Anthony A. Wood
My name is Anthony A. Wood. I will be 20 years old on January 3, 2003.
I have been incarcerated now for almost 2 years. My TDCJ number is
1042331. In the free world my nickname is Tony. I am currently
on the Telford Unit in New Boston, TX. I will probably be transferred
in a few weeks.
First and foremost I want to thank you for your time in reading my story
I have always been the type of person growing up that did not get into much
trouble, so needless to say I got a late start. I was introduced to
drugs very late for this day and age. I was 16 when I started smoking
weed. It seemed harmless in the beginning and it did not and it did
not really have an effect on me until about a year or 2 later. Then
I started staying out all night and occasionally not going home at all.
From there it came to school and basically giving up so I would either skip
class or not go at all. I was fixing to graduate but ended up dropping
out in the 12th grade.
Next came being rebellious, which is a lot of the reason I am where I am
today. For me this took kind of like a domino effect. With the
buddies I have it was hard not to follow along with them and do the things
they wanted to do. I had 4 particular buddies I always hung around,
Ray, Josh, Colt and Tim. Considering I never grew up with any brothers
or sisters I looked to my friends as brother figures which will explain my
faithful devotion and friendship with them. In the beginning
it was never about getting into trouble but that just came about hanging
out and the bond between friends. I was always the one to jump at an
opportunity to leave or get kicked out of home. I guess it is because
I kind of thrived off of it.
This is about where the drugs got bad. I was 17 – 18 years old.
I loved weed but had done other drugs such as ecstasy, pills such as downers
like Zanex and experimented with cocaine. (Snorted not shot up)
I refused to stick myself with a needle to get high. I remember leaving
home with no job, no money, no place to stay and not going to school.
I wanted to live this lifestyle simply because I was a “rebel without a cause.”
I was always finding myself looking for drugs and a place to stay for the
night, never thinking about money, food or anything else. I would end
up sleeping underneath some railroad tracks, by a ditch, in the back of my
homeboy’s truck or having my buddy sneak me in his house at night.
I would always find my drugs. Actually at one point I lived with my
homeboy Josh for a month. It was a secret from his father who was on
probation at the time. It was his mother’s idea. Josh’s sister
who lived there was also my weed dealer, my drugs and a place to stay.
As time went by crime came in, I eventually went along with three other bros,
Ray, Joe and Robert, to burglarize a concession stand at the golf course.
At the end I ended up getting 5 years probation for burglary of a building.
They offered 2 years in prison of the probation. I took the probation
because I did not want to go to prison but I should have taken the prison.
I was knowledgeable about the law.
I only lasted almost 4 months out in the free world. The reason for
this is because I gave up. I quit. Because I was scared to give
it a chance and did not realize I had loved ones on my side all along.
So feeling desperate I proceeded to skip probation and ended up robbing a
Phillips 66 Gas Station. This was to get money to leave town and eventually
leave Texas.
We were caught the next day at my friend’s house. My bro came out with
6 months boot camp, 6 months county time and 10 years probation. I
came out with 7 years prison and 2 years state hail concurrently. The
7 years was for the armed robbery and the state jail time was for violation
of probation.
I have seen and experienced a lot of things since my incarceration.
What they say about prison is true regarding the murders, rapes, fights,
suicides and etc. Most of this comes from the administration as well
as the inmates.
I come from a small town, called Deer Park, Texas. It is a suburb of
Houston which has a population of 20,000 to 25,000. People from my
part of town seldom experience crime of prison life.
You have to be strong minded in prison I am going through a situation
where somebody has threatened my life over me telling the guards that he
has sexually harassed me. I almost had to kill him fearing for my own
life.
I am in the process of being moved to another unit. The personnel do
not like to cooperate with inmates, especially if the inmate is right.
They do not want to believe serious situations out of spite. They have
a power trip which leads to an abuse of power.
Some of the inmates have lives to go back to and wish to live healthy lives
in society. Being locked up and having the impression that you are
worthless will not help to rehabilitate the inmate. Note that people
must have personal need to rehabilitate themselves. Animals need
to be with animals and decent human beings need to be with decent human beings
of all races.
I am only a 20 year old man but I do know I need to act like a man and not
a 5 year old boy. Some of these so called grown men are worse than
my little cousins not yet out of high school. People need to grow up.
Thank you for your time.
© Copyright 2002 Anthony A. Wood
Anthony A Wood #1042331
PO Box 9200
New Boston, TX 75570
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