What did you miss the most about normal life when you were in prison?
Was it better or worse than you thought it would be?
What part of your life changed the most from before to after you got out of prison?

Some stupid ppl in this thread, I believe you OP!

Cool stories.

If you had to, do you believe you could have escaped the prison you were in?

Obviously you would be a fool to try with a sentence as short as yours but I'm still curious as to your thoughts on this.

No, this is simply flat out wrong, 100%.

Going to jail is evidence only that he was convincted of a crime, not that he committed it. www.dictionary.com and then look up "evidence"

xx44,

You are in the most hardcore gang there is!

You think any other gang has an initiation where they cut their [censored] at 8 days old, that is str8 hood.

Talking about gang history, man you have got 5000+ history beat that Latin Kings.

You think other gangs have tough rules, there is 613 things you may or may not do, now that is some real gangsta [censored] right there.

You think any other gang has the style, man i cant tell bloods from crips, but you give me a man wearing a yarmulke and Tzitzis and i know he is legit.

I only have one thing to say to you, my brother from another mother.


Respek.

Has anyone mentioned Boiler Room? Definitely thought of that movie when reading OP.

OP, thanks for making this thread and good luck with your life and future endeavors.

FlyWf et al - you suck and your life likely sucks or will suck more than prison.

how do i put this in a nice way, kneeco and everyone one else debating whether or not the op broke the law

give it a rest!

op,

please post more cool stories like the one about the phone and the crazy inmate in the yard.

Does someone get civil penalties for not breaking the law or for breaking the law? I honestly don't know.

To the OP, this is an amazing thread. I love the crazy stories that end up alright for you. I will admit, some of the stuff you've said, you have about 10 times the balls that I do. Asking the roommate to turn down his radio.. BALLS!! That's crazy!

So, I know everyone's thinking it, but no one's said it yet, so here goes. Are there opportunities to pleasure one's self in jail? Like, if your roommate heads out for a minute, can you whip it out and take care of business real quick before he gets back?

I guess I'm asking, "How does masturbation work in jail?"

The OP said he wasn't "lily-white," he was aggressive. As for the notion that "white-collar crime" isn't as bad as other crimes, feel free to believe it. I'll feel free to think you're an idiot. Legality and ethics are almost mutually exclusive, especially in this day and age and in this country.

Do you all cheat at the poker table? Do you believe that if you aren't pushing the boundaries wrt cheating, you're not doing it right? I doubt it. I have no idea what aggressive really means, whether that's profiting from inside information (i.e., a hookup based on your upbringing/socioeconomic status/insider-ness, or that of your co-workers) or just taking risks wrt gray areas in the law. However, I'm pretty [censored] sure that an aspect of the risk you're taking is what happened to the OP.

Do I think he deserved it? I don't know enough about high finance to say, but it sounds like he got screwed at least a little. Have others gotten away with a lot worse in this arena? Undoubtedly. Is "everybody does it" a defense? Hell no. I'm astonished by the fact that an argument that never worked on anyone's parents when they were children is the rationalization for all sorts of behavior as adults. People do what they feel they have to do to survive/thrive, and I don't (necessarily) blame them for that. But to believe, as many seem to, that there shouldn't be/aren't consequences for those choices? I thought the average 2p2er was smarter than that. Unless, of course, the "trust-fund" comment posted earlier is closer to the truth than I realize. Or perhaps what I've often wondered about the "cheat-code"/"god-mode" generation is true -- that you can rationalize anything. You know, like chicks do.

I'm glad OP made it through safely, I really am. As for the rest of you trollers who oppose us "anti-" trollers, I humbly submit that this is probably not the only area of the law in which the legal system and the prison system are all [censored] up, and in fact one might be able to find much more egregious examples, with much further-reaching consequences. And that's our point. If you're basing your argument on your personal narrow perspective (omg that's so terrible, it could happen to one of my friends/daddy/me?!?), at least admit it.

