by Jason Renard Walker

As I laid Sound asleep just past 1:00 am on October 1, 2026, I was rudely awakened by the reverberating sound of a guard’s brass key banging against my cell door at Joe Corley Detention Center.

My original plans were to wake up around 4:00 am, have a cup of cold coffee and work on the first draft of my upcoming book. But this would not be the case. The carceral state had other plans for me. 

The guard, shining his flashlight in my cell that already had 24 hour lighting, told me to leave everything behind, including my relevant legal documents. I was bussing out to a federal prison in a few hours. Where, he didn’t know. 

Still disoriented from the rude awakening, I tossed my legal filings in one bag for someone to pick up, mailed out some items, and left behind a wealth of commissary, cosmetics and a hand held radio. 

After lingering in a holding cell for three hours, I underwent a series of cavity searches, and pat downs before being thrown on a bus with a dozen other prisoners and slowly driven to FCI Pollock in Louisiana. 

Police Pollock is what some call it. 

INSTITUTIONAL CULTURE SHOCK 

After serving 18 years in various Texas prisons I find myself having to readjust to the inmate politics of federal prison. I must say, the politics of federal prison are based on a prisoner from each race or state having absolute control over the similarly identified prisoners’ livelihood, programming needs, where they can sit, when they can speak to staff, how they urinate and when they can shower. 

Some call it “structure” to keep a peace treaty among all races, but I see it as an environment where narcissists and controlling megalomanics have created cults designed to meet their needs and wishes. The minute a prisoner stops serving the interest of these individuals, broadly known as “Yard reps” or “Shot callers”, they are “dropped” and sent to another prison through an undocumented and collaborative scheme between the yard rep and certain staff. 

For instance, during my initial processing into FCI Pollock, a staff member asked me, not if I was in a gang, but what time was I on. When I asked for clarity, they looked at some paperwork and told me I would be riding in the Texas Car; when I got to my unit, someone would send me to the Texas Car’s “yard rep” where I would be vetted, background checked, and if cleared, groomed to walk the yard on “Texas time”. 

Essentially they were implying that prisoners from Texas are updated on the arrival of other Texas prisoners. 

I went back to the holding cell and asked another prisoner, who was serving his second stint at FCI Pollock, what the hell was going on, I was lost. 

He explained that on just about every FCI yard there are many cars. At FCI Pollock you have the Louisiana Car; the Texas Car; the various “gang cars” for those that would rather be on gang time than state time. There’s the Native American Car; the Paisa Car (for deportees and non-U.S. Citizen Hispanics); the Tango car (for Texas Chicanos); white time (various white supremacists adhering to the same politics); and the Muslim Car. 

With each of these cars comes a yard rep that sets the rules for how he wants those in his car to behave. Some of the politics are universal, while some vary from car to car and often contradict one another. 

For instance it is universally agreed that any prisoner needing to speak to the unit staff have at least one prisoner from their car available to escort him and witness the exchange. It is universally agreed that when a prisoner needs to urinate that he straddle the toilet in a squatting motion or piss while on his knees. Regardless if he is in the cell by himself, he is expected to adhere to the ritual. 

Television rooms are no different, as they are based on race. A Black prisoner watching television with a white prisoner, or sitting at the same dining table during meals is prohibited. 

The only house racial interactions allowed are those that consist of the financial and resource exploitation of one another, like gambling and other black market endeavors.

MEET THE YARD REPS AND THE DROP OUTS

Initially I planned to live here and take a look around despite the obvious dangers I’m facing, as I’ve written about ad nauseum. But after learning from residents and staff here that every prisoner is expected to agree to be dictated and ruled over by a yard rep, I placed myself in the Special Housing Unit (solitary confinement). Otherwise, not only would I have to ward off attacks, I would have to answer to another prisoner. 

Also I will never ride in a car, as my politics and theirs conflict badly. It is these same misguided tribes that have sent their minions to try and stab me, club me and do away with me to no avail. 

From what I’ve learned and seen, yard reps wield a tremendous amount of power among those they rule over, and security staff. It is they who dictate who can walk the yard–not the warden, the prisoner, or any other authorities. 

Yard reps are appointed to their positions through a de facto democracy. They can only be removed when an overwhelming majority of prisoners in their car come together secretly and agree he needs to be replaced, with the replacement already agreed upon. Then they will confront the yard rep and demand he step down. 

In the event the yard rep poses a huge threat and has no interest in stepping down, the car will drop him and force him off the yard, or back off and continue being repressed until they gain the numbers for a regime change. This process might not reflect how every car operates. However, it is indicative of the struggle within some Hispanic cars. 

This is the main reason most yard reps have a rule that bans those in his car from congregating on the rec yard in large groups outside his presence, knowledge and oversight. It is a divide and conquer tactic to keep the masses from expressing their frustrations and plotting an overthrow. 

