I had this cellmate who's an axe-
he killed a man with an axe handle on an airforce base.
Good dude. I know, you're saying "what do you mean, 'good dude?'"
Good dude. I trusted him.
Hi, I'm Larry Lawton, America's biggest jewel thief.
Join me as I walk you through my past robberies,
how I planned them, executed them
and ultimately got caught.
I'm gonna show you how we did things in prison.
Like: making a tattoo gun, making wine,
making white lightening. It's going to very educational.
These are the untold stories.
Hey everybody, Larry Lawton here for another great addition of
Untold Stories and this is going to be a good one.
This is called the 10 Unwritten Rules You Need to Know About Prison
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We're really trying to build this thing for a lot of good reasons
and the main reason is to build up a prison reform group
that's going to be making changes in a system we all know is broke
So let me get into this next thing I wanted to tell you guys about.
It's called the 10 Unwritten Rules, and it's about prison.
Because if you didn't know these, one: you could lose your life,
get stabbed, have a really rough time
I get called all the time about people who made mistakes
they will be going to prison and it all, of course, depends on what level prison
you're going to. Let me get right into the Unwritten Rules.
Cause they're important things you would need to know if you were at the prison.
The first thing you do: obviously when you go into prison,
don't believe anybody there is your buddy.
But the first unwritten rule is to look at what people are wearing on their feet.
You're saying to me, what are you talking about Larry?
Here's exactly what I'm talking about.
When I was transferred, and I was transferred a lot
because I was a, I guess you would just call me
a troubled inmate, a convict who didn't care,
would fight the system, they gave me diesel therapy
they did a lot of things to make my life rough in prison.
Well, they transfer you. Obviously, I ended up having a very good reputation
so I was a convict and people knew me and you'd go from one place to another.
You're in what they call "Con Air," the air transport
which I'll be doing a video on.
But anyway, as far as the 10 Unwritten Rules,
that first rule is: What are people wearing?
If I go into a prison and I come on the yard
I got my bed roll, I'm getting assigned
to one of the units, you walk into the unit
you see people milling around all the time
They could be up on the tiers looking down at you,
it's kind of intimidating if you don't understand what's going on.
They're sizing you up, seeing who you are, seeing what kind of guy-
how you carry yourself. Are you meek, are you aggresive,
are you tough, the way you walk, the way you look at people.
You don't stare them down, but you don't look away.
It's an art to all of that.
One of the first things I do, is look at what they're wearing.
Here's why. If I see people wearing, flip flops...
I'm looking, it's not ready to jump off.
If you see people wearing boots, their prison-issued boots
If you see people wearing their boots, "Why are they all wearing their boots?"
If you see people in sneakers and boots and stuff like that,
you're saying to yourself, "what's going on here?"
Usually when people are wearing stuff like that,
especially, if you're in the unit and you come in later in the night
or sometimes you come in after chow
they'll release you from R&D, depending on what time they release you
when you get to that unit, if you see people with sneakers milling around
You can feel it. You can feel tension, something might jump off.
You're not involved, I'm not saying to get involved,
and don't get involved, but something might jump off
so you'd better be on your Ps and Qs.
You'd better be ready, at all times.
Step back, get outta the way watch two guys go at it,
you don't try to break stuff up, you just back away
It's not your beef, you just are a convict,
no lookin' at him. But you'd better know that.
Now if I see people just joking around,
and they're walking around in flip flops and stuff,
they just got out of their shower, and it's like "old home" week here,
this place is not going to scare me too much. It's ok.
It's a prison, things can happen. But ok, it's not a tension-filled place.
You'll know tension right away in a prison.
Absolutely right away you'll know it. And boy, I get that feeling
to this day no matter what I do. I can feel tension, all the time.
It's just who I am.
The second thing you wanna know in the Unwritten Rules:
What's the shower situation?
Listen, I like to be clean. I don't ever want to be a dirty person.
You don't want to be a dirty person in prison.
The worst thing you can do is be a dude who smells,
doesn't clean up after himself, and be with a celly.
