at sacramento s county s rio cosumnes correctional center a new cell with friendlier inmates seemed like a ray of sunshine for purple heart recipient ryan sobel. but it s been all downhill from there. they gave me five days in the hole with everything taken from me. which was a definite experience. kind of brought me back to the movie cool hand luke. sobel was given five days in segregation. locked in a single-man cell 23 hours a day with loss of privileges. for attempting to send a letter to his girlfriend, ariel potter. the letter was written to her grandparents. i put a note in there saying can you reroute this to ariel s address. i thought that was okay. the letter i had written telling her to stay strong and that i loved her also said that i will see her at the next court date. unless an inmate is given
it, we d give it back to her. but once it stays too long, it s just going in the trash can. soon after we met her, potter declined to speak any further on camera as she tried to adjust to her new surroundings. now several weeks later she has changed her mind. when i first got in here i was having extreme panic attacks and anxiety attacks and i couldn t breathe. it was scary. i was in shock for a while. i cried all the time. i thought i was going to be out within a couple weeks. i still am kind of confused about a lot of things and it sucks being in the dark and not knowing what s going to happen. waiting for court date to court date. just living on that week to week. it s difficult. it really is. what do you think about? ryan, honestly. i think about him a lot. and think about what i could have done differently that night. what could you have done differently that night? we shouldn t have gone.
i ended up having retinal detachment, my eardrums were completely blown. i ended up having surgery on my head twice. both my clavicles were snapped. i had traumatic brain injury. i was in a hospital bed at that time. and i was heavily scarred and everything. i was given the purple heart. i don t even remember. i ve seen the picture of my colonel putting it on my chest. sobel was honorably discharged due to his many injuries. but now he faces charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and conspiracy. according to police, he allegedly stabbed two men in a brawl involving his girlfriend s ex-boyfriend. dinner was gross today. you know that, right? mm-hmm. like lima beans, that pumpkin pudding. a bit of good news for sobel is that he s getting along with his new cellmate, spencer asher. my cellmate, i ve gotten him to want to join the military when he gets out. so he wants to change himself. i told him it s a perfect place
to start, you know. your recruiters will work with you to expunge certain things on your record and get you to be a squared-away citizen of the united states. can t wait to get up out of here and join the army. the army will do me good. i m tired of coming back here. it sucks. asher has given sobel advice as well. he s shown him a way to skirt jail rules in order to communicate with his girlfriend and co-defendant ariel potter. we came up with kind of like a briefcase type situation here. it s an actual grocery bag cut in half. we filed down a toothpaste tube and tied a piece of string on the other side of it. and then on the other side is the crew which fastens in and tightens down the string. it s basically like your regular manila envelope and i made her a card and drew the cover for me. and i put in her favorite candy
head twice, both of my clavicles were snapped. i had traumatic brain injury. i was in a hospital bed at that time. i was heavily scarred and everything. i was given the purple heart. i don t even remember, i ve seen the picture of my colonel putting it on my chest. sobel was honorably discharged due to his many injuries. but now he faces charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy. according to police, he allegedly stabbed two men in a brawl. involving his girlfriend s ex-boyfriend. lima beans, pumpkin pudding. a bit of good news for sobel is that he s getting along with his new cell mate, spencer asher. my cellmate, i ve got him to join the military when he gets out. he wants to change himself. i told him it s a perfect place to start. recruiters will work with you to expunge certain things on your