none of the straight inmates were embarrassed to be seen with peaches. and that was also unusual in a general population setting. for a gay man in prison. it s like disney land. you just don t know what ride to get on. my family goes, are you ready to come home? i said yeah i m ready to come home i just haven t earned my mickey mouse ears yet. so a couple more years and i ve got my mickey mouse ears and i m out the door. uh-huh. and i m taking all the rides with me. i ll go ahead and fill out the paperwork and have you sign it. morgan also held a prison job as an inmate advocate. a sort of amateur lawyer for inmates facing sanctions for rule violations. on this i m going to try to get you suspended sanctions. while morgan lived in the minimum security level two section of the penitentiary of new mexico, he was awaiting transfer to an even less restrictive level one prison, commonly known as the farm. i told them, it s like disney land.
just how scared. every once in a while you meet an inmate who has been in prison so long, that they ve really developed a comfort zone. but ziggy took it to a new level. he apparently was sabotaging his own parole hearing by tampering with his urine test, not to conceal the drug use, but actually to make it appear that he was using drugs in order to be denied parole and stay in prison. during our shoot, ziggy was facing a disciplinary board hearing for altering his urine test. let me see the text in the write-up here. in his hour of need, ziggy turned to an unlikely ally, fellow inmate and convicted serial rapist mark higgins. higgins prison job is as an inmate adviser, a sort of layman defense lawyer. therefore, inmate hall is being charged with dsa, drug screen alter. i did this for a reason, was because i m coming up for parole here in less than three months,
inmate adviser, a sort of layman defense lawyer. therefore, inmate hall is being charged with dsa, drug screen alter. i did this for a reason, was because i m coming up for parole here in less than three months, and i needed a way to delay that, to delay getting out. i m not ready to get out. lieutenant vance, the d-board chairman, has a tendency to have an attitude of don t know, don t care, when it comes to your personal problems. all he really wants to address is what s in the write-up. ziggy faces several potential penalties for attempting to alter his drug screen, including time in the hole, a loss of his prison job, and even a judgment that can make his whole plan backfire, a transfer to another prison. that s one punishment i really don t look forward to is being transferred somewhere else. ziggy s reluctance to leave prison became all the more puzzling when we learned some of
and i needed a way to delay that, to delay getting out. i m not ready to get out. lieutenant vance, the d-board chairman, has a tendency to have an attitude of don t know, don t care, when it comes to your personal problems. all he really wants to address is what s in the write-up. ziggy faces several potential penalties for attempting to alter his drug screen, including time in the hole, a loss of his prison job, and even a judgment that can make his whole plan backfire, a transfer to another prison. that s one punishment i really don t look forward to is being transferred somewhere else. ziggy s reluctance to leave prison became all the more puzzling when we learned some of what he d endured during his 30 plus years of incarceration. i was not born gay and every relationship i ve had has been a forced type, a, well, this is what i have to do type of thing, but i didn t enjoy it.
last stop in a long life of incarceration. i ve been locked up virtually since age 12 in institutions and reform schools and prisons and penal farms, and i m in here this time for prying into an empty drawer in the lobby of a hospital. i received a life sentence under what they called the habitual criminal clause because i ve been convicted so many times before for theft, shoplifting, and just being a pain to the members of society and midtown memphis. ziggy had grown accustomed to life in riverbend s minimum security unit. he has what he calls a cushy prison job, editing the inmate newspaper. my punishment is not going to begin until i walk out those front gates because this is the world i ve gotten used to since age 12. but when i get out there, it s an entirely different world, and