I once took a dude's face and grabbed him by the back of his hair
and smashed his face into a concrete wall.
Blood started pouring all over the place, he just falls down
I did that because after two times. He used to shave, we all shaved-
They have the sink and the toilet together. Here's a picture of it, right here.
And in that, you'd better clean up after yourself.
If you brush your teeth, you don't leave toothpaste in the bottom of that.
If you shave, you don't leave your shavings, you know, the hairs, in there!
Whatever it is, you clean that out. Just like you take your toilet
you know, you have a single unit. As you can see in the picture, its the
single units, when you go there, you use that toilet, you clean that.
You take a piss, you take toilet paper and you clean that toilet, that "seat cover."
There's no seat cover, you're sitting on stainless steel.
But you wanna be seeing piss stuff on that?
If I got a celly and he walks in, and you know,
say they assign someone usually you don't let that happen depending on the place
they get a guy and he comes in your cell and he says "hi, how you doing?"
I'll know within 5 minutes what kind of dude this dude is.
Is he a convict, is he a newbie? Is he scared so he doesn't know how to act?
The way he handles himself right around that toilet area,
I'm going to know what kind of guy he is.
And I wanna know what kind of guy he is. I wanna know what I'm dealing with.
The guy that I smashed, I didn't just smash him.
I told him a few times, I said, "Listen man, clean up man.
We eat, we get water out of that sink. We fill up our bowls, we put water in there
You might get that water for your rice and then you're going to put your rice
in the microwave. Or you're going to make hot water.
You're going to make the water out of that, you go boil it in the microwave
for coffee in the morning.
Listen, you clean up after yourself. That's important.
But you wanna know, the second rule, is the shower situation,
What's it like? Where do they go? Who showers who?
So, when you're going in that unit, you wanna know the shower situation.
What I mean by that is, the have six showers on each side of the unit
and the top left was where the white dudes used to go.
That was kind of their shower.
Another shower is where the Hispanics go. Another shower is where the blacks go.
Another shower is maybe where you, you know, shit's going on.
Like we used to make wine in on. So a lot of times guys couldn't
take a shower, because we were literally cooking wine and we made
the wine out of that shower. So it's important to know the shower situation.
And you don't just walk around. Like obviously, when I say watch
the shower situation, you gotta watch for a minute.
When you see people go to shower, or you see a person go to the shower,
are they going with their bag and a towel and just not giving a crap?
It's okay, like there's no tension? Or are they walking to that shower with
their boots on and their friends with them?
And then you'll see their friend just stand on a rail, you know,
outside the shower, just looking around, watching, you know.
Seeing what's coming. Because his friend might see
two dudes coming up, maybe trying to hit that guy.
Maybe that guy's got, you know, something wrong, something happening
and his friend is going to say, bang on that door
and say, "Man, get-" and the guy puts his boots on
and he gets his shank and he's ready to go.
I don't care if his weiny's hanging out. Doesn't mean anything.
He's got his shank and he's got his boots.
Cause you sure don't want to be left with your dick hanging
in your hand if they're coming after you with a shank.
So it's important to know the shower situation.
Watch it, because if you see, you'll feel it. You'll see how people are reacting.
What times they shower. You'll get an idea of how the groove goes.
Are the showers even open in the day? Sometimes they're not.
Who's cleaning the showers? It's the orderlys in the unit,
but you don't want to just disrespect a dude and just
and go in while he just did something he didn't get inspected by the CO
He's going to look at you like who's this dude?
You wanna know the shower situation, it's important.
The next rule you wanna know is
the TV Rules. What's going on in the TV rooms.
In Atlanta, we had 4 TV rooms. We had a black TV room, a
Hispanic TV room, a white TV room, and a sports TV room.
Everybody hung out. Now that does not mean Larry can't go to the
black TV room. He's not gonna, he's not gonna take a spot from
somebody in that room that's going in there all the time,
Vice versa, the black guys don't come into the white guys rooms.
Now, all your friends, you come on in, "Hey Larry," you know,
"What's going on, I need to speak to you for a sec."
