Life In Prison Book Report

The book that I chose to do my report on is called Life in Prison by Stanley “Tookie” Williams. Tookie Williams was the infamous founder of the notorious Crip gang. The main objective of this book is to dispel some of the street myths surrounding prison life and to steer people away from crime. Tookie first learned about prison from his friend older brother named Rock. Rock spent most of his time in and out prisons. Rock described prison as a gladiator school where men go to prove their toughness. Rock made prison seem like a fun place to go to, and Tookie was eager to go to prison just to prove that he was tough. In 1981, Tookie was found guilty of killing four people and was sent to death row in San Quentin, which is a maximum prison in California.
For example, Tookie described his death row cell as a tiny, dingy, white room, nine by four, with steel bars, a sink, a toilet, a bunk, and a concrete floor. He also asserted that the room could barely fit his body. He compared the cell to a dog kernel. There were some argots in the San Quentin prison. One of those argot roles is the j-cats. The j-cats are prisoners who are stir crazy and insane. He mentioned that the j- cats were in need of mental-health care. The j-cats were so retreated from reality than most of them did not know that they were in prisons. Tookie asserted that there were many j-cats on death row. Statistics shows that since 1960, 43 mentally challenged inmates have been executed (. Should the criminal justice system place mentally challenge individuals on death row? Another argot that Tookie Williams mentioned is the cell soldiers. He explained that the cell soldiers act similar to the J-cats but will not do anything. The cell soldiers will shout and cursed at other prisoners and guards as they are passing by but will never confront them. The cell soldiers reminded me of the hipsters because they pretend to be tough guys when they are