 Hey everybody, this is Ryan aka rainforest host of the shakedown Just a little quick note about this episode it got real crazy real fast and if Like even before the episode started recording it got a little crazy and a little tense and Honestly, you'll see even from the beginning. I just want to talk about prison transportation But we didn't talk about that. We actually talked about some other things. We ended up Hopefully wrapping into a really good prison transportation story But in the middle we got a little bit of a surprise and some other good stuff So I'm just gonna we're gonna leave that as a little bit of a cliffhanger a little a teaser if you will but Since I've got your attention right now There's been something else. I've been really wanting to talk to you about so I am about to finish up Writing and drawing a restorative justice graphic novel That should be finishing up this month and it should be available soon And then I would and then I will let everyone know as soon as it's ready. I'll start having Posts of panels and everything on my Instagram. Maybe put some on the shakedowns Instagram and everything So look look out for it The other thing is is that we are going to start something probably like a patreon where you can see those little moments where we're trying to set up and Maybe get in on that action and see the kind of craziness that gets involved If that's something you're interested in if you want or If you want more features if you want to get more in-depth talk epics we are going to set that up because Honestly, I want to do this full-time. I want to Education and outreach full-time is what I wanted to do and how I want to help people so if we're gonna be able to do that who want to find ways that Help you and show and we want you to tell us how we can do that. So That is coming soon. And if you have ideas on what we can do and what you would be willing to pay for Aside from just a cool shakedown hoodie or t-shirt, which you can get right now Then please let us know on our YouTube comments on our Instagram comments on our face Facebook comments at get the shakedown you can find us on all of the places So definitely look for us there. I'm also at Lorax for the number four life on Instagram So, yeah, find me. Oh Yeah, that's another thing about this episode that you're about to watch enjoy the episode But part of the reason the episode is the way it is and why you're getting this early warning There was a connection issue and we didn't realize until three-quarters of the way in that Malone and Dave could not see me And or at some points hear me So if you're wondering why we're interrupting each other constantly It's because of that reason So but like I said There's some really good stories in there and it's worth it. So stick around I hope you enjoy it. If you don't let me know if you do also let me know Um, and we hope to have some more good stuff coming soon. So thank you so much Hello and welcome to the shakedown This is the podcast where we explain the criminal justice system for those who don't know about it And also make it more relatable To everyone through stories and our personal experiences in dealing with the criminal justice system And we have a lot of personal experience between the three of us dealing with the criminal justice system um, especially in the state of texas in dealing with texas prisons and uh today we are talking about The transportation inside of texas prisons how it works what it looks like and personal stories from uh From our dealings with being transported inside of texas prisons uh Dave was actually the one who um, he he's the one who inspired this episode because he talked about it um about transportation And kind of the issues with transportation and tdcj And um, there's honestly there's a ton we can talk about and I will um, I wanted to ask save what What are Dave, what are your thoughts? Where why did you want to talk about? um transportation in texas prisons because I think it's some of it is pointless I feel like it's it's and it's really kind of cruel and unusual I mean they put you on a bus and handcuff you to somebody else you're packed in like sardines. There's no air conditioning and sometimes you I mean I went from Huntsville all the way to the the panhandle of texas. That's a long drive and so when you Stop at a unit overnight they put you in a transit cell with if you have a mattress is Probably so Tour up is just a bunch of lumps so you end up sleeping on concrete and it takes like it took three days to make this trip to the panhandle and so you get up And they wake you up really early in the morning before it's hunt I get three o'clock in the morning you go sit in your weight and pack all your stuff packed up in a bag Uh, if you have too much stuff, some of your stuff follows you and that could take months And you going about your way what constitutes too much stuff crash out. They don't take that with you I mean, what are you allowed to take and what are you not allowed to take? You're getting transferred from another unit Everything you own is going with you. But what are you allowed to take on the bus with these? Oh one chain bag One what's a chain bag? Chain bag is a little pretty bag that is You look at the onion sack. Yeah pretty much. It's onion sack. It's a red onion sack And it's one of those not so I think Yeah It could be two if you have legal work What do you think on average is the number of onion sacks worth of stuff that uh, most inmates Possessed I mean, you can't even put you couldn't even put 75 dollars of commissary in one onion bag You couldn't put I don't even put probably three cases of soups. I didn't But here's the one thing yet. I was gonna say I think every one thing that more will go ahead I can say that just about everybody listening, but