What Do Convicts With "Life-In-Prison" Do All Day?

Hey everybody, Larry Lorton here. I got a good video for you today. It's going to be about people who have life sentences in prison.

Before I get started, check us out on YouTube member programs, Patreon member programs, Discord, the book, uh Gangster Redemption, the uh merch, all all that kind of stuff. It would be great. Well, let me just get right to this video.

This video was asked of me by a bunch of people. Of course, I didn't have a life sentence. In fact, when I was in Atlanta, we had uh 800 I think it was 880 people with life sentences out of 2,000.

What a life sentence means in the federal system is they call it letters. That means you'll never ever get out of prison. Now, doing some research on life sentences, over 200,000 people around the United States and state mostly in state prisons with life sentences.

200,000. Most of those people will never ever see daylight. Now, don't get me wrong.

Some of them should never see daylight. Uh some of the the crimes that that they committed are atrocious. Some of them aren't.

And that's crazy. You know, I did my news show and when I looked up crime and and exonerations with uh the guy Aziz who who who was falsely convicted of killing Malcolm X, 3,000 people since 1989 were exonerated for falsely being uh falsely accused and falsely uh imprisoned. 3,000 people.

Think of that number. That number is just atrocious to me. I mean, it's just it boggles my mind to think of that.

And I never even thought the number was that high myself. You know, when you go to prison, everybody thinks, oh, you know, you know, are there innocent or people? You always say, yes, there's going to be a few, but most of the people in prisons are not innocent.

You know, it's funny. You know, I did a lot of legal work. Now, what I can say is doing legal work, a lot of people are probably overcharged or they're convicted under dubious conditions, meaning whether they were guilty or not, that that's really here or there by law, the feds didn't give exact all the evidence and release all the stuff and or the jury was wrong or the vair, which is jury questioning and stuff of that nature or even the jury instructions were uh dubious at best.

And uh there's where good lawyers come, the technical end of it. Obviously, what I tell anybody who's ever going to get arrested, no matter what crime you're really facing, do your own research. If I didn't do my own research, I wouldn't be here talking to you.

I was facing a life sentence. Well, I was facing 85 years for the gun charge alone. To me, that's a life sentence.

85 plus what I got, I would have got 90 something years in prison. I think that's a life sentence. Although they don't consider that a life sentence because there is a number.

But in the federal system, you got to do 85% of your time. So, it's not like you're getting out. You know, you can say, "Oh, okay.

You can get good time or the parole board will come at 1/3 or anything like that. " Doesn't work like that. There is no more parole board.

Uh they did away with all that, which I think they should bring back. Let me go into life sentence and people I know and met in in prison. Now, I met a lot a lot of life sentence guys, and I got to know them very well, and there's a couple of things I always noticed when I when I talked to them about that.

They really they did their time. They didn't let time do them. I often talk about that.

You do the time, don't let time do you. And most of them don't really talk about the outside at all. Even their families, they don't talk about much.

Uh you'll hear a few and I got really close with a few and and something you you'll hear them, you know, when you get close to them talking about a kid and I've seen them cry. I've seen them break down, but they try to keep that that whatever it is that makes you live in prison. You know, after your appeals are done.

Most people in prison, of course, when they get to prison, if they have a life sent any sentences, they go for an appeal. After your appeal in prison, you still have other remedies to get back into court. And if you're in the state, you can go to the feds.

And if you're in the feds, you can go with ineffective assistance of counsel, which is called a 2255. So, there are ways to get back into court to try to remedy what happened to you. Not all of it works.

Some of it does, obviously, after you do so much. I was with a guy had a life sentence and he was in the cell. In fact, uh I was in a cell with a drug dealer and and and got in the prison and this guy had life says I knew him well.

And he comes into the guy and he says to the guy, he goes, "Hey, listen. I need five papers of heroin. " Guy looked at him like, "What do you think, you jerk off?

