Page 25 - Convict Code News Today

Conversations, but everything switched when it became an on-camera interview. theres a convict code that many of these guys have to live by. and part of that code is to not reveal too much information. the most challenging part of interviewing alejandro steele was when i started asking him about his most visible crime. >> that crime occurred while steele was serving his original sentence and got him an additional 23 years. it was an assault that he carried out literally in front of a jury of his...

The prisons weve visited. it comes down to you hear nothing, you see nothing, you say nothing. 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 ...

Know. its all trust that you build up. >> peaches was told he had six months to stay disciplinary free in order to go to a lower level facility. that seemed pretty easy to do since he was so well acclimated in that prison. >> morgan! >> but adherence to the convict code would soon cost morgan his place in general population and the transfer hed been waiting for. after a fight in his dorm, surveillance video caught morgan trying to clean up the blood. >> you could be a firsthand witness to an act...

>> 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 p...

They think that badge gives them power, that badge is only an illusion of power. that power can be stripped and taken away in a moments notice. >> and you help them see? >> no, allegedly. >> yes, alejandro was playing a cat and mouse game, absolutely. part of it it could have been the convict code not to reveal too much information, and part of it could very have been the fact that he was kind of delighted to be out of his cell and able to have this exchange and kind of get people going. >> but ...

>> got the blood out of my shoes. thats why i stopped fighting because i seen blood on my shoes. >> two weeks after his 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 don...

Shoes. thats -- becauseon my shoes. >> 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. >> why? it is. i mean, i got to live here the rest of my life. i dont want anybody thinking that im weak, that im going to talk, tha...

Convict, he was basically say his crimes were not against a child or of a sexual nature against a woman. he lives by the convict code which in prison is a big deal. >> the laws of the convict is dont respect others, you dont steal, pay your debts and never become a punk or a pitch. i have done that. my reputation is clean. >> the status as a convict was threatened by prisons complicated social structure. >> those animals are there. . >> we were interviewing him at his cell and he was awaiting an...

Himself. its none of his business. inmates are one that would tell in a minute. theyre rats. im a straight convict. 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. so...

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...