"The BodyGuard Prison Riot!!!"

I remember when I was 18 I was locked up at the Patuxent Correctional Institution, this was like 1995. I had previously been housed at the Hagerstown Correctional Institution! An a Horrible rumor surfaced about a recently deceased and World Famous Recording Superstar that almost erupted a prison into violence and ruined Movie Night!!!  Hagerstown(the new jail) was opened in the nineteen seventies to let you Know just how new this prison was! I have heard about other prisons in Maryland too being worse, for y'all know it all's, well I've been to them too but in 1994 thru 1995 this place was a fucking gladiators academy! It was full of a bunch of wild fucking animals population and staff! In the short time I was there, I saw so many people stabbed and beating with blunt objects it wasn't funny! When I first got there I was told to stay to myself, not to join any gangs and get out as soon as possible! After I saw a 15 year old stabbed to death over something so not worth the price of his life my priorities quickly changed! I became more concerned with just coming home alive and unscarred versus coming home as soon as possible!

 I remember once I took a chance on missing my cell door at lock in time for a bowl of cookies! I was hungry and a young man, things like cookies still had a lot of value in my hierarchy of needs!  It was like eleven pm. dinner had been about five hour ago! My friend Mike told me to come to his cell and he'd give me some lemon creme cookies! He slept like 25 doors across the tier from me! As I'm waiting by the door he tells me that the correctional officers were about to shut the door and to go and wait by my door and he would throw the cookie to me! As I'm making the twenty five door run the electronic doors began to close! Everyone was yelling, "Hurry up shorty before you get locked out, They will throw you in the whole!" So I'm racing toward my cell door not to be locked out because I didn't want to be subjected to disciplinary action and solitary confinement for missing a door at lock in time! I hear  Mike's voice,"little P, heads up!" High in the air like a rocket from Manning to Harrison, I see the bowl of cookie flying in the air toward me! I'm reading the cookies like a wide receiver as Watch the daylight of the electronic door eclipsing like the sunset! Right as I make the catch over my shoulder in just enough time to have enough room to slide through the door and roll on the floor in my cell! The whole tier  goes crazy, like I made the Super Bowl Winning Catch! The jail was in short supply of entertainment I guess! They loved that shit and the jail erupted in a cheer!!! I was 18 yrs old, impressed with myself and smiling from excitement with a bowl of lemon cookies to soothe my nightly sweet tooth!

 As I sit on my bunk talking to my cellmate! Our door pops open, it's the prison officers, they walk in!!! My cellmate jumps down from the top bunk and I stand in alert! The officer tell us to be at ease, they just want to talk! They tell me they know I'm new and that their are a lot of other White Older Officer who work there, who would give me a beating for a stunt like that and to let this serve me as a warning from some of the officer who work their that were a little more sensitive to race! A week later I was approached by a Black Female prison psychologist! She expressed to me that she new about the violence and Racism of the Hagerstown Institution. She asked me would I like a chance to get of jail early by participate in a youth offender behavioral experiment! Two weeks later I'm shackled from head to toe, on the back of a bus, life as a shorty shouldn't be so ruff!!!

So I'm at the patuxent facility and the jail is trying to find space for it new teen offender section! So they have us temporarily housed with the parole violators! The system had become so over crowded and the streets were so hot the Classification Center of Maryland known as D.O.C. couldn't keep up with the inmate intake and classification process! I was cool though, because it was definitely a lot more relaxed than Hagertown! Where Hagerstown was a Chopping Mall, this play was sweet, they called it Wide Open meaning you could do or have access to anything you could have on the street! Money, pussy, drugs and alcohol! Plus they had some fine ass women officers that were nice and sympathetic to our plight as young men behind bars!!! A lot of us still looked like kids you'd see on the street! Middle school, High school hustlers and Killers!  An a lot of the parole violator being fresh off the streets were shocked to see over hundreds kids 14 to 21 years of age all charged with violent and heinous crimes! They never harassed or tried to take advantage of us, I guess they figured we had enough trouble on our plates to deal with as is! Maybe we reminded them of their families, nephews, kids or little brothers! Maybe they just wanted to get back on the street as soon as possible and a jail infraction with some wild kids could screw all of that up for them!

