discovered from just teaching. i realized that there are an unlimited number of variations to these first five and every execution and escape leads to another opportunity to try another move. i would roll with them and let them attempt a move on me and show them the escape and how in doing so led them into a disadvantage where i now had the upper hand until they escaped and the process was repeated in a never ending dance.
my frustration with my life though took a turn for the worst because i had been writing letter to my son for about 3 or 4 years staight every month and i called his mother one day. i hadnt called her in years and she actually accepted the call. then she told me that she had recieved each letter but kept them from my son because she thought it was in his best interest to stay focused on school and my letter would be an unnecessary distraction. so it hit me that all these years i thought i was doing something that connected with my son when he never even knew i was trying. i sank back into a depression and this was compounded by the fact that in Pekin they kept putting me in the SHU for no reason other than some one in the ten man tank would get into trouble and they would put everyone under investigation for two weeks. this happened four times and each time they took more and more of my personal property until i literally had nothing left except a watch that had been given to me in 2009 by one of my native bro’s when he went home.
the first time they took me to the SHU was because one of the other inmates in the ten man tank decided to put a socket in the bathroom light fixture so he could plug an iron into it and cook. he didnt take the fall and we all got taken in. he confessed to it after i yelled downthe hallway of our range that he had something coming when we got back on the yard. it was the only time i would have intentionally used what i know to hurt someone. luckily his own people took care of that when we did get out.
when they let me back out they put me in with a trashy loud mexican who didnt have an indoor voice who did every kind of illegal activity in the book with no regard whether me being his cellmate would get into trouble as well, which is what happened. he was holding home made alchohol underhis bed and the guy would come into our room and burp it every half hour so the cop took notice of this and shook us down when he opened the door and smelled alcohol. i took the fall with the agreement that he would pay off my bills because even if we didnt he wasnt going to take the responsibility and we would both get the shot. luckily it was christmas time and the DHO officer let me go saying he didnt think it was my hoocheven though i admitted it to be mine, and left me a messege to tell my former cellmate that he was under the spotlight for what he did to me. they got him because he was stupid and tried to burn soot for tattoo ink and started a fire in his locker.
then one time i wrote a stupid letter home complaining about how petty the officers were and how i was always being taken to the SHU for no good reason and mentioned that the only good thing about the place was looking at a female officers cute butt. i forgot that at medium security prisons the guards read your out going letters and they put me in the SHU again for investigation for propositioning the night officer who happened to be a female. that was embarrassing.
then the last time i got taken to the SHU was because one asshole of a corrections officer thought he found a square of K2. it turned out it was just paper after it was sent to the lab. still took 2 weeks for all of us to get out. so by then the whole demographics of the unit had changed and we could no longer utilize the bathroom area for Jitsu practice because the muslims had taken over and started using it as a mosque. which created its own problems with the non muslim inmates in the ten man and the cops wanting to know if all of them were plotting some kind of terrorist act on the institution. for reals. not only that but when i was in the SHU Arthur got injured doing crossfit workouts non stop. we had a cell we could use but that doesnt leave much space except to practice basic moves. so i started a sewing business.
