Shaun Attwood was born and raised in the North West of England. He was the first in his family to go to University and he gained a Degree in Business. Having been interested greatly in the stock market since he was a teenager, Shaun made a decision to go to Phoenix, Arizona where he became a stock broker and eventually a millionaire. So how did Shaun end up serving time in America's toughest jail?
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| Shaun Attwood |
Before Shaun left for Arizona he was a fan of the Manchester Rave scene, and he brought the trend over with him to America. The Rave scene is famous mainly for being a platform for people to trade a take drugs. While in Phoenix Shaun headed an organisation that threw raves and distributed club drugs.
On May 16th 2002 , a SWAT team knocked down the door of his mansion and arrested him.
What followed was to change Shaun's life forever...
Shaun was facing potentially a life sentence for being the leader of a drugs organisation. He entered a lengthy legal battle and was held in the prison system for 2 years before he was finally sentenced to 9 and half years of which served almost 6.
In prison Shaun was forced to adapt to the harsh gang culture and obey the rules and etiquette of living there. Inmates had to attend meetings with their race (Whites, Mexicans, Blacks etc) and each race would have a leader or head. Failure to attend meetings or hanging around with members of another race would result in the 'offender' being beaten up or 'smashed' by the other members of their race. If someone challenged you or disrespected you then you were expected to stand up for yourself or you would also get smashed by your race for being a coward.
Negotiating these unspoken rules proved hard work for Shaun especially in his first few months in jail.
From very early on, he started documenting stories of some of the inmates he'd spoken to and wrote of the harsh conditions faced in some of the places he'd stayed in while in the system. The stories and letters to his family were smuggled out of the jail by Shaun's aunt and she then posted them on a special blog code named 'Jon's Jail Journal' so as not to be linked back to Shaun while he was still in the system.
The Sheriff in charge of the way the prison system is run is Joe Arpaio, and he has come under great scrutiny for the living conditions within his system, yet nobody within the law can touch him or change this and he remains with a tight grip on the system.
Now he is out of prison and back in the UK Shaun continues his campaign against Arpaio and continues to tell the stories of the inmates and friends he served time with. He is also touring schools and universities giving presentations about his life and raising awareness of prison and warning people about what using and/or distributing drugs can lead to.
Shaun came to my school and gave his presentation, I became so fascinated by his story that I bought his book 'Hard Time' which is the story of Shaun's first 2 years in the system.
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