Most people’s idea of prison comes from films and music videos. Wes Watson spent ten years inside the California prison system, and in this clip from his 2020 London Real interview he explains to Brian Rose how life on the inside is actually organised: who sits where in the hierarchy, what the unwritten code demands, and why he came to see so much of the “tough guy” image as a front.
It’s a blunt account, and it covers some dark subjects. But he isn’t glamorising any of it.
General population or protective custody
Wes explains that a new arrival in California’s prisons has, in effect, two options. One is general population, or GP, where he says you operate with your race and end up joining a gang. The other is protective custody, which he calls SNY or PC.
He says protective custody used to be for anyone who told the guards they feared for their life. Over time, he explains, that changed. The gangs came to make up general population, and protective custody became the place for people who aren’t accepted there. In his account, that mainly means people convicted of sexual offences, including offences against children. He says the code inside left no room for them in general population, and that anyone sharing a cell with them was expected to act or face the consequences himself.
He doesn’t present this as justice or as a moral code. In his words, “There’s no ethical code that keeps these organisations together.” It is simply how the system has worked for a long time.
“A massive dictatorship”
When Brian asks how the system holds together, Wes describes a strict chain of command. The people at the top, he says, make it clear that it isn’t a democracy: what they say goes, and you go along with it. Fights and drugs run through everything. Protective custody isn’t an escape either, he adds, because it now has gangs of its own.
“Fake hard”: the weakness behind the image
This is the part Wes cares most about. He says prison taught him to look past the image. Men who had spent 30 years inside, covered in tattoos and admired from the outside, were, in his view, weak behind closed doors. They kept looking for happiness in the same place they kept losing it, which for most of them meant drugs, and then they cried about their circumstances.
He describes training partners who would tell him they felt great after a workout, only for him to find one of them high the next morning. He says heroin and meth kept men going round the revolving door for a lifetime in prison.
His own relapse
Wes doesn’t exempt himself. He says that after four or five years clean, he drank some prison wine, then took meth again while he was dealing inside. Within about two weeks, he says, things had gone badly: he attacked his cellmate over a few words, in the wrong area, next to another race, and was then beaten by two men from his own group. As he puts it, it “came back around real quick”.
That experience, he says, is why he talks so bluntly about weakness today. He says he can only share what worked for him.
If you’re struggling with drugs or alcohol, speak to your doctor or a local support service.
Who is Wes Watson?
Wes Watson is an American fitness coach, motivational speaker and former prisoner who served ten years in the California penitentiary system. After his release he founded the coaching company Watson Fit, and he tells stories from inside on his YouTube channel and podcast, GP Penitentiary Life. His book, Non-Negotiable, came out in 2022.
In his full London Real episode, filmed in New York in March 2020 shortly after he finished parole, he talks with Brian Rose about prison, anger, gratitude and the daily routine he says changed his life. For more on how prisoners are divided by race when they first arrive, watch his clip on racial gangs in prison.
See everything Wes Watson has done with London Real on his guest page: Wes Watson on London Real.
More on London Real
Transcript
Transcript: Wes Watson – The Prison Code And Why Some Inmates Are Targeted
0:00 Wes Watson: Yeah, when you come into the California prison system, CDC, you’re going to have to operate with your race. If you’re GP, general population, you’re going to join a gang.
0:10 Brian Rose: What does GP mean? How can I be GP or not?
0:12 Wes Watson: GP means general population.
0:13 Brian Rose: Okay.
0:14 Wes Watson: The other option is to be SNY, which is protective custody, PC. And so you can tell the cops, “I want to be general population,” or “I’m going to be PC.” To be PC back in the day, you had to say, “I’m scared, I fear for my life.”
0:27 Brian Rose: Okay.
0:28 Wes Watson: Then they would put you with other people. Now, what’s happened is the gangs became general population, and PC became the people who aren’t allowed in general population. The people who aren’t allowed in general population are child molesters, any rapists, a lot of crimes of those sorts. You just get stabbed right away. If you went into GP, they would kill you. If your celly came in and you read his paperwork and it said he’s a child molester, you would have to kill him or you would get killed. That’s how it works. There’s no way around it.