You he owed him money. " He says, "What are you [ __ ] talking about? You owe me money.

Don't play me for a jerk off. " The guy goes, "Listen, I'm checking out. " I'm like, at first it didn't click.

Then it clicked. And the guy looked and I'm like quiet, just sitting on the bunk. And he says, "Uh, I can't do it anymore.

" And the guy was probably 50 years old at that time. And sure enough, the guy gave him the heroin and said, "You better be dead in the morning or I'm going to kill you. " And he meant it.

I mean, this is real [ __ ] Now, this is [ __ ] I was there and I witnessed the guy took the heroin and he overdosed that night. Uh I've seen a lot of people overdose and come back, but a lot of people overdose in prison because in Atlanta and in most prisons, heroin is the number one drug and it it [ __ ] kills you, you know? I mean, people people are [ __ ] they shoot it and that's how they get dirty needles and but who gives a [ __ ] if you're at a point where you have life?

Do you really give a [ __ ] I mean there's a percentage of the people in prison will keep fighting their cases for years, 5 years, 10 years. They get into the law. I I met them in the law library.

We would talk about their case, other cases. They're always researching cases, new cases coming out, hoping the Supreme Court changes certain things. A whole bunch of stuff goes on and uh which I would do obviously, but then there's a a percentage of them who literally get resigned to the fact that they are here for life.

Now they'll get a lover. Yes. A guy lover or whatever.

And they'll go to work. They'll go to unicorn they call it. They'll go whatever they work and they'll go make money and they'll come back and they'll have dinner with their s which is their wife at that point or whatever it is whether it's under the table or not.

Uh most of them don't give a [ __ ] What do you give a [ __ ] Got life in prison. Who am I to judge any? I don't judge anyone anyway to to do what anybody does.

You know, hey, good for them. Whatever you gonna do, you do. You know, there's an old saying we used to say, what goes on in prison stays in prison.

But uh these guys literally literally just get a life. Now that is resigning yourself to I'm never getting out of here. This is the best life I can make for myself.

And I often used to think about that. Always having a date. I always had a date.

So when you have a date, you look at things a whole different way. You know, my my worry was always that people who didn't have a date are looking at me like getting jealous. You know, [ __ ] him.

And although they don't say it, most people like are happy that you get out, you get transferred, you're getting close, you win an appeal. Everybody is like that. But some I mean they're just people are crazy.

Then I often say you do have a percentage of the life sentence people that are just [ __ ] crazy. They really don't belong in in the free world. They probably don't even belong in a regular prison.

They're freaking mental. When I say mental, I mean off the [ __ ] charts. I knew him.

And I would hang even hang with some of them and but you always had your eyes behind your head opened uh or you hear things or you watch things you see the demeanor of people change. I also learned like when you see them change even what they talk about. I mean I've watched a number of suicides in prison and uh you'll see them start talking about different things and before you know it you hear about oh he was down in bee house and you know he hung himself or he killed himself.

Obviously the first thing we all think did he really do that? You know what I mean? Because we've seen the cases where, let me tell you that the questionable stuff of what goes on in prison.

Meaning, listen, they took a guy off a [ __ ] down off a freaking hanging off a top bunk, but you had a hole in his head. How the [ __ ] can you put a hole in your head and then [ __ ] hang yourself? So, I don't I I don't know what happened there.

Obviously, uh you know, the system is pretty broke and nobody The sad part is not many people care about these people who have life sentences. Now, when you get down to it, uh you a lot of people look at this and say, "Why should I? Some of them killed [ __ ] kids or old people were [ __ ] were just, you know, the worst of all.

" And that is true. I made it a point of mine not to know what people did. Usually I didn't care unless I did their legal work or I'm really really close with them.

I didn't give a [ __ ] what anybody I didn't want to know what people did. That that was my way of coping and saying, "Hey, listen. I'm just going to keep my counsel to myself.

what I believe and what what happens. I dealt with shot callers. So, I would find out a lot about what people did because the shot callers, which is the leader of XML, whatever group it is, they'd say, "Hey, L, can you do us a favor?

