Federal Corruption

by Jay Goodman

For years I’ve written about all the corruption I’ve witnessed inside the Texas prison system. It’s crazy looking back now because I realize that I went to more than 10 prisons and every single one was correct. There’s not one that I went to that I did not see corruption at every level. In fact, I have to say there was more corrupt staff then there was good. We moved in the federal custody I was hoping things would be different. Because it’s one thing dealing with all of the different types of personalities in prison. Especially living inside a maximum-security prison, you have to constantly be aware of everything going on around you. If that’s not stressful enough, now imagine having to deal with the dirty guards, dirty ranking officers, and in a lot of cases dirty wardens.

So, when I moved to the federal detention center in Youngstown, Ohio, I was hoping that I was leaving Texas way behind me. But there is wishful thinking in there is the reality of each situation. After I witness the beating of the man who was high on key to my first day in the cell block, I quickly would learn that this place was flooded with drugs. I mean anything you wanted was there, especially K2 and a new drug I had not seen called “suboxion,” which is a drug that used to help people off of heroin. Even though it seemed everyone was smoking K2, this other drug was being used at a very close second.

Now, we have been locked down to our cell block because of COVID-19. Even though we were allowed out of ourselves, we were restricted to our cell block only. No one was allowed to receive visits, no one was allowed to go anywhere. So, for me it was easy observation on where the drugs were coming from. The only group of people allowed to come and go each day are the employees. For the life of me, if I could see this how could the people who run this place not figure it out? I mean the ranking officers Who you see firsthand the people drunk, or blown out of their minds on K2 each day, have to know where the drugs are coming from. If they don’t, they’re either stupid and have no business working in a prison. Or, they are getting a cut out of the drugs being sold. Let me not forget the mini ones that work here. Surely, they see what’s happening. Like I said, the wardens know there’s no visits, no prisoner going outside the prison to work. No way whatsoever to flood an entire prison.

So just like I said with the ranking officers, they would have to either be completely stupid, and have no business working here. Or, they are getting A cut off the drugs being sold. In my truthful opinion, they are getting a cut. Like I wrote about the Texas prison system, if there are small amounts of drugs inside the prison, that means the prisoners are bringing it in. But when there is all the drugs you can do, there is only one way it can come in, the employees. They are the only ones who have the ability to bring drugs in, in large enough quantities to supply the whole prison system. There are people waiting by the door at 5o’clock in the morning when the guards open the day room so they can run to each other cell to smoke K2. Once they get high and all of them are out in the day room, everyone has to constantly pay close attention to all of them. Because no one knows if the people who are high will flip out and do something crazy. The more time went on the more I began to realize how corrupt this place was.

This prison was run by a private company, half of the prison was a state prison, and the other half was a federal prison. One of the few things I seen was this place was wide open. I mean the prisoners pretty much did whatever they wanted without any repercussions whatsoever. And most of the time they did it right out in the open. Every now and again one of the guards would say something to an ad me, but the prisoners would say to the guard to shut the fuck up, and for them to mind their own business. It’s not like I haven’t seen people in prison say things like this to guards. Hell, I’ve seen prisoners’ spit, throw piss, shit, assault, and even kill guards. But the prisoners would be taken immediately to isolation. But, at this place I was surprised to see nothing was being done. It appeared to me that these prisoners had complete immunity to do whatever they wanted, without any worry about getting into trouble. There were dozens of prisoners drinking wine, smoking K2 right out in the open.

Hundreds of dollars worth of commissary sitting on the floor as a prisoner shot dice right in front of the guards. Every day there would be arguments and fights. On a few occasions I saw people getting stabbed, or hit in the head was soap inside of socks. I asked my silly from New York this question. “I thought you told me this cell block was laid-back?” he laughed and said “Jay, it is laid-back. There are still blocks much worse than this. The only people drinking and gambling are only fighting each other, the rest of the people in here get along really good.”

For the people reading this it’s hard for me to explain how living in conditions like this affects a person mentally and sociologically. A lot of people in prison suffer from some type of mental disorder. Now add and drinking and drugs, and all of a sudden you have a day room full of people you have to watch every move they make. This was just the beginning; little did I know how corrupt this place was. I try with all my might to find the good in every situation. But it seems like everywhere I get moved it’s more corrupt. The sad thing is, is the system they’ve been sent to that supposed to rehabilitate them. Sense prisoners back into society worse than they came to prison.