I know is what a what a uh, how big a package of ramen noodles is Right, so imagine and how big of you know, there's like 24 of those in a case so you can fit three cases of Ramen noodles in a red bag red chain bag and that's being very generous What kind of a property does uh, do inmates generally have in texas prisons? I mean other than commissary do that Do they have a is there anything else? That they would carry with them? Oh pictures letters uh books laundry I mean shoes You know, you know, this is you could be transported at any time So this is people get transported after years the first the After I got the initial so the when I got moved around I got moved around One after county jail And then after county jail I got moved uh I spent Six months in a transfer facility then got moved Then got spent a week down in I can't remember what that that thing is in huntsville The wall right next to the walls unit where you get classified or whatever And then it's a week there and then I got moved all the way across texas What's that? So but it's there's the thing so that When I get moved across texas so they Supposedly when you hit one of these the diagnostics units like, you know the transfer units It's for processing of being processed in right and So I hit this unit and I was there about like you always think I was there for four days and I did Didn't do all the processing and then I get moved To another unit to go to do more processing You know, it's like so why are you starting them at processing in one unit and finishing them up on another? That doesn't really make any sense You know, so and it's right. It's a numbers TDC If you have people coming in that means people have to go out even if it's full The only way you're going to be able to allow more inmates into the unit Is if they're going to be inmates getting out I think about it If you put water in a glass full of water and you put more water in some water is going in The rest of the water is going out So it's kind of a sense, right? right, but the the other part is is that Yeah They had a the reason I got moved out of dahlhardt after like three years Was because hurricane harvey hit the coast of texas Everyone got moved around and they moved me From the top like 30 miles south of out oklahoma Down to houston And all in that area So you were in a part of texas where there are no hurricanes whatsoever, but the inmate but the guys that were down there I was the part of the guys that That got evacuated due to harvey And they sent us to the pack unit which was under a lawsuit for air conditioning And the judge had Had Got really upset because there wasn't any spoke anybody supposed to be going to that unit Because of the because of the lawsuit so he he got In his feelings thinking that his authority had been taken from so now he decided that everyone that had been shipped To the pack unit now is also under the same Lawsuit as the inmates over there before that and had to be air conditioned So they couldn't send us back to the unit that we came from because it didn't have air conditioning Now they had to send us to units that had air conditioning and so that's why They had to do the big shuffle that that that's why all the you guys ended up over there on the string fellow unit That was like a A lot of our friends that that we ended up making After that were sitting were directly sent there because The inmates that were on the string fellow unit had to go to their unit because they were they were on either Transfer units transfer facilities that had air conditioning. I get this I get I understand that So you're talking about a valid reason why people should get moved from why people are getting moved around What i'm talking about is the completely Inane dumb ass reasons why they're just moving people from one unit to another And and they do just in awe of how it all worked out that way that I mean that strange confluence of events made it to where we all Are sitting here right now today Okay, it's conversation. All right. Well, that's I mean, that's great, but it's like I know that's not what we're talking about. No, but it struck me It is and it is kind of interesting the way that all worked out But my point is is they move people around for no good reason You know, they take people that are like they enter the system four days into being an intake unit I'm getting moved to another intake unit. And it's not just me It's a bunch of other people that are that they're doing the same thing to well And that's they they do like honestly you they have your charge Before you get in before you get to prison. They know what your charge is they have all of your information They have your criminal history They have all of it So technically if they wanted to send you to one prison with like based on that information They could they could just send you to the prison whichever one they know where you lived in texas They get they could base it all around the information Before you go to prison But instead They do this weird thing where I remember when I was at gurney on one unit Some kind of security issue on one unit And they'll and the way that they handle a lot of those type of things if they have a ride on the unit Or if they have a security issue or if the inmates all decided they're going to do a Of a work strike and they're not going to work until they get something had some issue taken care of tdc's way of handling that is to scatter those people to the four corners of texas And then to replace everybody on that unit With someone brand new people that they can start over with that way they can that's one of the ways that they fight Inmate unity That is one thing but they even people try to control inmates and keep them You know passive and compliant or You know doing what they're told But but