Also, much respect to OP for not feeling sorry for himself in his statements.

this thread has been derailed enough, please tell all the good stories there. Those 2 you posted are awesome.

When I worked for that company I lived in an a $1600/month apt.

The charges were a securities fraud. The DA charged us under laws that were made to prosecute totally different illegal activity. Therefore I would prefer not give the specific charges as it was a rarity for a security crime to be prosecuted under these laws (would like to stay anonymous).

Yes unethical at the worst should have been NASD violations but it was all about headlines, and once the DA relented on the promoting part, he was'nt letting go.

What are the card games like in prison?

Was there much bartering going on?

What could 2 cartons of smokes actually get you?

How many other innocent people do you think you met in jail?

If you had to spend another 2 years in jail how much money would you need to be paid to do it?

Did you learn much from others about breaking the law/scams etc?

How many times did you think "fk it.. I'm breaking out of here"?

Why didn't you just leg it to canada and skip the jail time altogether?

If you went through the whole trial and then was convicted I might have some symphathy. But, you did plead guilty so something you did would smell as being illegal. But, of course, another inmate who is innocent. I have met jillions of them and laugh. Oh, I realize that there are some innocent people in prison but definitely a very small minority. And again, a very small minority took a plea although most of them were guilty of something.

Mr,

For the plea I asked about that, my lawyer said it was different than the feds in that the DOC had total say where I go.

DHG,

Yeah not so much of a strain because of where I was located. It def sucked, but I was able to see her 2x/week for 5hrs each day, and I spoke with her everyday for an hour. Conjugal are only the maxs, but we had our share of long kisses and little rubbing.

FWIW some people were able to get laid in the visitor bathroom durin visits

Adebisi,

Totally thought about running. I knew that thye would not come after me, but I would never be able to come back to the US again. They did want my passport, my lawyer told them I lost it, which I di, and they never said anything after. No assets were frozen, surprisingly . The head DA is still there, he did the Tyco investigation. His assistant is now trying to be a white collar defense attorney

why were you living in a $4k/mo apartment on 100k salary? also, what did $4k get in 1995? 3BRS?

Hawk,

Most of the guards (co) were alright. At the worst they were a stickler for rules, ie. write you up for smoking. At the very worst they were [censored], like the co who wrote me up when I had my hand on the inside of my gf thigh in visit. But I didnt see any that were abusive. Some I had conversations with, but you definitely did not want to be known as one who always spoke to the co's.

Miss,

No rita, but I did read the count of monte cristo in there 1400 pages.

Tornado,

The day I will never forget is when our SEC lawyer called us and said he was contacted by the Da. The incompetent ADA called him by mistake, essentially tipping him that my office was involved in an investifgation. LOL, at the end of the conversation the ADA told my lawyer "dont say anything".

Our SEC guy said we should probably think about talking to criminal lawyers. We were like "huh". I still did not think it was a big deal until a week later, when our new criminal lawyers went down to the DA to see what was up. They came back and told us that the DA truly believes we did something wrong. My "fun life" ended there. For the next 9 months our lawyers were trying to prove to the DA we were in no way involved with criminal activity and had no idea what the other ofices were doing. Like I wrote in a previous post, a lawyer told us woith this DA "God himself could come down and tell him he is wrong , and he still wont believe it".

So 9 months after learning about the investigation wwe were indicted. Our lawyers filed what I thtought were fabulous motion to dismiss (which rarely happens) and 1 year after indictment was a trial.

Oddly enough, I never saw a fight, saw threats but no fights.The atmosphere in my jail was I guess very laid back relatively speaking.

*sigh*, I really have no desire to play this game anymore and like everyone wants me to stop, but when I'm so obviously right and being countered by people who don't know English/can't even be bothered to make an argument, how can I not reply?
The fact that he went to jail tends to prove/is grounds for belief that he broke the law, on the basis that we know that the vast majority of people who went to jail broke the law.

