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did you have a problem going back out to that particular housing unit? you know what refusing a celly? i mean, just like i said, i was out there. never got in any trouble while i was out there. me personally, right, it s like if i don t know anything about you, whatever, like i said, i m just trying to do my time and go home. you know, i didn t mess with them. i never downtalked them. i never picked on them. i just went over there and let everybody alone and did my thing. but this individual started telling me about his case, and i got my pictures on my wall of my little girl and little boy. you know? and it you know, it s kind of hard. that s why i told the c.o., i don t want to be here with this guy, if you could please move me. okay. but, like i says, i got no problem. let me just i m going to tell you something you know. yeah. once you go over into special program yeah, i know. i know that. and because we gave you that song before you ever went over ....
i m not moving it. you re moving it. i want a nice little haircut and he gives me a bald head. whatever the barber says goes. i ain t got time to give him, you know, his hair is pretty short. a lot of these other individuals were waiting before me. but i m his celly, so i get in there. i was a northerner. i was a member of the northern california gang member. to be honest, i just wanted to be a gang member, to be honest. and at that time i thought, okay, i m going to represent the neighborhood and this and this and that. you know, no enemy is going to come step foot on our territory. but i mean, at the same time it was also just for looks when i was in school because girls like gangsters. you know what i mean? they don t like little square boys. do you know what i mean? they like gangsters. so that was part of the reason why i did too because, you know, i got a lot of attention for it. and i loved it. i m not going to lie. i loved it. i mean, to be honest, if i could take the ....
When you live with a guy, you have to make sure you re not on the same gastrointestinal cycle? yeah. and finding the right celly, that s one of the big things. that s one of the big things. if you both have a yeah. when you leave oh, man. and that s the cell slug. that s where the cell slug comes in. thank you. we can step out of here. starting to get a little claustrophobic. one thing that s become clear to me in my time here is that every inmate is open to talking about the reason they re in san quentin, and not in a gossipy way, but in a taking responsibility way. how did you end up here? i was arrested in 1996 for a series of bank robberies in san diego. you don t seem like a bank robber. right. i robbed the bank before and the lady said, are you serious? how did you do it? what was your process? they gave me the moniker the brown bag bandit. you got a moniker, you got a name! that s cool, i still got the bag. no, it s not! ....
During that same time, the prison population has grown from around 300,000 in 1980 to over 1.6 million prisoners today. what s not good here? you go up those stairs, it s totally different. what s up those stairs? going to north block, going to our housing. i m glad you guys are telling me the truth. yes. okay, but when you go home, you google pinochle. [ laughter ] those guys mentioned the living conditions here, so i figured i d ask my new friend, juan haynes, managing editor at the san quentin news, to give me a tour of his cell. it won t take long. this is the cell that i m in. okay. you can go in there. thank you. thank you. one of the things about these cells is, like, as you can see, as big as you are, two people can t stand down here at the same time normally. yeah. like, if i want to get down, then my celly lays over there so i can get by. you have to choreograph how you live in here. yeah. do you get to pick your roommate? ....
technically no. okay. but the department understands that you have to. it s better if you are living with somebody that you want to live with, because yeah, yeah. you have to be able to deal with another personal s personality in this close space. there s this term called cell slug. cell slug. yeah. that s a person that stays in the cell all the time and never leaves the cell, and so the other celly never gets any real privacy. i hate to bring it up, but we ve got to talk about it. i think you know what i m going to say what, that? the toilet. yeah. how? i mean, when i go to the bathroom, i like some privacy. i like to have my time. i like to be alone. i don t want anybody talking to me. all right. the way most cellies negotiate that is if my celly needs to use the restroom, i m going to find something to do. okay. he normally leaves at 6:30 in the morning. and so, my regular system is hooked up so after 6:30 i m good to go. so, it s kind of like whe ....