even before it gets to that point malone when at the transfer facility There's no there's no reason to have a transfer facility because Well, it's it's cutting in and out right now because of the connection, but can you hear me about kicking right into the Curriculum time now if it wasn't for the fact that he does all the editing blah blah blah and all the legwork and stuff like that that David are far too cool to do Well, I don't have enough time. I work two jobs. I don't have a lot of time to do all that nerve stuff Nerves, that's who has that time. You have a lot more time than I do. Oh, I don't what makes you think I have time Uh, what time did you get off work today? Uh Well, oh three thirty. What time I go to work is the question doesn't matter Time did you go to work? I got to work at 10 33. I didn't even I was at work for four hours By time you got to work how many hours do you I mean how Now I work two jobs. I don't know if you realize this or not How many times have you told me hey, you need to work a little less so we can do something I'm just trying to make you feel better about me Oh, I hate you. I don't really I don't Sometimes you frustrate me to die. I know Yeah, but that's part of your charm I'm yeah, please tell me about it. I'm something I frustrate people to no end as well. Do you do? Never No That's because you spent so much time in prison You know you're used to you're used to assholes man. I could I could deal with an asshole I could handle an asshole I know my way around an asshole I'm sure you do. I mean you've seen a lot of them in the shower Did you inspect any? You're just yours Not just yours. I tell that to all the girls in prison now Did you when you were there? Did you did you spend a lot of time in that one corner of the shower? There's a corner in the shower I'm dirty. Hmm At least when I was there there was an area where all the I'll be uh People like to dabble in other men used to hang out in Well, I didn't have all that Did you have to use building showers or did you go with work? I was there for six years Well, it depends on like what era of time you're talking about. I hated having to come in from the fields I've seen this guy in the fields this coming in from the fields. There's this one black dude, right? He's like A real thin he's butt-ass naked Except he's wearing a pair of tdc brogans with the laces taken out in the shower Right. He's like standing in the shower with his tdc brogans Probably smart to have his shoes off. Yeah, I mean he's cleaning his boots along with himself, right? That's a lot of the guys do that But he's over there standing in the shower talking cash Shit to this one guard, right? And he's got the right guard, dude He's got the the hothead of the field force. There's one guy that just thinks he's big shit to do That he's talking shit to is the size of a line back It's a really big guy. I mean that was Evans and Evans Had already had I mean he already had a reputation for taking swings people. I mean he was he wasn't I wanted to sit there and take a lot of verbal abuse from anybody. He'll he'll he will physically fight back And so this guy this scrawny String bean is standing there in the shower just going the hell off telling this dude Yeah, you don't want to fuck with me. I'm telling you right now. I'm gonna knock out ours. I won't kick you a fuck around He's just going just telling just telling Evans off to the point where Evans on He looks at the guard. He looks at the other field wall next to him takes his cowboy hat off Shit and throws it down on that on that little cattle And from storming into the shower takes his rail I mean reaches back and takes this big old Haymaker swing At this at the skinny guy skinny guy ducks it Ducks the punch reaches down grabs Evans by his by his pant legs and dumps his ass in the water Clams on top of him But that's naked now. You're right. You're standing over Evans ass naked, you know Everything dangling down in Evan's face Just throwing punch after punch after punch is All the other guards like oh my god had to run in there and save Evans ass Evans looked like them That was just That's awesome. That was awesome that poor guy Was absolutely 100% in the right. It was defending yourself and got a Assault on an officer charge and got more time for that and spent quite a bit more time in prison You will never be one of those charges go to a This is all rigged anyway. I mean you're going to a jury Of in a court of their peers that is 110% on the side of the guard no matter what I mean your staff counsel your major case lawyer But I mean even them they they're fucking paid by tdc. That's even worse You had captain knocks back in those days with the disciplinary captain. I remember him captain knocks His tagline his when you walked in the door He would tell you I've never found an inmate Not guilty. I've never found an inmate innocent in a single case ever in the 10 years that I've been Running these cases. I mean he's letting you know right and I'm not about you ever Is what he was not telling explain your case to him And he reaches over there and he'd hit that on that old fashioned ass taper that cassette recorder And stop it and stop it and then go the fuck off on And get you all kinds of ways while I'm gonna cut just Go just tell you What a pussy you are and how he's gonna fuck you over and everything doesn't get me down about Anything that you have to say blah blah blah and then reach back over there and hit Record again and just to catch you All angry and frustrated and not being able to present your case You can still hear and see us we just can't see him or hear him well, okay I will officially start my story about uh, my My uh, how harrowing adventures In transportation and tdc as a young man probably Before the age of 20 somewhere around 