Living the Fast Life (2 of 2)

< Part 1

So what about jail?
R: It's about survival. It's about how a kid that's 16 years old is gonna survive put in a situation where, say this guy took something from you. You don't wanna kill this guy. You don't wanna stab him. You don't wanna fight. But everyone's watching you, watching what you're gonna do to this guy. I paid this white guy to do a dragon on my back. He only did half of it. And he kept delaying it, delaying it. One day, I said, man's what's up, and he gave me attitude. Everyone knew he did this dragon on me and never finished it. I said, aw man, this guy's testing me. And he was a lifer. I talked to him one last time, and I told him, you're putting me in a situation where I don't wanna be. I can't walk in this yard with everyone thinking I'm a punk. I might be small, whatever you think, but I'm just letting you know that I'm gonna do you up if you don't give me my money back. He gave me attitude, so I said, okay, this guy's gonna make me do him. So I'm trying to figure out how can I do this guy without getting caught. We have a gun tower, if you get caught in a fight, the guard will shoot you. So I said, I don't care, I have to do this. For a week I was watching him. He was looking at me, and he knew right away whether I was serious. I called his bluff. He came up, and he gave me half my money back.

How are you adjusting to life on the outside?
R: It's a constant test. I've been out for almost a year and a half. I start doing things that I haven't done since I was 16. A lot of things I don't know how to do. I'm trying to catch up with everybody.
But this generation, they have it tough. They do one crime, gone. Carjacking: 25 to life. Fuck. If I did a carjacking in 1990, I'd get probation. Fourteen, 15, 16, you go with the flow. Whatever is cool to do, you're gonna do. I seen a lot of guys, one mistake, wrong place at the wrong time, someone got killed and they get 25 to life. My friend, just last week, he got sentenced to 33 years. It broke my heart.

What would have reached you when you were 16?
R: I was at the age where nothing could reach me. Nothing in the whole world. My mom couldn't reach me. I cared about my friends and I cared who were my enemies. But this generation, they can be reached. It's a phase. It's cool to be a gangster. They're gonna outgrow it. Maybe for one or two it's not a phase. They're really down. You can't reach those kids no more. You have to catch them before they turn that way. If I had something to do when I was a freshman, if I had the right parents, if I just had something to do when I was in that transition, when I was a lost puppy looking for someone to lead the way. I would have followed whoevercame my way.