Evaristo Salas Jr.

Because I was so young, they looked at me almost as a son or as a little brother.

So they protected me.

And not only me, but there was other juveniles that came a little bit later, too, that were Hispanic, and they did the same.

They didn't take advantage of us.

They offered us things.

I didn't take anything because I was like, you know, don't take anything.

So I was weary of that.

But they offered me food, things that I didn't have, you know, toothpaste, that kind of stuff.

And they walked with me all the time.

And they made sure that none of the other groups kind of preyed upon us.

And so prison is basically, everything is race-based in prison.

You go with your race first, and that's just the way it is.

There's no ifs or buts about that.

And there were certain predators that were there that were already known by these individuals, even though it was like a receiving center and these guys were just coming in from the county jails.

Some had been there a few months.

Some had done time before.

Some were just cycling through to go into the prison.

They pretty much were like, stay away from this person or they would kind of be around us at that time.

And that kind of stuff.

So in that sense, it kind of protected us.