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hopkins talks about prison life
www.doghouseboxing.com
DHB (June 3, 2006)
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In an international Conference call held yesterday, Bernard Hopkins was asked if there was a defining moment at some point while he was incarcerated that the light went on and it clicked and he realized that he needed to get himself together?
Bernard Hopkin responded: Yes, and it was totally the opposite of what most people watch TV, "OZ" (ph) on HBO or old prison story (ph). It wasn't that wake up call that I got. I speak at seminars, and schools and reform schools all around the world, I'm asked that question all of the time, and I don't mind answering it, because it's a great question. It's a question of the, in the know, they want to know.
And I said to them, prison didn't change Bernard Hopkins. People (INAUDIBLE), what do you mean. I said it was totally the opposite. I changed Bernard Hopkins. I rehabilitated myself. Well how did you do that, they ask. I said when I went to jail, it's like any other jail in the world. I see if they believe that they're going to keep coming back, when I say they, the people that benefit by me being incarcerated by my own ignorance and decisions. And I will not a (INAUDIBLE) to anyone.
It remind me of Ghandi or Michael Mecks (ph) or people that, Martin Luther King, that got incarcerated and somehow they found themselves and they seen that they had to be brought to a place because of their own ignorance. And I'm using me, because I don't think Ghandi (ph) or Martin Luther King was brought in because of their ignorance. They was representing what they believe. Well because of my ignorance, because I did what I did, I've seen a whole different picture. I've seen inmates with 10 to 15 years, whether they should have got it, or not got it, playing basketball, lifting weights, and realizing that they got 15 to life, 20 to life, and they had their table TV. They had their commissary once a week. They're talking about old stories when they was on the street. And at 17 years old I had the vision of an old man that say, wait a minute, you mean to tell me that part of my punishment is to get up at 5:30 in the morning, shackled to go out to a form to pick corn, because they don't have to hire private contractors, that will cost them a lot more money than they're paying me a month, which was $10 a week. And someone is making license plates for their job. Someone is making prison boots. Someone is making outside sneaks (ph) to be sold at outside venues. And I understood that every prison that I went to, it always was in a neighborhood that's somewhere miles and hours away from my house, and it's all coal township town that one time had a big booming industry of making coal, and they all sucked up and they needed industry now to generate revenue, and we generate revenue, generating plumbing and I was the blue chip (ph).
Well I said that the wake up call was Buddy (ph), is that I'm not going to be a part of this household. So that means that I, Bernard Hopkins will change my behavior once I get out, if I get out, because five years can be 20 years if you've got to defend yourself. Five years can be a death sentence if you get stabbed in the neck or the back and you get out of there, as they say if in case of an accident Mr. Hopkins, where would you like your body to be sent? Can you imagine getting an answer to that question at work? I'm only 17.
So what open – and I know I sound passionate about this, but I get like that sometimes. What opened my eyes wasn't prison is so rough it scared me. I came home and I walked off nine years of parole and never got in trouble. No, I would say, the first year was rough. The first year, if you've seen some of the HBO and behind the glory segments that they did on me, they did the 70 foot (INAUDIBLE) and the toughest john in Pennsylvania, they've got 38 of them, from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, hard criminals. And the first thing I had to do, if you've seen the segment, I have it for you, or Kelly can get it to you, what did you do when you first went in? I had to find the toughest guy on the block and I had to knock him out, and that happened.
To gain respect, I had to go in D block, and find the toughest guy and find out through others who is running the show here. Why? Because you didn't want to become a soldier because most people want to be a follower, like society. There's more followers, than leaders, that's human nature. Nobody wants to stick their neck out and be sacrificed if it don't happen, if it don't work, but I always did. I did it in my career. Watch my career. I took the industry by the horns, and said I'm going to do it my way, stop me and (INAUDIBLE). I took that same mentality (INAUDIBLE), and relate it to my life (INAUDIBLE). And also, as a civilian. I found the toughest guy and he wasn't my size either. He was a big guy, like Tarver, maybe a little bigger. And he had more time than five years that I had, and I had to see him. That's where my integrity came from. And the next thing you know, I had all of this people, his flunkies, his cronies, they became my backing. Who is the crazy guy at 17 coming in there and do what he did, I want to be with him. Well that's where people are followers.
But then, I became not a negative force in prison, I box in prison they had a gym. I got (INAUDIBLE) back. They had boxing tournaments. We took on other penitentiaries. I got seniority in the gym, amongst the warden, amongst the prison guard. I became the James Scott (ph) of railways (ph) back in the '80s, and in this era, I won all of the middleweight championships in the Pennsylvania. I had lifers, guys that had serious crimes who wouldn't get in the ring with Bernard Hopkins. I gained respect. And I had the power to do negative things to people, that others did. I stopped people from getting raped. I stopped people from getting extorted. I stopped people from getting taken advantage. I mean he's a young guy. I mean leave that guy alone, man. No he owe me some money, he owe me some cigarettes. Come on now, that's part of the game. You make up a lie, saying a guy owe you something to justify why nobody else is sending him to you because you don't know if he did or didn't, but I know your reputation right. We've been on the block for eight – you've been on the block for eight years, I've been for three, leave him alone. All right, man, if it wasn't for you…
I took that mentality and said to myself, and to everybody I speak to, jail didn't change Bernard Hopkins. I rehabilitated myself because I had all of the luxuries of not at home. My mom couldn't afford HBO. I had it then. She had six kids and single parent. I go to jail, I'm like wait a minute, they've got HBO. I can watch the fights, they've got ESPN. This thing is structured as a business. I'm not blaming the people that's making business of it, because I blame myself for being an idiot to put myself in a position to be a 401 (k) or blue chip. Now can you imagine if 80 or 60 percent of the inmates think the way I think, a lot of people would have to find jobs. Jail became a multi billion dollar business, $50,000 to hold an inmate, one inmate and every state around the country is over populated in full. Do the math. You think that everybody wants a Bernard Hopkins coming out of prison and not going back? You must be out of your mind. You think that everybody really want the redemption of a Bernard Hopkins that never go back? It costs $50,000 plus to keep an inmate housed, just one. Can you imagine? I don't know where you live, but they've got a penitentiary there, and I guarantee you they're full. Fifty-thousand a head, add that up, do the math.
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Originally Posted by BIG H
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