OOPS There Goes Another Crime. Last night I went to get my State Issued coat from the coat hooks along our back wall. We each have a five inch long, one inch in diameter, dowel that we can hang our coat on. Each dowel is numbered by your bed number. Each coat also has a label on it with your name and prison ID number.

I had not used my coat in the last three days, and when I went to get it last night it was not on the hook where it should be. No major problem, sometimes the coats get knocked off the hook and they are not put back in the right place. I searched all one hundred hooks and now was getting very pissed.

After checking two more times, it was obvious that the coat was not misplaced, it had been stolen. Since we never go anywhere here, it is impossible to lose your coat. No, I realized by the smirks on my bunkee's and the gangster's faces that the coat had indeed met a sinister end. Alas. I need to now request a new coat and at best, will get some ratty old used one or at worst, be forced to pay $65.00 for a new one.

I have not challenged anyone directly about the mysterious disappearance of my personal property. The typical prison behavior that is being reinforced at this time is I am now fair game to any two-bit wanna-be gangster.

Yes, prison is really about the survival of the ones willing to fight instead of try peace.

Sometimes you can not win. I have ignored the gangster, yet five minutes ago he called me a pussy and challenged me to a fight in the bathroom. I step away from him several times and he continued to step right up in my face. This all took place in the doorway of the dorm with at least twenty other inmates standing around waiting to be called in for chow.

He said he knew I talked to the cop about him. I told him I was not a rat and I had not talked to a cop. Had I done that he and probably I would already be on our way to the box.

Now another inmate just came over and talked to me on his behalf. I told him the same thing I told the gangster, I am not doing anything to him, I have not told the cops anything and he said he would try to calm him down. He said he has known this guy since he was six or seven years old. Stay tuned for more updates. This gangster person is already on some type of daily meds. Guess they are not working too well.

I have made it plain that I am not going to fight him, and as I said earlier that is next to useless around here.

Remind me again how good I have it here. It is interesting that while I was being challenged right in my cube, another inmate right on the other side of the bunk, two and a half feet away that I had been talking, to all of a sudden made like I was not even there.

Now the local emissary came back and said that he calmed the gangster down, and he will not bother me anymore. If you put any faith in that last statement, I have some ocean front property in Arizona for sale.  ¶ 7:48 AM