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OCTOBER 2024

Column 59

    I am sure most people have heard about prison tattoos. In my opinion, getting prison tattoos is one of the dumbest things someone can do when they are doing time. Especially if you will be getting out of prison one day.

Tattoos, or body art, are pretty common these days. It seems like everyone under a certain age has tattoos of one kind or another, so having tattoos now a days does not carry the stigma it once did. However, it is very easy to distinguish regular body art from prison tattoos. The prison variety are very distinctive and have a look that cannot be mistaken for anything but a prison tattoo, or as they say in prison, “a jailhouse tattoo."

A lot of the prison "tats" have significance to that person, as well as to other prisoners. Many tattoos identify a prisoner, telling where that person is from, what sort of affiliations they have with the various street or prison cliques, as well as other representations that person may think is important. Not to mention just the art of many of the tattoos. But these tattoos all have one thing in common, they identify that person as a convict or former convict.

The prison system started a program some years ago that allows prisoners to get prison tats removed. I don't really have any details about that, but supposedly the idea is to remove the tattoos which identify that person as being affiliated with street and prison cliques. It is also supposed to help the prisoner when they are released. Applying for a job with those types of tattoos, combined with the jacket of being an ex-con, pretty much ensures there will be no one who wants to hire them.

I have also heard one of the justifications for the tattoo removal program was to help the prisoner with their self-esteem issues. That might sound like BS to someone on the outside looking in, but I could see how that would be a justification. I won't bother with trying to explain it since it isn't really important in what I am writing about here.

Besides tattoos, there is another way to identify former prisoners. In prison we call it having a "prison grill”. Many prisoners have missing teeth. Often, when you see a prisoner smile it looks like a picket fence because of all the missing teeth.

The reason for so many prisoners having missing teeth is because of a prison policy. The dental care does not allow for root canals in most circumstances. The dental care does provide fillings of teeth that need it. But if there is any problem more serious then filling a cavity, the prison dentist will give you the option of pulling the tooth, or not doing anything to it at all. Those are your only choices. I have never really gotten a clear answer on why they will refuse to do a root canal on an abscessed tooth, but they will gladly extract the tooth. I think it takes a comparable amount of time for both procedures, so it couldn't be the time factor.

I have heard of prisoners who have tried to get the prison system to allow that prisoner to pay for a private dentist to come into the prison to do the root canal, but the attempt to do that has always been denied to the best of my knowledge. Extracting what would be a perfectly healthy tooth, rather than doing a root canal is something that makes no sense whatsoever.

If it is okay for the prison to support a program which allows the removal of prison tats, why would it allow a dental policy that requires the removal of perfectly good teeth? I can't really see any difference in having tattoos removed for "self-esteem" and allowing prisoners to have root canals rather than losing a tooth. A "prison grill" would affect one’s self-esteem just as much, I would think.

See, I was able to tie the prison tattoos and prison grills together.

If you want to send a message, feel free. Regular mail is easier and faster. My address is below. Remember, no prison tattoos, or prison grills if you can avoid it.

All the best to you.

Dean Carter

October 2, 2024

California Health Care Facility
Dean Carter C97919
Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
USA