A lot of prisoners would argue with the guards, then they’d be written up for “defiance” or “threatening an officer” and be taken to the dungeon. I had learned not to let them provoke me to that point. The only time I spoke was when they started reading my legal mail. I’d say, “You can’t read my legal mail, you know that.” I never showed any emotion on my face. Killing them, beating them up, spitting on them, cussing them out—all of that was going through my mind. If, in that moment, any of us could have gotten our hands on them without restraints, there is no telling what might have happened.