Can you get the paperwork on this guy or that guy? " And I did. So, then I would know.

And some of the [ __ ] I read was just [ __ ] disgusting. And uh you know it g me the like wow I'm and and I thought many many times I'm sitting in these places I'm living with these people literally eating with them living with them uh who knows the guy down the corner who knows how sick of a crime he committed or whatnot but I also know I've met some really really good people in prison and whether it's a Paul Keini or a big Ron got to get big Ron on here. Ron to this day, man.

I met him, you know, when I was out since I've been out. When I went to Vegas once, I met him. We went to the Hoover Dam and all.

Ron is just one of the sweetest guys. Great guy, standup guy. Uh, he'll have stories about me, too.

But, uh, so I met good people. There's no question. I met some good people.

But, you do meet people you never want to see again. You You just want to do your time and get away from these people for whatever reason or not because they're [ __ ] not right in the head, and you never know what can happen to them or what you're going to do with them. I had a cellmate who was a life sentence guy.

And you know, everybody used to say to me when I started doing this, they'd say, "Oh, Larry, you and he's a good guy. " Yes, he was a good guy. He killed a guy with an axe handle on a military base.

I don't know the whole particular wide. I think it was a robbery or something on bad or whatever it was. And but he was a good guy.

I hung with him. I partied with him. Listen music with him.

Talked to him. Nice guy. Really was.

And I, you know, isn't that crazy? You say, "Well, he's a nice guy. Kill the guy.

" But, you know, I'm not judging that guy's whole life on that one incident. I hope nobody judges me on the incidents that happened to me and when I was a bad guy, cuz I was a bad guy. I never try to tell people I was a great guy and oh, Larry was, you know, just got mixed up in a little robbery here.

No, I was a bad guy. I was wrapped up with the wrong people. I I was [ __ ] balls to my knees.

I I was crazy. I never thought I'd live to 50 years old, no less now. So, I mean, I'm looking at it a different way.

And I do look at people that way now. I look at I look at people in that good way of, hey, listen, everybody shouldn't be judged on the worst of their acts. They shouldn't.

They should be judged in the totality of their acts. I hope people realize that I try to help people. I try to make people better.

I try to make young people not make the choices I make. I try to give people who've been in prison that step up to say, "Listen, if Larry can do it, anybody can do it. " Cuz it's true.

I never came from money. I never come from stuff. When I got out, I had it rough.

Everything else. And I want you to know that you can make it. People can make it.

It's not like you you can't. Yes, you're going to have hurdles all the time where I tell you about an [ __ ] probation, whatever it is, half a house going back doing everything, but you can make it. The life sentence people, now these people are never ever getting out.

I mean, the mentality of it is crazy. A guy who has a life sentence, if he gets mad, there is no question he's going to try to do something to you and kill you. He doesn't think of a consequence.

What are they going to do? put him in the hole, transfer him. You know, I dealt with a kid with life sentence.

He had three life sentence and he was a great kid. And how I I helped him become a bookie. I know it's crazy, but he become a bookie.

And and when he was wanted to kill somebody, I grabbed him. I said, "Hey, come here. " You know, listen to me.

Do you like this place? Yeah. Yeah, I do like it.

What? He He was making money. Had guards in the pocket doing everything.

Do you like it? Yeah. Yeah.

I said, "If you do something, you're going to get transferred. You're out of here. " That's the the best.

He might go to what they call ADX Colorado and then get into what they call the step down program if he even can get that for or but they're going to transfer you for a while. They're not just throwing anybody into the ADX. They don't have the beds just to do that either.

But these guys who who have a life, they think of things a little different. You got to understand what makes him tick. He liked the prison.

He he had the yard. He knew the people. He he was, you know, entrenched in that place.