Why do you people think evidence has to be 100% foolproof to be evidence?? It doesn't, read the definition. No going to jail doesn't prove he broke the law, but going to jail is evidence that he broke the law, it "tends" to indicate it.

After you've looked up the definition of evidence and see the word tends in there, look up that word and see that it means "to have tendency", "to be disposed or inclined", and we all know that if you've been to jail, you probably broke the law.

Summary:
1) Going to jail does not necessarily equal having broken the law.
2) However, it *tends* to be the case that people who have been to jail, have broken the law.
3) Therefore, going to jail != prove having broken the law.
4) But going to jail = evidence of having broken the law.

BXb,

I think I heard of one guard who was bringing drugs in, but that wasabout it.

Vyse,

On the visit, their girl or whoever would bring it in a balloon. Pass it to them, and they would either swallow it (chit it out later) or boof it (shove it way up the butt).

After a visit we are stripped searched, bend over and spread them type.

Golf,

I dont think the aryans run deep in NY. I did see one or two with "white power" on their arms.

I at first was worried about that. When I ws in Rikers I told people I was half jewish, nobody cared. When I got to my prison I was back to full Jewish, again rarely heard anything racist. There were about 7 Jewish guys in the whole prison (400 people), but we were allowed to have our own synagogue( a small room), have friday dinners (I am reformed, but the guy made a mean shabbos dinner). And all the holidays. We even were allowed to have a Sukkas(sp). A rabbi came once a week, as one is assigned to every 5 jail.
Religion, and race wre respected.

As far as your fighting attitude, mine was the same. I would have gone a 2 year trial if I knew there was a decent chance of einning on all counts. THe leverag the Da has, and why most of these cases plea out is they make the risk reward so great.

Big,

Exactly

JS,

The worst of prison was not being with my girl, and family.

It was SO SO much better than I imagined. If I knew it was like it was I would have plead in the beginnging to 6 months and 41/2 yrs parole. But this was when OZ was still on, and I was freaking.

The thing that changesd the most, aside from no longer living the HI-LIfe, is that any arrogance I had is gone. Jail is a humbling experience. I also dont getupset about the little things.

Noodle,

When I first got to my prison they only had a single fence, with vibration monitors. There was one part tht was easy enough to scale with no monitors there. They however fixed a few months later, then put up a second perimeter.

Dmish,

I am sure you are not alone in thinking that. The only similarity was that we were aggressive. Our clients were buying mostly big cap techs, msft,intc and maybe 5-10% of their portfolio were in spec stocks.

What did you do on the day before you went in?

Low,

Masturbation is obv a needed. You are supposed to bring your mag to the bathroom and do it there (doors on stalls). I will admit that I broke the rule and never did it there. When alone in my room I would. If my bunkie caught me it would not be good.

5-4,

When I said "all firms do it", I was not trying to justify , but showing that what we did was industry norms. For example a broker at morgan stanley was just as aggressive and was not telling their clients all the risks involved with a recommende investment.

Son,

Lots spades, hearts and some pinochle. Usually playing for pushups. I did get involved with poker games for cigs, lots wild cards, but stopped when I realized it was not a friendly game. I played holdem for cigs with the Italians (own clique) but stopped as well when I \was not feeling that comfortable.

A pack of cigarettes for 2 hair cuts. A pack would also get yuou a small, but good, homeade cheesecake. As far as monetary value, they were sold in the commissary, so a pack would be equal to $5 of food.

My bunkie told me of his old bunkie in the max jail he liked, also jewish he said. He told me the guy was a postal worker in for murder, and said he was totally framed. He gave me the guy's name, Barry something. 2 years after I was released front page of the Daily News was his picture. If you rememebr the 2 cops that did mob hits, well it turned out they had him set up, tath sent chills through my spine.

Taking out all the possibilites of added time or any violence,if I was in my 20's and did not have cash, and knew it would be the same experience, I would do it for a mil. Now I would do it for 10 mil. It would be like taking a sabbatical.