"Sure, come in for a second, what's going on?"
or, "Hey," you're running a football ticket and "I had a winner, man,
look at the game, look at the ticket. It's guaranteed cause see I didn't
mess something up." You can talk to them. It's not like you can't meet people
or talk to people in TV rooms. But you see which TV room is yours
or with your race. They can say "oh, there's no race going on in prison--"
there is. Depending on the prison you're in, the prison actually
promotes it. As sad as that is.
Because they'd rather have the blacks fighting the whites, or the Hispanics
fighting the blacks so they're not worried about themselves, the prison.
They actually, trust me, they like that, in their own way.
The fourth is politics.
What's the prison politics?
When I went into Atlanta, you know, I hated the mob politics.
I call it the mob politics, and the mafia stuff.
You get these old timers, "Hey, you should talk to him,
wait man, that guys no good, you'd better be careful with him."
As much as you might not like it, you gotta know it.
You gotta know who's the guy to go to.
You gotta know who the shot caller is in each group.
And the black guys got a shot caller,
the Hispanics got a shot caller, the Indians got a shot caller,
the white guys got a shot caller. Those are the guys you go to
if you have a big beef with someone before you do something on your own.
They might say "wait, lets talk to this shot caller"
and they might say "listen, hit him, do what you want.
Stab him up. Do what you're gonna do." You know, "It's open, do what you want."
Fifth: Chow Hall Seating. You're gonna hook up with somebody
and then you gotta know, again, the chow hall, which side to go to
cause usually there's two sides, where is your seating area, give or take.
I watched a man get killed for sitting in the wrong section.
Killed. For sitting in the wrong section.
Obviously, people don't just come up and stab you if that happens.
But you might think they're trying to intimidate you and you try to buck up
and sit there, and before you know it you're in a situation over
sitting in the wrong seat. And when I saw wrong seat
maybe the shot caller sits in that spot everyday at 12 o'clock.
Why would you start trouble by sitting in that seat like you're a badass?
You don't test them like that. This isn't the county jail where you
gotta hit someone to make it known that you're not gonna be pushed over.
This is prison.
This is where you are going to live, for the next X number of years.
And you want to survive it.
Depending on where it is, you wanna survive it.
Next is the commissary.
The commissary is the store of a prison.
And let me tell you how important the commissary store is.
You go to commissary every week. You have a certain day of the week
to go to that store, by your number.
My number was 52-224-004 So 224. Mine would be the last 4.
They might say all even numbers go on Tuesdays.
All odd numbers go on Wednesday. Or whatever system that prison
has set up. You gotta know the commissary.
In Atlanta, when I went to Atlanta, Atlanta was so wild.
You would get robbed coming from commissary
cause there was what they call a "blind area."
So people would literally get robbed like it's a shake-down or robbery.
You gotta know, what kind of place it is and who to go with
and you gotta get to know the right people that you're not a pushover
you're not gonna give your shit up.
What are the items that are hot in this prison.
You know, certain things are needed. And then, that goes into the next rule.
You gotta know who the storemen are.
You go, "what do you mean, what's a storeman?"
A storeman is a guy in prison who runs, literally, a store.
And he'll charge 2 for 3.
So if you borrowed 2 soups from him, you gotta give him 3 soups back
on his commissary day. If you borrow a bar of soap, you might have to give
him two bars of soap when you come back.
Or he'll give you two, and you gotta give him three bars of soap.
You can buy pretty much anything off a storeman.
Some of the storemen sell actually sandwiches
They'll sell drugs of course, or some sell anything
from sex, to drugs, to whatever.
But the storeman usually sells items that are on the commissary
and that dude wants his shit back and if you don't pay him,
you're gonna get stabbed. Trust me, you will get stabbed.
And it's important to know the good dudes.
Who's solid, who you can talk to. If you had an issue, you know,
money didn't come, the guys not gonna really get offended cause it was
a legit thing. You know, people aren't assholes in there.
They want their money, they lent you something, you give it back.
You wanna borrow a book of stamps, you gotta give him a book and a half back
that's how the money is in prison. Stamps.