18 or 19 You ever had a shit on a on a team bus? Thank god, I have not did that was always my biggest fear. I've always kind of thought about maybe You know, I was so raised and I was raised in prison I've been able you know, I have very good control over my bottles, you know, oh, yeah It's just kind of been ingrained But that's you really threw me off by game So I'm gonna do this to that the whole story you guys We were About to leave the walls I'm glad that you can see your hands because usually your hands are trying to be in my lap and that's not cool What does that got to do with anything? We're free to be gay I mean, I have bars on my door. I'm free to sit there and have our hands in each other's laps. I could lock you in I have to have a key to let you out lock me into one. It's kind of like prison lock me in the In a relationship with you. Nina is waiting for you in a sex cell I'm really missing you know, I feel bad that we had to exclude her So so I must wrap So let's just we're taking off from Huntsville and I almost got As y'all know, there's generally two Different sections in a lot of these big chain buses when you're taking a long trip You're gonna be on one of these really big buses That as you said, you know, the the guys that are in a population are going to get handcuffed to there's going to be You're going to get handcuffed together to another inmate and It's going to be at random. You're going to be handcuffed to some random stranger who's going to be sitting next to you on the bus But if you're insane if you're a if you're a Inmate that's in an administrative segregation for some kind of disciplinary disciplinary action or some kind of safe keeping situation What are they called that protective protective custody something like that? Then they're going to put you in uh A part of the bus that's in the front of the bus where you're not going to be handcuffed to anyone else You're instead going to be you're going to have a chain put around your waist And then your hand you're going to be handcuffed To the chain that's going around your waist and then from there There's also going to be another chain that's going down to so two ankles That's going to connect down to ankle cuffs cuffs that are that are Binding a chain between both legs And then there's a box that's put on the handcuffs This metal this metal box so that your cuffs are stiff There's no there's no give in them or anything like that your hands are are stuck at your waist in this kind of In this kind of a position and your legs can't your your body can't fully extend out or anything Because the ankle cuff chain is about what like 12 inches so you have like 12 inches of movement between your feet Yeah, it's it's it's all designed to really hamper your movement So you can't run when you're when you're you can't stand all the way up you have to hunch over and you know kind of inch your way along and all that and so Uh Due to a lack of space in the in the back of the bus where the where the guys were all cuffed together They thought they were going to have to put me in the front of the bus with uh with the uh With the uh protect with the segregated inmates But just so happened that they were wrong they miscounted blah blah blah I just narrowly made it to the part of the bus where I got handcuffed to the population part of the bus And the rest of the guys got moved into the front of the bus So right as the bus got got took off and we hit the highway It turns out that they had four guys on the bus that knew each other And the reason why they were on this bus is because they had just gone to court And one of them was a snitch that turned the other three guys in for some kind of plot to kill a guard I'm not I had I only heard rumors. I'm not really totally sure as to what happened But all I know is that This one guy was telling on the other three guys and they all three just got time behind this guy And they put them all on the front of the bus together thinking that because they had a handcuffed all like this That they would be that the guy would be safe up there with So at the very front of the bus They're they're always these buses are designed with not for space But for to maximize the number of people they can put on So the front at the very front of the bus you have two Seats that are always facing each other You have the you have one that's it's back is against the is is the back of the seat is You were sitting in there would have his back You know to the out front of the bus and then the other people on the other side of it. So They put that they put the inmate that was the one that was the snitch Up there in that seat So that he would be right by the door so that if they needed to they could they could get to him really quickly But when they get on the highway They'll never open the the the guards will never open the door that leads into that cage on the bus While you're in motion on the highway because that door immediately, you know is is Right on the other side of that door all the controls to the to the bus or the steering wheel You know the driver's seat and all that so they're not going to allow you to access to this bus while it's in motion because you wreck the bus and they'll try to Or try to commandeer the bus or anything like that These guys know that so whenever they get on the highway and they know that they're safe from anybody trying to interfere in anything they're going to do on the do on the bus so One of them sits down in the seat right next to the guy like imagine i'm sitting down and This is this would be the snitch and i would be the other guy One of them sits down in this seat right here right next to this guy And the other one sits in the seat that's directly across from him facing And then another one stands up He's standing there like