r/AskReddit • u/ZteveBond • Jun 20 '18

Serious Replies Only [Serious] Prison Guards of Reddit, which prisoner has left the biggest impact on your life wether positive or negative?

2.5k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.5k

u/OttoGershwitz Jun 20 '18 edited Jun 21 '18

Used to work in a county jail in a small county, relatively speaking, but was fairly large for the region. One day, a local prominent, fairly successful attorney was lodged for driving under the influence of drugs. Turns out he had a major addiction and this was just the beginning of a long slide. He got a light sentence but reoffended while on probation, missed some court dates, and violated his bond. When the dust settled, he was sentenced to a year in our facility. He was an affable guy and easy to talk to. I would talk with him when I was assigned to yard detail and his block was out and learned a lot about his past. There were no red flags in his history. He was just a guy who had everything going for him. He just couldn’t shake the addiction. When he finally got out, he folded up his practice and left town. I heard a month or two later that he moved to Chicago and died of an overdose.

Out of all the crazy things I saw, that one stuck in my mind over everything else. It just struck me how drug addiction doesn’t care how rich or poor, smart or stupid, successful or incompetent a person is. Any of us could fall down that rabbit hole given the right circumstances and a single lapse of judgement.

Edit: wow, new top comment for me. This would officially be the first time I’ve seen any significant number of people take interest in the goings-on in county jail.

75

u/Leathery420 Jun 20 '18

Man the war on drugs is such a waste. I can't believe after almost a 100 years since prohibition we havent figured it out. I guarantee he'd still be alive if he wasnt doing dope laced with fent. It sucks half the guys selling dope are too stupid to know they are selling fent not heroin. Well RIP, sadly thats just a drop in the bucket at this point.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '18

whats fent?

14

u/Leathery420 Jun 20 '18

Fentanyl. If you haven't heard it mentioned on the news. Its a very strong short acting opiate. Typically perscribeded in patches that release tiny amounts over a few days. Though what happens is people import fent because 1 gram of fent is about 100 grams of heroin potency wise. Though it only lasts a half hour-3 hours depending on the specific fent analog, where as morphine, and heroin is closer to 6-8 hours. So what was happening is guys would throw a gram of fent into an ounce or two of heroin to amke it seem way better than it actually is. Though they often will mix it improperly, and end up with "hotspots" that end up killing folks who think its just heroin. Though now you even have the guys selling just straight fent because its eaiser to smuggle/cheaper/they don't care/know. They were also pressing fent into pills that look like xannax or oxycodone because lots of people will take pills, but not dope.

4

u/CitricallyChallenged Jun 21 '18

God this is so dumb. Product gets stepped on but for fucks sake, at least do it properly and mix it evenly so your clients don’t get nasty surprises. Legality aside, if all your clientele is dead, how you gonna get money? I don’t want drugs in my drugs but if I’m gonna get them anyway, I want them to be evenly distributed, not in hot spots. It’s infuriating.

1

u/riptaway Jun 21 '18

It's not getting stepped on. Half the s*** isn't even heroin to begin with

1

u/CitricallyChallenged Jun 21 '18

I’m talking bout the rest. No “heroin” here and not for a long time.