Each day Black, white and Hispanic prisoners fill the SHU. Some get dropped (I will explain below), some check-in (sign up for a PC (protective custody) transfer), some sign up for the gang denounce program and some are walked to the lieutenant’s office by their yard rep to be placed in the SHU and transferred.

In any event they are labeled as drop outs and check-Ins. The irony is that most cases I’ve seen thus far is because the prisoner won’t stop smoking K2, or was a short timer and refused to drop a fellow car pooler at the behest of the yard rep, who usually has a lengthy sentence but wants those going home to do his dirty work and lose good time. 

A prisoner here named Rascal is a prime example. A little over a year ago he was asked to hit the rec yard and assist his yard rep with warring with the Native Americans. The purpose, Rascal said, was to have absolute control of a contraband smuggling scheme the Native Americans were tapping into.

At the time Rascal only had a month or so to go, but the yard rep, who had life without parole, wasn’t interested in Rascal going home. Wisely, Rascal checked in the SHU and went home. After the melee the yard rep and his cronies were transferred to a USP (US Penitentiary or high security prison). Though Rascal returned to Pollock on a Probation Violation and has a little over a month to go, he will never be able to face his gang again. 

A prisoner named “White Boy” who is from the Midwest and wants to ride in the Midwest car got a rude awakening. As he explained, he has never done white time and never will. Upon his arrival to Pollock the White’s yard rep approached him and gave him the ultimatum to either get on white time, or get dropped. He was told whites aren’t allowed to be on Midwest time, which they consider Black time. 

After less than a week on the yard White Boy got dropped and is awaiting a transfer to another prison. 

Mississippi is another white prisoner awaiting transfer to another prison. Upon his arrival to Pollock he did agree to get on white time and follow the yard rep’s rules, but that was not enough. Mississippi got dropped because he was wronged by a guard and filed a grievance in anticipation of suing the prison.

As he learned, on white time, filing grievances for any reason is considered snitching. As you will read, filing grievances on a guard is as far from snitching as you can get when it comes to the private back room meetings yard reps have with investigators.

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF GETTING DROPPED 

At FCI Pollock, dropping a prisoner isn’t as brutal as it sounds. At USPs, and other FCIs things might be different. But here, there is an art and science to it. 

As I noted earlier, yard reps have a lot of power and influence in the FBOP, so when a Prisoner gets dropped they are the ones who order the drop and assign the three or so prisoners that will carry it out. 

It is organized to the extent that all yard reps and relevant prison staff agree that such a thing must take place in front of the chow hall (where various staff are lined up in anticipation) and when the target has eaten and is on his way out. A drop anywhere else on the compound is designed to badly hurt or kill the target. 

The unwritten rules state that as soon as the target has been hit and falls to the ground, or drops on his own, the attackers must lay on the ground too, from there alt participants are taken to the SHU where a perfunctory investigation begins. 

The entire investigation is essentially based on written or verbal statements that are made by the yard rep in charge of the target. From what several dropped prisoners explained, the yard rep will tell the investigator what the target did (whether he smokes too much, won’t pay a debt, steals, sells drugs, etc.) that warranted the attack and that the prisoner is not welcome any longer. After this the attackers are let out of the SHU. The target stays. 

This is what is called a verified threat that always warrants a prison transfer. If the yard rep tells the Investigator that the prisoner is safe (in the event the prisoner goes to the SHU himself and claims an attack is being formulated), it is called an unverified threat and the prisoner will leave the SHU and return to the yard where he must face the punishment he is running from. 

In the event the prisoner refuses to leave the SHU, following a yard rep’s verbal or written guarantee to the investigator that the prisoner is safe to return, he will receive a 306 disciplinary case (refusing to program). After three 306 disciplinary cases and up to six months in the SHU, he will be transferred to another prison with various restrictions and/or monetary sanctions. In some cases, the prisoner doesn’t go to a better prison, but to a USP with a more violent political landscape, and others waiting with an axe to grind. 

I find it strange that Mississippi was dropped for pursuing a lawsuit against a repressive prison guard. Though when it comes to most yard reps, they are free to assist with investigations, speak to staff and tell on their own, under the guise of dropping an unruly prisoner. 

Jason Renard Walker #39219-177

FCI Pollock

Federal Correctional Institution

P.O. Box 4050 (SHU C-245)

Pollock, LA  71467-4050

Jason Renard Walker is a prison journalist who has published articles and essays in various print and online media outlets since 2016. His work can be viewed at: www.jasonsprisonjournal.com You can also purchase his paperback book ‘Reports From Within The Belly Of The Beast: Torture And Injustice Inside Texas Department Of Criminal Justice’ available on amazon.com