First Timers...

    After watching the entire episode of Lockdown on National Geographic subtitled First Timers from 2006, I had so many feelings one of which, was to STAY OUT of prison.

    The episode begins with several new inmates arriving shackled in bright, awfully colored, orange jumpsuits to be "processed" into the Ft Dodge Correctional Facility in Iowa. After the opening monologue, the first audible sound in the slit of streaming narration that strikes the ear is a correctional officer casually saying "hey guys we gotta give you all a urine test so hold on..." which, sets a skin crawling tone.

    The first people we are introduced to are Ben Byford and Thomas Boggs, two seemingly all American guys. Boggs, a chubby, happy-go-lucky kid with no previous record, has no idea about prison or what he will face evident in his upbeat tone and casual nature. Biford is far more cautious as this prison sentence is his second term for a string of armed robberies. Although Biford has been in prison before, he seems to have a quality that comes across as well, weak. They arrive during "chow" and Boggs is immediately heckled by the tougher, more hardened criminals. Biford, no less than 2 minutes, gets into a fight in which, to the average viewer, he loses. This is their introduction into prison. Welcome.

    Watching this I couldn't help but wonder, are these guys dead now? They just seemed like meat to lions in prison! The boxer, Bernard Hopkins, said that "everyday in prison is dark" which I understood as nothing was worth living for. That coming from a fighter is impressive to say the least. So Byford and Boggs, 5 years later, are either hardened prison veterans, another inmates property, or dead. Each one of those scenarios is grim reminder for everyone with the knack for crime that, even if well intentioned, that the consequences of crime is a place where you either kill or be killed.  Stay Legal. Peace.