in the aisle right right hovering over all And so they start attacking this other end but the one that's sitting in the seat next to him is using his elbows Like this just smashing into this guy The other guy sitting in the seat across from him is using his feet Like you know like donkey kicking this guy just kicking this guy in the face And the other one standing over i'm using the chain And the box on the handcuffs to crack this guy in the head in the skull over and over again So then you've got this guy a bloody mess. He's screaming They're gonna kill me. They're gonna kill me. Someone get me out of here But they can't do anything because we're on the highway And so this and these guys just keep on going to work on this dude for just Untold minutes go by They They they eventually pull the bus over onto onto a dirt road. They start threatening that they're gonna that they're gonna gas the bus And whenever they throw whenever they pull over and they threaten they're gonna gas the bus these guys they all sit down and they start acting Okay, we're perfect. Just we're not gonna do anything else. This guy's a bloody wreck by the way The dude sitting here is just gashed up his blood all over the expended metal and Plexiglass Just blood was everywhere And they would take off on the highway as soon as they got to the highway these guys would do it again They would go right back to what they were doing to the point where they finally after three times three Sessions of this on the highway This guy couldn't even respond. He was completely unconscious. He's just Just limp in his seat and unable to even even fight back. You gotta imagine he's got His hands are to the point where he can't even put his hands up to defend himself He's he's in a position where he's just got to sit there and eat these bugs I mean, he's he can't do anything about it one way or the other. He's getting Just got to the point where he couldn't even fight back. I mean he couldn't even you know Resist the little that he could be more because he was unconscious and there were there were pounding him They were in an attempt to try to kill him. They were just going to continue to bludgeon him until he was dead so They We noticed we all noticed that we're in the room We're all sitting in the back of the bus watching this whole thing go down Like I said, I was one of the last people that got put on the bus So I was sitting right next to that cage where all this was going down. So I got I got a I got a front row seat to the whole entire Thing I saw it all it was it was a gory mess But the bus started speeding up really fast and we started zipping we got off the highway We started zipping through dirt roads and all that and no one knew we were going until all of a sudden out of the blue We all noticed that the Ferguson unit was coming up on the horizon And these and they pulled into the sallyport there at the Ferguson unit and there was 30 guards that were standing there in the in this little a sallyport by the way is there's Whenever you pull into a unit, there's you're going to pull into an area where there's a there's a Go through a gate the gate shuts and you're in between one gate and another gate And this is oftentimes where the inmates will get off the bus and they'll They'll they'll or they'll do some searches or whatever. You know, that's how the thing before you get on a bus So these guards were all just 30 of them and they're all taking their name tags off their shirts And we knew we were in for it wherever we saw that and they went on that bus They all had rubber gloves off their hands and they walked in there And started grabbing these inmates by their check everybody. There was only by the way There's only four inmates that were involved in this one was the victim in the three of them There's a number of other inmates. There's probably maybe Uh 15 inmates all together that are up front and only four of them were the problem But they didn't care who was who was involved and who wasn't involved Everybody was involved as far as they were concerned They walked on that bus and started snatching everybody up by their chains dragging them off the bus by their chains Throwing them down the stairs of the bus onto the ground Be they then proceeded to kick this shit out of them while they were on the ground all of them stomping them kicking them stomping them kicking them Then re-chained them all back up and the next time that they chained them up They were all chained with their hands were chained all the way down Their feet were chained all the way up to here and their hands were chained down to their feet Then they picked them up by their chains again and drug them back on the bus by their chains Putting them in their seats and told each one of them as they put they they beat them into their seats By the way, they were like they had this one guy. Oh, there's one massive sergeant I remember he was a seg sergeant And he was just kneeing and elbowing and kneeing these guys into there all the way up to the wall of this Wherever they sat them down on the seat all the way up to the window. I told him to look out the window And don't look don't look back this way And he was waiting on him because he knows that that the instinct is to find out Well, you know, we're here to look back and as soon as they did He's gonna give him a I mean a massive backhand slap for that rubber glove on sounds like something and sounds like bus by the way Everybody got that trigger one by one. They all got that trigger It was a mass before we go with it. They beat the hell out of every last one of those guys in the front of the bus And that's my story about transportation in tdc And I guess we shall say That's a wrap. I'm david This is Malone. There's me. 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