Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
I Escaped a Jamaican Prison Camp | Locked Up Abroad
19 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What does comfort mean to the speaker?
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A fraud took advantage of my mother. She had her kid kidnapped and held for ransom.
Holy s***.
I don't know why that's funny, but at some point, I snapped, man. I was involved in some kind of heinous crime that they will never be able to prove. Every authority figure has failed me. This world will grab ahold of you, kidnap you in the middle of the night, and do whatever it wants to you. My dad's major thing when I was growing up was you got to take your brother with you everywhere you go.
Like, you guys can't leave the house together. Because in the 90s, I don't know if you remember this, there was this mysterious man in the van who was going around, and I guess if he caught you, you'd come back just gerbil-eyed, staring at the wall forever, you know? Me and my brother, my twin brother, actually, we're like Ren and Steppy.
He's a big guy, and he's very soft and sweet, and I'm wiry, and I'm like a mean chihuahua. Or when I was a kid, at least. I've mellowed out. Maybe my testosterone's lower now. But he's fat, and I'm mean. Those are not kids that you want to kidnap. So my dad was pretty smart in saying, stay together. Because him on his own, maybe.
And then me just being small by myself would probably be easy to grab. But the two of us, no.
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Chapter 2: What traumatic experiences shaped the speaker's childhood?
He was just a husky boy. And so I bring that up because it kind of sets me off on a path at a young age of like not taking no shit from nobody quickly, quick to get violent, but also kind of being an outsider and like resenting. I feel like it was one of the first things where an authority figure failed me. So I started getting into trouble at a young age. Class clown. Dad didn't want me skating.
He didn't want me playing guitar and stuff. He saw that as a one-way ticket to being a bum. I feel like your dad was on point, though. He was, but he also was a very sadistic... Punisher. It was okay to beat your kids then.
I just talked to him yesterday and he's like, I was like, you know, with all these new things with like parenting and stuff, like if you were my age and you had a kid now in this day and age, would you still beat the shit out of your kids? And he's like, yeah, yeah, no, I don't, I don't feel that way. I don't think I needed to be here.
Let me give you an example of like the extremes my dad would go to. I wasn't really allowed to have a lot of friends. We never had people over at the house. And on my 11th birthday, me and my brother got to have a friend over. And the dog took a shit on the carpet in the living room. And my dad grabbed me by my neck and held my face up to the dog shit. And hit me like you do a dog.
That's the kind of shit he would do. Extreme punishments. Like my dad would never come home and just beat us. But if we fucked up, you were going to get fucked up. It was going to be like one time I bucked up to him. He's beating up on my brother. I bucked up to him and he like, you're going to you want to step up to the champ? You want to step up to your old man?
You're going out of this house the same way you came in. And he stripped me butt naked and put me out on the front porch like Dino from the Flintstones.
Like, that's the kind of shit that I was. He sounds like a douchebag, but it's a little too extreme, but really extreme. Yeah. So anyway. But I can see spanking kids. Yeah, with more of this banking.
And I get it too. Like sometimes they need that negative reinforcement. Sometimes the physical one is the only thing that will work. Their frontal lobe is not developed yet. You know, like they got some, and I have to learn lessons the hard way, you know? So anyway, one day me and my buddies are out. I discovered the PSTA, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority. Okay.
It was $2.50 for an all-day pass. So I could go anywhere in Pinellas County from Williams Park to downtown Clearwater and go skateboard for $2.50. So I got – this was like my Sunday routine. Me and my brother would go skate around Pinellas County everywhere. But my parents' rule was don't go to Clearwater Beach. we're running late to get home. We got a curfew, right?
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Chapter 3: How did the speaker's family dynamics affect his behavior?
So I pick up the phone. It's not a phone. I'm pissed. I think I like bang the phone on the, uh, on the receiver, on the whatever. And security guard shows up, grabs me up, makes me and my, my buddy and my brother walk over to the security hut.
Um, and we ended up getting arrested because when the cops showed up for that, there had already been a call out for three skateboarders who carjack or carjack, but they charged us with burglary.
Um,
Felony 13 years old for accidentally opening a car door up, right? Yeah, so that's my prior, right?
so now I've got a pride I've got one charge and So what happens you get probation I had to do like a diversionary program That was it write a letter of apology do some kind of anger management class or something They're easy on you on your first one, but if I was gonna get another charge, which I did I was gonna do some time right so A couple of years, maybe a year goes by. My parents split up.
