Ex-prisoners of Reddit, what was your cell mate like?

1. I did a year in prison when I should've been in college, to get you an idea of age. I had two cellmates for long-ish periods of time, one other guy for just a couple of weeks. The first one, which was my first ever cell mate (aside from my couple days in a cell block waiting to get transported to prison), could tell that I'd never done time before and was pretty cool about "showing me the ropes" so to speak. He was a white guy in his thirties that was doing time for stealing cars, kind of a tweaker, but he was an overall pretty decent dude and we got along well. He'd done quite a bit of time throughout his life so he was pretty "institutionalized" as they say, but honestly he didn't really seem like your typical career criminal. Second cell mate which I only was with for a couple of weeks was a 50-something year old dude that was indeed your typical life-long, low-level criminal piece of trash. He was the type that was constantly one-upping every conversation, made up fantastical stories and was pretty much a pathological liar. He also fucking stunk. We got into a couple minor arguments because he insisted he had "seniority" therefore he had full control over what we watched on TV. Fuck that guy. He was doing time for something related to drugs, I don't really recall honestly. My third cell mate I spent the longest time with. We were such polar opposites; I was a young, average middle class white kid and he was a 40-something year old big black dude from the south. We both loved sports though, so we had that in common, and helped us get along pretty well from the start. Another thing we had in common was that we both had never been locked up before, but he'd already been in for a couple of years and had like another year and a half left at the time. He was in there for robbing banks, three of them IIRC. He'd struggled with a coke/crack addiction throughout his life, and was a vet that served in desert storm. He'd got sent to my state for some sort of rehab program, and while he was in outpatient, apparently he went looking for some kind of rush that wasn't drugs and, according to him, was very "polite" when he robbed the banks. Anyway, we bonded pretty well throughout the 6-7 months we were bunked up together, never once really got into any kind of disagreement. He had all kinds of crazy stories from his time in the military and throughout his life, and he was funny as hell. When I was only a week or two away from getting out, I ended up getting into it with some skinhead douche covered in swastika tattoos and the like (he was serving life IIRC), all over a massive misunderstanding. I wasn't even about to fight this dude because: 1) he probably would've beat my ass and 2) going home was far more important than trying not to look like a "bitch" and fighting this dude and losing good time. Anyway, my cell mate stepped in, and long story short the skinhead prick ended up apologizing to me. Celly had my back. Anyway, the day I got out was early in the morning and me and my cellmate stayed up all night. I couldn't sleep because of the excitement of going home anyway, but we spent the night just bullshitting and what not, and made plans to meet up the day he got out. At the time I was getting released to my parents house, but they were in the process of getting a new house so I couldn't leave my address with my cellmate so we could exchange letters. Instead, I gave him a phone number to call when he got out, but in the meantime I also told him I'd send him a letter once I got to a permanent address. Well, my state prison system had a policy where they don't want former inmates communicating with current inmates, so I was to write a letter under the disguise of someone else simple and to the point with an address. I did so, but I never heard from him. I suppose it's possible he got transferred and my letter got lost, idk. And unfortunately the phone number I left for him had to get changed. I knew when his release date was, but he didn't know exactly where he was going to be. So after that date came, I gave it a little time and tried my best to track him down, but to no avail. A couple years down the line I tried again, and finally found something online, but unfortunately it was an article that was a memorial of sorts celebrating his life. The son of a bitch died about 6 months prior :( I still think about whether or not he thought I blew him off, and wonder if he got back in touch with his kids, which he'd always talked about. I just hope the time in between him getting out of prison and his passing was spent doing whatever made him happy. This was a lot longer than I'd expected but thinking about the whole thing hits close to home. After spending that amount of time with someone practically every hour of every day, even just 6-7 months can make a couple of dudes become very good friends. RIP celly, never forget ya buddy.
   — snecseruza


2. One of my cell mates was convicted of two murders, served them both in full, 15 years and 5 years. He supposedly was cell mates with Ed Gein when he was caught before they sent him to WI. His current sentence he was in his 60s and was there for stabbing a guy at a grocery store “because he felt like stabbing a white guy”. I used to joke by asking him if he was gonna stab a white boy today (I’m white) - he didn’t find it as funny as I did. He was in the early stages of Alzheimers - ended up getting cancer in there while he was my cell mate and had nightmares about all the people he had killed haunting him (supposedly 6 overall). He was my favorite cell mate I had while in prison tho because he let me watch his TV. My crime? I sold six ecstasy pills to an undercover.
   — lowkeygee


3. This was jail but I got really lucky. I had 4 cell mates (this was an open pod, no bars). One guy was like the top dog in the whole pod of 80 dudes, had done about 18 years hard time. He was really cool though, he had some crazy stories. He also helped me out when I came in because I'd never been in before. Other cell mates came and went, one was a little Mexican guy my age who was there the whole time too and we were pretty tight. Besides those just random guys who minded their own business. Some of the other pods were terrible though, I lucked out.
   — ColdBeef