So, he knows he's been transferred many times and and now, do you want to get transferred again? Do you want to lose what you got? Do you want to lose your hustle?

Do you want to lose everything you got? Maybe your family knows you you're here now and and you can visit here or it's closer or whatever the reasons. You have to find out what that person I did at least when I talked to them and that and I always had to walk on that balance of like listen to me, you know, I I don't have a life sentence.

So when you're talking to a guy with a life sentence, you got to wonder is he going to look like who the [ __ ] are you law? What do you tell them? I never did it like that cuz I always try to educate whoever it was I was with.

Even life sentence guys with what I knew, my knowledge, whether it's bookmaking, loan sharking, or whatever illegal act I did, how to do things better, how to figure things out. Maybe it's just the way my mind works. But that's what I did to try to help them realize that, hey, there is more to Yes, you got a life sentence, but you like it here.

You know, it's funny, you know, I remember being in a in a uh TV room and we had there were about three guys who had life life. It was myself and maybe another two guys and we were watching a movie that I don't know what the freaking movie it was. It made us cry.

Literally, you're seeing these [ __ ] badass crazy [ __ ] cry. I mean, you know, they try to act up and you'll see a tear, you go, you know, you see go somebody go like that or in the movie or whatever it was. And I I thought afterwards I says, "What do you think?

" Someone would come in there and say, "What are you crying over a movie? " [ __ ] no. Every one of those guys in that TV room, I knew for a fact had a shank on them.

Those guys, I knew guys who never left their cell without a shank. I used to have a shank ready to go, but I didn't have to carry it at all times. I didn't think I did.

And thank God I didn't. Because once you get caught with a shank, you're going right to the hole. You're gonna get a shot.

You're gonna lose good time and you're not going to get down to the level of prison you want to get down. My goal was always to get to a medium. I did, but then I [ __ ] up and going back to the penitentiary.

It's just cuz your mentality is so different, you know, when you're with life sentence, guys. When you're with the respect you have on a a prison yard of a penitentiary, it's a lot different than than going to a lower level prison, whatever it is. But even the prisons I went to, they're lower.

They were they were either a gang unit or a new prison and it was pretty wild. I never got down to a low or a camp or anything like that. I I can't even imagine me being in there and some guy [ __ ] crying about his three years he got in prison.

I think I [ __ ] slapped the [ __ ] out of him because I mean shut your [ __ ] mouth. Especially in prisons. Listen, I had four 12 year sins running concurrent, meaning they run consecr when I had 144 months.

Never. You got cuz you'd get guys who got 240 months is 20 years. They'd have 240 months.

It was like nothing. Then, okay, once a guy has life, it literally is life. There's no number.

It is life. You die in that prison. You will never get out of prison unless you die.

And that's just the way the system federal system is. There is no parole. There is no You try to do what you can legally, but life is not.

And the demeanor of the people I who have life most of them are pretty quiet. Most of them are I guess in their own thoughts uh obviously suicides obviously drugs obviously whatever it is and depending on the level of the person and you got to know listen we played sports and I played sports with some life that's what their their life was you know to win that title on the yard or to beat another team or to to play and go you know hit a baseball you know so we played softball not baseball play softball or play handball. There was some great great handball.

I mean, great handball players. And that's what their life became is is that exertion and maybe it's getting out that that exercise. I was a big physical guy where I did a lot of push-ups and pull-ups and dips on stairs.

Everything I did, I used to be that's how I got energy out of me when I got mad or frustrated and stuff. And I always had something going on. Just that's just my nature.

I can't not keep busy. I can't not connect even now. I can't not connect with my YouTube audience or I can't not answer stuff on on videos or I I I just love to be active.

I'm not the kind of guy can ever sit down and retire. That's not Larry. It's just maybe someday it will, but it's not now.

That's for sure. And it was not then either. It wasn't back in those days either.

