he s got to have a cellie. escorted back to his ad seg cell, hamilton is optimistic that he will win his battle and return to general population without a cell mate. i m happy. i mean, i ain t got to stay in the cell. i get my tv, radio, and property back. later we were with hamilton as officers escorted him to his new general population cell. it s all right. just relax. don t get tense. i can feel you tense now. yeah? yeah. it s all right. finally, hamilton reaches his new cell, and his new cell mate. the relationship is short-lived. you refuse? go ahead, close it. close it. are you sure? you didn t even want to look at who you doesn t matter. okay. we ve got to turn back. before hamilton is returned
others believe that any cell mate is a threat to their survival. if i don t take a cellie, i can be sure that a cellie won t murder me, a cellie won t rape me or viciously beat me. when you refuse, you re going against their policy. so they stick you in a hole. that s exactly where we met dennis hamilton, in the hole, solitary confinement in the administrative segregation unit at california s kern valley state prison. it was the second time his refusal to share a cell had landed him there. but his time in the hole was about to end. and he was scheduled to return to general population, where sharing a cell is mandatory. to me the cells are too small. i think the cell in itself breeds an environment for homosexuality.
dennis hamilton was an unusual inmate. he just believed he didn t have to live with another man. i think he had a fear about living with another man. and to me it s like you don t even want these people in society, but you want me to feel safe inside a cell with this person. ironically other inmates might not feel safe around hamilton either. he s serving a life sentence for kidnapping, carjacking, robbery, and say salt with a deadly weapon. nine years in, he s only now decided to make his stand against taking a cell mate. there s no rule that says i have to take a cellie. two, i don t want to live with another man for the rest of my life. 127. the prison officials disagree. we followed him to an administrative hearing on the matter. here we go. escort! you don t have any enemies? nope.
surprised. i didn t think he was going to take it to this level where he would assault staff. the officer was not badly injured, but it landed hamilton back in administrative segregation, with a high probability of being sent to the shu, a place most inmates dread. to me it s prison. it s still prison. it s not going to change. it s still prison. and set it down in front of dennis and said, look, here s what it says. in a nutshell it says that every inmate will accept a cellie except if he has see this little thing? it s called an s suffix. that means single cell status. if you have that attached to if you send me to the shu or to a level one, it s still prison. i can t leave when i want, i can t do what i want, but i, this is what i can control. i can control you placing another inmate in there. since i can control that, you will not place another inmate in there. next on lockup: raw yes, i had a job. i was a professional escort. i was running my ads in play time
as officers escorted him to his new general population cell. it s all right. just relax. don t get tense. i can feel you tense now. yeah? yeah. it s all right. finally, hamilton reaches his new cell, and his new cell mate. the relationship is short-lived. you refuse? go ahead, close it. close it. are you sure? you didn t even want to look at who you doesn t matter. okay. we ve got to turn back. before hamilton is returned to his cell, his escort officers make one more attempt to reason with him. you have to find somebody that you re compatible with because eventually we re going to run out of bed space. i m not asking you to do it for everybody.