So I met this old cat name LA., I'd seen LA. out the county jail before back in 1993 when I was first charged with what I was currently locked up for! I went home for six months until I was found guilty! I guess LA. wasn't as fortunate! He was a tough built guy but he had a heart of gold! Could have been a Monster but had a real good heart and a since of honor! He kind of reminded me of Tyson in a way! Mike Tyson not Tyson Beckford! So one day the Movie of the Week was "The Body Guard" Starring Whitney Houston!!!  It had just come out on video too and one the Prison Guards brought it into the jail for us to watch for Tuesdays Movie Night! Everyone was exited, it was movie night and Whitney Houston was Big Shit back then! She was at the Top of  her game and the undisputed the Best Singer Out at that Time! Whitney had the hottest movie and album out when it came out in 1992! Now were in jail their aren't a lot of perks so to get a chance to enjoy something that current is a big deal! If I was still up in the Mountains of Hagerstown, I wouldn't be watching no damn" "The BodyGuard"   So for a couple of hours Whitney took us all away from our problem and back to a time when we were free! We call it going uptown in jail, traveling in your mind transcending out of your physical surroundings! Everyone was on the edge of their seats and quiet hanging on to Whitney's every appearance, expression, words and notes!

 Everyone except LA., He made it very vocal as to how much he didn't like Whitney Houston and how to him, she wasn't shit but a fake as Pipe Smoking Bitch! Now remember this is before the Diane Sawyer interview! Like a solid 4yr years before the whole rumors of the Crack use allegations began to surface! But right now in 1995 it's guy saying when he was on the run, like between 1989/1990! He spent time with Whitney Houston and she was one of his biggest customers! This shit immediately caused a fucking tier up rising! Niggas was MAD, I fucks with(really like) Whitney Houston but these Mutha Fuckas took it personal! L.A went on to say that Whitney and her Entourage would call from the studio where I guess they were working on "The BodyGuard Album" and tell him to get the Crack ready because they were coming to party! He said this went on to become a every night thing and they would stay at his Crack house Smoking Coke until the Sun came up! He said, Whitney was a straight fiend like she was the worst one when it came to smoking that shit out of the whole bunch! He wouldn't back down on this either!!!Even in the face of being increasingly out numbered by a surprising amount of Prison population Whitney Houston fans with knives!!! He was not intimidated and was sticking to his story! As he brandished his own Knife made of a 10 inch nail with a torn pillow case rapped around the end, as a make shift handle! It was on the verge of starting a full fledged riot! The riot squad had to be called! Eventually storming our tier and forcing us into our cells for the night !!! Imagine their bewilderment when they found out all of this began because someone said Whitney Houston Smoked Crack! Which at this time was unheard of!!! They had to turn off the movie and they made us lock in for the rest of the night, no showers, no phone calls, no visits, it was still early too like 8:30!!! We were pissed with LA.!!!  LA. I guess he had a issue with people who put stars on a pedestal! In a whole other stratosphere beyond the range of average humans!!! Stars are up in the sky is what he would say! In his own words, she was just not a mere mortal but, A Pipe Smoking Bitch!!! Damn LA. What did Whitney Houston do or Say to you back at the Crack House????

So you can imagine my surprise four years later when Whitney came out on TV to clear the air of the rumors of her alleged Crack use! She said,"Crack is Wack!!!"  I was telling everyone I knew about the story of the "The Body Guard" Prison Riot and why it happened! Everyone was on the fence like why are people trying to put that bad bone out on Whitney! Before this had came to pass I had knowledge of a source confirming this that culminated with a ensuing Prison Riot! All because of this same rumor! An well we know how this story ended, May She Rest in Peace but just to let you know before Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight and Inside addition!!! L.A. already had the Word on the Street or as I like to call it "The Pipe Talk!!!!"