4. So, this very tall young skinny black man comes into the block and sits with me at a table. People, ask why he's in and he said he stole a 100,000 dollar camaro. This was a early 90s generation by the description he gave. Sounds more like he got caught opening the door and sitting inside to take things out of it. I'm quiet, but nice to him. He's freaking huge and doesn't seem all there. He goes into his cell early and shuts the door so it locks. Starts taking toothpaste and apple shavings and putting them in his hair like he's washing it with them. We all think he's faking a mental illness to get out and seems to be doing a good job . Weeks later, I'm sitting playing Monopoly with some people. This guy would say he wanted to play and make crazy stuff up because he didn't understand the game. This gangsta white kid yells at him that he can't sit with us. I told him that wasn't a good idea. Lunch comes around, a CO is walking to the upper deck of cells inspecting them. This kid is sitting against the concrete on the floor and the tall crazy black guy takes his huge hand and slaps the hell out of him . Kid let's out a feminine scream, really funny wine to it. Big black guy takes his tray and sits with me gives me his milk or something. It was hilarious, the guy ends up being my cellie.. I was top bunk and he's screaming below about the end of time saying all kinda crazy stuff. I asked him if he was alright and he would sort of snap out of it and go back to saying crazy things. I told the CO once i got out of the cell and the guy starts shadow boxing all around the block. They transfer him to another block after doing some evaluation. He was clearly mentally insane and I'll never forget him.
   — Dumpfrumperson


5. not me but my uncle told me that his cell mate was the resident blowjob guy
   — aga_blag_blag


6. This was Jail and it was a long time ago, so the details may be not so sharp. I was a juvenile/runaway. I got stopped by the cops for being on the beach after hours. I was arrested for providing false identity/info to the police. The town I got busted in did not have a juvie facility so they put me in the county jail. My cell mate was an older girl, maybe mid 20's who ran from the cops when they broke up the party she was at. Got arrested for possession. She cut her foot open while fleeing and had to go to ER to get stitches. Lots and lots of stitches. She was tripping her ass off and thought the stitches were worms coming out of her foot. She proceeded to pick the worm/stitches out one by one with her nails and teeth. Blood was everywhere. Probably the most horrific thing I've watched some one do to themselves up close. I couldn't begin to imagine how bad that trip must have been for her, and it definitely caused nightmares and flashbacks for me.
   — Mojothewonderdog






7. Dude wanted to cuddle at midnight, woke me up to tell me he was feeling cold, I literally yelled at him and told him to never come near me.
   — Julianaize


8. I did 2 months in an open dorm-style jail, four people per cubicle. One guy was in for 0.05g of meth (almost nothing, really) and looked like a Holocaust survivor. Another guy was in for selling coke, weed, and pills. He was pretty cool and shared his commissary (ramen, candy, etc). The other person was a kid who had just turned 18. Bragged about getting off for attempted murder and 'only' being stuck with 18 months in prison. Called his judge a 'pussy ass hoe.' He got away with staying in county because he kept putting in requests to medical - they wouldn't send you to prison until you had a totally clean bill of health apparently. He was there for a month until he was sent to prison. Some other guys of note: a guy with glasses covered in bright tattoos I frequently lost to in chess, a kindred spirit with a Galactic Empire tattoo (I have a Rebel Alliance tattoo), and the buff Mexican guy who would masturbate at night when he thought we were all asleep.
   — emberaith


9. My cousin went to jail for a 2 weeks before his case was thrown out. His cell mate was a bit built body builder and my cousin is a skinny guy. At first he said his cell mate said things like "look at you, I could break you in half with 1 hand" after that my cousin said he was cool and told him to come tell him if he had any problems and they got along fine. But he was glad to have gotten out there. Went to jail because he took some friends and threatened the guy that had taken his money (stole it basically) and the guy called the cops. He agreed not to press charges (outside of court agreement) as long as he could keep the money
   — Sno_Jon






10. First guy was a good bloke named Peter. Then I moved from remand prison and got some crazy guy. He tried to beat the shit out of me on the first day when I turned on the light to read. Next guy was some old dude who was probably a pedo. Last guy was a nice artist man, then I had about four days in my own cell before release.
    — karatelemon


11. Asked my friend who served time, he and his celly got along just fine and they hung out with a few other guys. He said it made their time easier. For the most part, people were respectful to each other as they all kind of recognised they were all stuck in the situation together. (He only served 30 days).
    — zerbey


12. The first night I was in my cellmate cried all night and begged me not to rape him. I never forgot that and I never went back.
    — TheCurseOfLazlo