Page 16 - Convict Code News Today

But theyre getting better and better at the way they hide their weapons. as you see, this one guy keeps looking around, and hes got the heavy coat on. the temperatures pretty hot, so theyre the soldiers. they wear these jackets. its a little bit more armor. if anything goes on, theyre the first ones to get involved. >> many inmates have told us, if violence does break out the convict code dictates how they will respond. >> if its a racial situation, youve got to respond according to your racial ...

In every prison profiled on "lockup" our producers have found subtle differences in how inmates enforce the convict code or the unwritten rules by which they live, but one aspect rarely changes -- the position of sex offenders on the inmate hierarchy. >> murderers, robbers, theyre up here. child molesters, rapists, theyre down here. them guys on the bottom deck, most of them guys are sex offenders, you know? i dont like them. i just tolerate them. i used to beat them. i used to prey on them. >> ...

Here he kind of was bragging about that incident and how he came forward and gave us the information, and vasquez said, well, youre a snitch. started from there. and escalated. >> vasquez says he was honoring the long-standing convict code which says snitches should be punished. >> telling them something about somebody else, technically it is snitching. he kept calling me a bitch. and i was like you a bitch man. what the [ bleep ] you say to the detectives. >> that was the right thing for me to,...

You do your time and mind your business. we met one inmate who observed the convict code but was also open about being gay, and thats a combination you rarely find in prison. >> hi. all the men in there. hey! >> kenneth morgan is serving nine years for forgery and drug trafficking when we met him during our extended stay shoot at the penitentiary of new mexico. >> i told him i had more legs than a bucket of chicken. i do, i tell you. >> he was known to most of the prison by his nickname, peaches...

>> i am still learning life because i didnt know life. im 30 years old, just learning how to drive. but you know what, im doing it. im learning it. theres a lot of girls in here that dont know how. and im going to school, and i have dreams now, and i can help people. thats what i want to do. >> coming up -- >> hi, boys. >> peaches was one of those inmates that stands out in your mind years after you leave a prison. hes very flamboyant. very forthright. very honest. >> one inmates independence is...

Different when you go out next year. when you are released from prison next year, what will be different? >> what will be different? well, i have one choice, to live, be out there with my children again, my family. or come back in. or be dead in the ghetto. thats all i can say. and i have to do it. i have to do it. i cant come back. im 39, im getting too old for this, too old. i cant do this no more. i cant do it. coming up -- >> get the cable fixed. >> an old con teaches a new arrival a thing...

Im not an inmate. >> robert spears was your typical convict. he had done a lot of time. he had lived very distinctly by the convict code and he was very accepting of his situation. he didnt complain. he didnt blame anybody. he was a tough guy. >> when i came to prison, i was a kid. i had to do what i had to do to survive and im not proud of the things sometimes that i had to do. some people has to be hurt, ive been hurt. you know what i mean? but thats just the way of life here. >> spears has ta...

Just like yours. huh. [ male announcer ] and roasted white meat chicken. just like yours. [ male announcer ] youll think its homemade. i love this show. [ male announcer ] try campbells homestyle soup. the convict code is something weve seen in most of the prisons weve visited. it comes down to you hear nothing, you see nothing, you say nothing.

>> but according to lieutenant jim fox, the attention they brought on the prisons illegal tattoo trade took them from trail blazers to targets among fellow inmates. inman got the message in no uncertain terms. >> apparently another inmate or two went into his cell and put some knots on his head and said dont be giving us anymore heat over here. we seen inman a day or two later, of course, he wont tell what happened or what it was over or anything like that, because thats a convict code. but we k...

>> two weeks after his brutal stabbing, ellerman has returned to general population. >> i was stabbed ten times. i think i won the fight, he won the war. >> stafford received a year in the hole despite ellermans refusal to cooperate with the investigation. its all part of the convict code. >> im a convict. you dont tell nothing. thats just the way it is. i mean ive got to live here the rest of my life. i dont want anybody thinking that im weak, that im going to talk, that im going to say anythin...