This Is Ear Hustle by Nigel Poor & Earlonne Woods

Author:Nigel Poor & Earlonne Woods [Poor, Nigel & Woods, Earlonne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2021-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

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NIGEL Earlonne, did you ever use exercise as a way to get your mind in other places?

EARLONNE I use exercise as a way to try to stay in shape and keep the gut down, because it always finds a way to expand. Nothing else expands; just the gut.

NIGEL I always wonder how people can gain weight in prison—there’s just not that much food, is there?

EARLONNE It depends on your job. If you work in the kitchen…Imagine that, you know what I’m saying? I used to work in the kitchen and I caught myself caking it up, cookie-ing it up. If they come through with the sweets, I’m in.

NIGEL What do other people do inside to occupy themselves or to find value?

EARLONNE Some do drugs, or smoke cigarettes. Others try different types of shit—it all depends on the prison you’re in. But sometimes you’re in a prison where there’s nothing to do but walk the yard.

NIGEL Seems like at San Quentin there’s so much to do.

EARLONNE San Quentin’s different. It has all kinds of stuff to do. You got classes, various groups, you can work in the hospital, you can be a gardener…But there are other prisons where there is just nothing. You walk the yard or you’re in your cell.

NIGEL How much of your time in prison did you spend at a place like that?

EARLONNE Most of it. I did twenty-seven years, and I’d say twenty of them were in a prison where I had nothing to do.

NIGEL How did you keep from going crazy?

EARLONNE You just adjust to the circumstances and the situation around you. People look at a person going to the hole [solitary confinement] and being there for two years and are like, “Man, I don’t know how you can do that.” Or be in there for thirty years! But when it’s all you have, then that’s what you adjust to.

When I was in the hole, I just looked at it as another part of prison. I just didn’t have any privileges. After the first couple of days, you adjust to it. And when you’re in a prison with no programs, you adjust to that as well. What else are you gonna do? If there’s nothing to do, you just roll with it, you know? It’s sad being in those prisons, because there’s nothing to do but fight, gamble, smoke, do drugs, drink. It’s warehousing.

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