0:57 Wes Watson: There’s no ethical code that keeps these organisations together. That’s just the way they believe as well. That’s what it is, and that’s the way it’s been for a long time.
1:05 Brian Rose: Is that right?
1:06 Wes Watson: Yeah. It’s just been like that. And the thing is, it just goes down to fighting too, and drugs. It’s a massive dictatorship. They’ll tell you, “This is a dictatorship. It’s not a f***ing democracy. What I tell you goes. You’re going to say yes to anything I ask you, or it’s happening to you.” And that’s the rule.
1:27 Brian Rose: When I go to GP, or the other one…
1:29 Wes Watson: If I go there… Well, some guys will opt to go there because they’re scared of GP. But then they go with all the child molesters and rapists, and you’ve got a whole other horrible experience over there.
1:40 Brian Rose: Or…
1:41 Wes Watson: They have gangs over there now too. I don’t know anything about that s***, but yeah, there’s gangs over there. The whole system is… it’s prison. These are violent people. It’s flooded with crime, violence and drugs. These are all the vices.
1:55 Wes Watson: This is what taught me. I saw these guys who were supposedly glorified on TV, and through all the stuff we watch, music videos and s***, and they were f***ing p*****s. They were f***ing bitches. They were weak. Why? Because they would consistently have the same f***ing problem. They would always be [unclear]. They would always consistently be looking for happiness in the same place they lose it. So they would look for happiness in the same place they consistently lose it, come to tears about it, and then just cover themselves in tattoos and look all tough. But it’s like, okay, motherf***er, I see how weak you guys are. I’m going to change all this s***.
2:30 Wes Watson: And my last big battle is my reaction, the way I’m reacting lately. And like I said, [unclear]. So we’re gauging our progress as we’re getting better. But it’s not going to f***ing happen overnight.
2:43 Wes Watson: And the whole prison s***, I want to tell people… One of my last videos was called Fake Hard. That’s what the f*** it is. We look at these prisoners with all the tats. They’ve been in there 30 years. They’re from some gang somewhere. And you look at those same guys and, behind closed doors, they’re weak, because they’re going after drugs. And then they’re crying about the circumstances.
3:07 Brian Rose: And you saw a lot of that.
3:08 Wes Watson: I mean, we’re all going to have to learn the lesson until we finally learn the lesson. But Jesus Christ, you’re going to cry about it, miss your family…
3:16 Brian Rose: What did you see?
3:17 Wes Watson: …and do that for 30 f***ing years. Massive stabbings, but mostly just the drug use. Mostly the heroin and the speed use that just leads to a lifetime in prison, the revolving door. They don’t want to do it. They’ll be working out with me and they’ll be like, “I feel so good. Wes, I feel great.” And I know they do. And then they just have that drop. I go to bed early, and then I wake up and I see one of the homeboys, one of my people that I work out with, and I can tell he’s on s***. And I’m like, “You f***ing motherf***er, what’d you do that for?” And you could tell he’s just miserable.
3:49 Wes Watson: And so I would see that weakness and I’m like, “Dude, call yourself a bitch.” And I did it to myself. I relapsed on meth when I was in prison. I didn’t do it for like four or five years, and I drank some wine, some prison wine. And I was selling dope in there at the time, selling white and selling black, and having everyone push it for me. And I just did a bump one day of some speed. And then I started drinking some wine, some prison pruno. And then I’m like, “F***, dude.” Then I started getting on my cell phone and I’m looking at s***, like I’m acting like I’m back at the f***ing club.
4:26 Wes Watson: And it wasn’t two weeks later that it ended f***ing bad for me. Bad as f***. I ended up beating the s*** out of my bunkie over something small, some words he said. I did it in the wrong area, next to another race. And then I had to get my ass beat by two of my own people that I had f***ed up before individually. So the point was, it came back around real f***ing quick.
4:47 Wes Watson: And then I just had to look at myself and be like, “You’re being a f***ing bitch.” And that’s why I tell people that. That’s why I use that word bitch a lot. That’s why I say, “Quit being a bitch.” And the people who f***ing win with my type of motivation are my type of people. I can only share what worked for me. The foolish motherf***er shares some process he learned from someone else. I’m going to tell you what worked for me.