We're living with my mom and we're just like Lord of the Flies. Like we're doing whatever the we want. I'm every girl in the neighborhood. I'm getting into fights every day, not going to school at all, like pretty much dropped out in the ninth grade. And I had gotten into a fight or I had a problem with a kid in our neighborhood and I threw hot coffee on him because he'd already beat me up.
Right. He's bigger than me. I couldn't do anything about it. I happen to be walking out of a gas station. Don't ask me why I'm 14 years old. I'm already interested in coffee, but I had a hot cup of coffee and I saw him and I knew if I saw him, it was going to be on. Right. So I scolded him with coffee and I caught another charge. So was that wrong? Should you not do that?
What would you do if you were here and you had a hot cup of coffee?
Marty, I may already probably already get, there's a better chance if I throw the coffee on him, I don't get my ass beat than I do. Right.
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Chapter 4: What led to the speaker's involvement in crime?
Yeah. There's one that's like a survival school. That was... So it started... I'll give you a brief history. There was a... a drug program in Malibu in the sixties called Synanon. Okay. And they took, um, some, a little bit of stuff from like Chinese internment camps and then seriously, and literally logs, right. He's in tournament camp and then rehab and then like, and then a, right.
But it's just like, it's this like shaming the addict kind of thing. And then using the other addicts in there as like enforcers of the Synanon program, shave their head, take their identity away. Colt, right. Yeah. Therapy Colt. And then there was another offshoot of that called The Seed, which was here in Florida. That was in the 70s, so like 60s, 70s.
And then in the 80s, this Mormon guy from Utah saw the opportunity, like a business opportunity to do it. And he started those survival camps where they take kids out in the desert of Utah, and that's just where you live. You've got to just do your camping for who knows how long. He gets some heat in the 80s and 90s for doing that, all the abuse and everything.
And he realizes that he can go to different countries and they have much more laxed child abuse laws. Right. And they're also separated from their family by so much that the parents aren't even going to figure out Right. That their kids are being abused. So they opened up schools in like American Samoa. I don't know if this guy is related to the one that I was in.
The company that owned the program I was in was called Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs. It was owned by a Mormon father and son from Utah called J.K. and Ken K. I don't remember which one's which, but... But the first guy, the documentary, if people want to do some research on this, it's called Camp Nightmare. They break down this dude who makes the business of it.
And famous people have been in these schools. Paris Hilton was in one in Utah. There's a comedian, Rachel Wolfson. She was in one. And then there's another documentary came out called The Program. That's on Netflix. And that one is specifically about a school, Ivy Ridge in upstate New York, that is a WASP affiliate.
So there are schools in America, but then there's schools in American Samoa, Mexico, Costa Rica. And, uh, Jamaica and those schools are the ones that like, if you up at South Carolina or Montana or Ivy Ridge, you get sent to that one. So we just, I just went straight to that one. Like I didn't get a chance to go to the nice, nicer American boarding school. So, um,
Oh, and then there's one more that's on HBO Max called Teen Torture Incorporated. And that's a better overview. It's not just specifically about a WASP school, but it kind of breaks down. They're like, this shit is still going on. You know, the business of troubled teens... and warehousing children is still happening. Right.
And when I say warehousing or I call it like a human trafficking scam, I think that a lot of people associate human trafficking, like sex trafficking or whatever, but what this was was just warehousing children because the program, like, The therapy that we were going through was like, we listened to like Tony Robbins tapes and Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra and had to write essays about it.
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Chapter 5: How did Ellis navigate life after leaving juvenile hall?
Yeah, got out two months after my 18th birthday. Geez, another six months? I thought you were going to tell me they were bullshitting you. So I did six months and then another six months. No, like, I was well-behaved, all right? And I buddied up with a guy who was a guard there that also had his church, so they would...
you were allowed to take, he was allowed to take a couple of the kids out of the program to go to church on Sundays. So I was like, reading that Bible, quoting shit, like, whatever, like learning all of it. So I could, you know, like the hobo code, like a little religious talk, get you something to eat. Yeah. So, and that's what it was. That's why I was going.
