has this perception that when you pull up on a prison bus,

as soon as you get off, that it just rural mentality

that if you're looking at somebody wrong, you get stabbed,

you get robbed for your shoes.

And that's completely not true.

(dramatic music)

So I did 12 years in prison,

and most of it was in Corcoran State Prison.

My last three years, I did in Centinela State Prison.

A lot of people don't know how to differentiate,

going to jail and doing a few days in jail county

and going to prison doing years.

Before you get to prison, you go to a prison reception

and that's like for 90 days, and when 'em 90 days,

you're preparing yourself to go to a actual prison.

For the first three days in prison,

you're going through your medical treatment.

This is where you get your shots.

This is where you get your physical.

Surprisingly enough,

people see the dentist for the first time

when they get to prison.

On the fourth day, you're gonna go get your laundry.

This is your clothes size, your shoe size,

everything that's assigned to you

and you're responsible for.

Your fifth day, you get in the house.

House is where you're gonna be sleeping at permanently,

what building you're gonna be in.

But you're still not gonna be able to come out

because you gotta be cleared to come to the yard.

Usually building one be the orientation building.

All the new people that still need to be

seen by the counselors to see if you have any gang homies

or gang members here, on the same yard as you,

or any enemies, again make sure

they're trying to protect you and the opposition.

Day six and seven, they letting you go to the yard.

Now you're in general population,

you get to see who your friends are and who you know.

Some of the top three mistakes you can make

in your first week going to prison is borrowing.

When you borrow stuff, it's about,

"Hey, man, let me get this so I go to store."

When you go to store...

Everybody gets to go to store once a month

if you have money on your books.

And then your store come

and you don't have it for whatever reason.

Now that man that you borrow from

gets to dictate however how wants to deal with it.

Whether he wanna do physical violence,

he wanna double you up and charge you more or whatever.

So borrowing is like that.

Or being disrespectful to somebody.

You don't know who people know or anything like that.

So you just don't do it.

It's not a whole lot to say about that.

You just keep things simple in prison.

Not trying to go to prison is keeping it simple.

If you don't want to go to prison,

don't do things that get you to go to prison.

Stealing, that goes without saying.

Everybody knows stealing is not good.

So you get caught stealing, especially in jail,

you're gonna get dealt with seriously.

I walked prison yards with people that are never coming home

and they always still messages like this to people like me,

"If you ever get a chance to get out,

don't mess up, don't come back."

There's people right there

will love to have one more chance.

And we have many of the chances out here on the streets.

No one should want to lose their freedom,

but if you still happen to lose your freedom

and end up in prison, hopefully these tips guide you

through your trials and tribulations

to get you back to your family

and your home and your loved ones.

Always keep it simple, and always keep it respectful.

(soft piano music)