You gotta understand what the money is in prison.
The most unwritten rule when I was in, and it has changed a bit since I was in,
but not totally, is who's your cellmate?
Trust me, who's your cellmate?
I had a cellmate who killed a man with an axe handle on airforce base.
Good dude. I know you're saying, "what do you mean, good dude?"
Good dude. I trusted him.
You gotta know who's your "celly" cause there was a "celly" there
who stabbed his "celly" in the chest. Killed him.
Put a shank right in his chest. And went back to bed.
You better know. Unwritten rule? You gotta be able to read people
and get that "celly" that's normal.
Cause trust me, it's worth you bucking it, and going to the hole
and fighting, than getting into a cell with the wrong guy.
Cause how would you like to be locked down with a guy
who's a psychopath and at 10 o'clock at night
when the doors are locked and there's really no guards around
even in the units, you could be dying in that unit
and they don't give a shit. This guy kills you, cause he's a violent psychopath.
You gotta feel that out. You gotta know a couple dudes
You gotta rap with people, you gotta know how to speak. Understanding how
to talk to people is probably the best skill you could have.
Number 9, very good important rule.
Who's the snitches in that place?
Trust me, there's snitches in all prisons.
You'll see them, the little freakin' weasels.
They're up near the guard, talking like they're litte buddies
and stuff, and you look at them like, "who's this asshole?"
You gotta watch who the snitches are.
And they have what they call "note droppers."
Or "dry snitchers." You know, people who would do it sneakily.
Sneak a note under the counselors door.
Hand a note out at night and they put in the mailbox.
And then the guards check the mail every night when they get it out
And when they get it out, and they see a note, you know,
"Lawton's got a shank in the cell."
That's how you get people shaken down.
And you gotta kind of know who they are. You can watch the prison for a little bit
and figure out who's the stand up guys. who's the convicts,
that is super important.
And finally, a very important unwritten rule in prison is the yard.
You want your rec, you wanna get out there, and you wanna have rec.
You wanna play handball, you wanna play basketball, you wanna workout,
you wanna go do pullups, and dips, and you wanna walk the track,
feel the fresh air, and get sun on your face.
You gotta know the yard rules.
In prison you'll see different groups in different sections of a yard.
You can feel tension on a yard right away and you'll see something jump off.
In a penitentiary though, they will shoot down on that yard
with the gun towers that are around that yard
and they will fire down on that yard.
Man, when they say "get down," on the yard, boom, you drop.
Cause they will shoot you. They have bean bags, they have rubber bullets
they have other things but they also have live ammo.
So they will shoot you.
I've seen them shoot down on a yard, man and I'm telling you,
you don't know if it's you next. You sit there, man.
You're still as you can believe.
But knowing the yard rules is when you go there,
you're going to see a lot of things on a yard
dude sharpening shanks along a fenceline, and they're sharpening the shank.
They're just sharpening, and sharpening, and sharpening.
What do you think, you look at them? They don't wanna know
that you're even looking at them. You're going to see drug deals go down.
You're gonna see punks getting fucked in the corner sometimes.
You're gonna see stuff go down on the yard.
You gotta know the yard rules.
Where do you go? Who do you see? You need something,
who's running the yard? Where are the guards stationed on the yard?
There's usually the guards in the tower, you can check them out
you can't see, but you can blind them.
But there might be guards on the yard.
There usually is, you'll see them walk around.
Something that you gotta know, gotta have that feel.
You gotta know the yard rules. If you want rec,
and you sure want rec, believe me, you wanna get out of that hole
When you're in that hole, when you're waiting to "get on the compound"
they call it, you're gonna wanna get out in the fresh air, get sun on that body.
I'm telling you. And you're gonna wanna connect with the right people
and that's where you do it, on the yard.
Listen guys, I don't want you in prison, but if you gotta go I want you to survive.
And no matter what it is, be respectful of others.
In life and in prison. Just because you go to prison
doesn't mean you respect people. In fact, you respect them more.
The dudes you disrespect just might kill you.
Alright ladies and gentlemen, have a great day.
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