Page 3 - Convict Code News Today

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 of chicken. i do, i tell you. >> he was known to most of the prison by his nicknam...

Inmates facing sanctions for rule violations. >> on this im 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, its like disney land. oh, im going to disney land. go find a ride. >> the farm is a lot more freedom. its four-foot fences. you know, youre pretty much on your own will. you do what...

Or what skbloo no i was telling him that he shouldnt have been doing that actually. >> all right so you can understand my concern, right. >> yes. >> later, morgan explained to us that the convict code demanded he proves innocence even in the face of evidence to the contrary. >> this is a prison i dont care if its level one would be two or three or four, five or six i dont care what it is. its the ethics. hear no evil speak no evil. im turning around and walk away. you know what im saying im turn...

Safety could come down to the inmates own code known as the convict code. >> there are certain prisons where even when youve established a certain rapport with inmates theyve made it very clear to me that if another inmate attacks me they will not come to my aide. thats against the convict code. other prisons inmates say they will protect me. i have been told they are watching me to make sure nobody hurts me. >> in certain high-security housing units lockup field teams are required by the prison...

After a fight in his dorm, surveillance video caught morgan trying to clean up the blood. >> you could be a firsthand witness to an actual crime, but if you live by the convict code, you see nothing, you hear nothing, and you say nothing, and that was the case unfortunately with peaches. he was witness to a crime. but he wouldnt cop to it. >> morgan was moved to the segregation unit pending an investigation into his role in the fight. but he denied any involvement, even when confronted by deputy...

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. >> you going to get a tattoo on your back? >> it says peaches all the way...

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 know what it was over. i got enough people out there telling me what it was over. >> and now things are about to heat up even more for inman as the prison disciplinar...

Merithews comments about the sandwiches to officers. >> extra mayonnaise, thats what i said. >> but in the eyes of some inmates that made tolbert a snitch. >> so he was moved down to here to get away from that pod because he had informed on them up there, and when he came down 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-stan...

Snitch. >> so he was moved down to here to get away from that pod because he had informed on them up there, and when he came down 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 callin...

One of only two officers assigned to manage the 95 men on wasatch "a" that morning. >> yeah, they can take the block, but theyre not going anywhere. what are they going to do. that doesnt really bother me. i dont have a control issue that way. they let us control and manipulate how they live and what they do. >> they got their rules, we got ours, you know? >> theres a code of conduct in here that you got to follow, if you want to, you know, make your time easy, you know. you dont rat on people. ...