 |
| The Long Walk – Pick a Card Cell |
Here’s something interesting, you don’t need to speak Spanish in a border-town Mexican jail to be a full member of the inmate community. It was a shock to me, but then again, so was being arrested for a crime I did not commit (my lawyer requires me to say that, I really did do the crime but he doesn’t want me to admit it publicly, so I’ll play along).
The truth is that most of the guards, or “Screws,” speak English very well and almost all of the inmates are either American or have been to America enough to speak English. And there isn’t that ridiculous fascination with soccer in the jails, either. These guys were all interested in the pennant races and all had their opinions on whether it made any sense for Michael Vick to be playing so much in a pre-season game that resulted in his broken leg.
But that’s not all we talked about.
We all had our stories to tell; how we ended up where we ended up. What we would do differently next time (84% of the guys chose “not get caught” as their number one goal). Some of the men had families outside of the jail walls, over the border in McAllen, Texas, some had families south, towards Monterrey, Mexico and others apparently were happy with their family in the jail.
I met an old magician during my time there. Sammy “Snake” Sylvestri was a former kid show performer.…
Continue reading Magic Prison
Recent Comments