It was not even close to that. I was the kind of guy that had to be involved in things. Now, some of these life sentence guys become zombies.

I've seen that. Literally zombies. Some of them get on medications at the medical cuz they all can get medication immediately.

I mean, you know how much depression's got to be involved when you got a life sentence and never getting out. I mean, they get anti-depressants and what they call the thorazine. You see a guy do a thorazine shuffle.

He's all [ __ ] up. He's like a zombie. And so, you'd see all that kind of stuff.

And some of them would even get it to try to sell it to get money to get stuff off the commissary. Some of them lose everything. I don't know their cases.

I don't know why they lost everyone, why they lost family. I was always blessed to have family and friends that would support me. Even when I went away, they supported me in a big way, which is very, very important when you're in prison.

So, that made me always, if you want to call it, happy, happy. But again, there's a big difference. I didn't have a life sentence.

the lifers that I was around, I noticed the main thing they I I don't ever remember them talking about the outside. Like I could be with a friend and we're both getting out and we're talk, oh man, when I get out, I'm going to try this. I you know, we're going to do this.

We're going to do that. You don't do that around guys who never ever getting out. I mean, I I mean, you'd see it and they'd be up and they'd walk away.

And I've never seen them like live in the outside world. They lived in their little bubble. That bubble of the prison.

at prison was their world forever. And it it, you know, it actually boggles my mind just like people who are death row, you know, on death row or people in life. I don't know if I can do it.

I don't know if I'd want to do it. And they say the will to live is just amazing. And I get that cuz I was in the hole for 11 straight months, three years out of my time.

And I thought I was going to die. And there was no question. I, you know, I thought about suicide.

I thought about a lot of those things. But I was at that, you know, like point and I I can imagine if I had never ever All the peels are lost, all ready to go. I don't know if I can do it.

I don't know if I could sit there and want this for the rest of my life ever. Unless you just, like I said, I've seen them fall into it and get get it. Like I said, get their lover, go eat at night, make soups, you know, make all the stuff I talk about on here.

Actually, I got a video coming out about another meal, but all of that kind of stuff. And it it it just boggles my mind that they can compartmentalize. But again, they snap and I can understand it.

But the common denominator is they never talk about the outside world. I never heard them. I never sat down with Life Sense guys and they start talking about their family out there or you know, you know, the kids.

I just never did. I'm sure they had them. They did it and I'd see them go for visits, but I never saw them like come back like all happy like, "Hey, great guy.

" You know how I hate it. Visits were the roughest time in prison because you know you get so psyched up to get a visit. You get it and then it's like a big letd down.

Could you imagine if you you're seeing somebody and then you know you're never ever going to see him again. How do you talk to them out there? I that would always you know I always wanted to ask one but you you don't do that.

I wouldn't do that. I never did. And I always respected the time they had to do.

Now I've watched drug dealers that I help under the law. I I had some pretty big kingpins who had life prison and they'd ask me for help in law and I got to know them. We'd sit down.

It was all law though. It was all legal. It was all their case.

What they did, who's the snitches, how do you get them, what they say was wrong, not wrong, how did the lawyer [ __ ] up, everything else. So, it was all legal. So, we did legal work and that's how we worked with those guys.

So, I hope I gave you a little bit of an insight of life sentences. I just hope I gave you a little bit enough to realize. Think about that.

200 over 200,000 people in the United States with life never getting out. Think about that. Uh you you'll be surprised.

A lot of countries don't have that. Uh a lot of countries have a number and then they can get parole or whatever. The United States doesn't have that.

So think about that and think about our system. And I'm not saying again I'm not sticking up for life people cuz some of them did atrocious things and I want to say that as well. But I hope you like my insight into life people with life sentence inside.

If you like what we do, please pass it on. Please subscribe if you haven't. Have a great day.

Please make good choices. And please, please help somebody along the way. It'll make you feel good.

I know it makes me feel good when I do that. Have a great day, everybody.