Cause they had like donated food, like Edelman's donuts and shit. Like, so I'll go listen to, I still right now, somebody is like, I'll give you a box of donuts. If you just listen to me preach for a little while, I'd be like, all right, cool. If I didn't have anything to do, I'd do it. Like, free donuts? Come on. So... And then the other guards were, like, 24 years old or something.
You know what I mean? I'm not that far in age difference from them. So I'd get to stay up late and clean the place so that they didn't have to do it. And then they would... They take me in the employee break room and be like, eat whatever you want in that refrigerator. Just don't get sick so we don't get caught. So I'm up eating. All the other kids are asleep.
I'm eating pizza and ice cream watching Chappelle's show or like late. I think there were basketball like basketball finals or hockey or some shit going on at the time. Like it was total coast of six months and I have to go live with my dad.
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Chapter 6: What experiences did Ellis have while in boot camp?
I didn't have to go back to the streets or anything like that. Like. And, uh, yeah, I got out two months after my 18th birthday and, uh,
Went to Texas for— I was like, I got a quick question. Do these guards, do you think they knew, like, okay, this guy really— Yeah, oh, they heard the story.
This was always—there was actually a guard in JDC when I first got locked up. He looked like Matt. He looked like you. Like, but he was like a Queens guy, like, talked like Queens, you know? And I told him the story. He's listening to me, and he's like—and then he just cracks up laughing. He's like, you can't even make this shit up. I'm telling you, I need to write a show.
He's like, I can make a sitcom about the shit that I hear in this place. And I'm like, thanks, man. Like there's nothing you can do about it for me. You know, there was also a guard in, uh, in the bootcamp who I told him that story or no, he realized that I was like advanced. A lot of these kids are like semi literate high school dropouts. You know what I mean?
They're like, they have no education and I've always educated myself, you know, like I've always just had a passion for knowledge. So I remember the guard was like asking people questions in it. Cause the guards taught school on the weekends, uh, During the week it was a teacher, but on the weekends the drill instructors taught classes.
And he asked me, like, how can you tell the difference between a venomous and a non-venomous snake? And I said, like, the venomous snakes have more of, like, rounder eyes and their heads are more oval-shaped where you'll get, like, a shovel-shaped head on a venomous snake for the glands and blah, blah, blah. And he listens to me and he goes, you're not supposed to be here.
And I had a sigh of relief. Like they're going to send you home.
Yeah, right?
And he's like, that doesn't mean anything at all, but I don't think you're supposed to be here. And then what was another thing? I had to write a report on Andrew Jackson, and he was like, this is the best thing that has ever been written in this bouquet. It means nothing. It means nothing. He's like, don't go getting a big head about it. You know what's another fucked up thing?
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Chapter 7: How did Ellis's education influence his life choices?
You could only do schoolwork. So I would get the teachers to give me textbooks that I wasn't even taking a class for just so I had something fun to read. And all the other kids are either, you know, retarded. Can I say that? Or they don't care. And, like, you know how it is in school. It's not cool to be smart. Right.
Like, so if the teacher asks a question, these are the coolest kids in Pinellas County. You know how I know? Because they're in boot camp. Like, right. Cause that's what happens to cool kids. They go to jail. Cause that's cool. Right. So none of them answer the questions. So it'd be like Bueller, Bueller. And so finally I did, I'd raise my hand and answer the question.
Like, and so it would just become, there was this other kid who like was dumb, but he was just competitive with me. So he would try to beat me to raising his hand, but then he would be completely wrong. And I'm like, you're dumb ass dude. Like, no wonder why you're in here.
Like, I was taking college algebra, and we had a kid like that. Like, they would say, you know, whatever, 2A plus 3B. You know, they would do that. And he'd be like, oh, 12B. And he'd be like, the teacher would be like, no. And this happened six or seven times.
Chapter 8: What led to Ellis's book deal and its subsequent challenges?
And me and there was a guy named Elvin that was in class that we used to be study partners. Listen, we would burst out laughing. I mean, we would just be like, bro, stop.
Stop. Stop.
Like, we got to get through this. I mean, we're in college. You're like, we're trying to get through this, man. And the other kids in the class would start laughing. The other college students would start laughing. Like, y'all are so mean to him. I was like, listen, four times in a row. Just statistically, he should have gotten one of those guesses right. I mean, you know, and he just can't.
Like, he doesn't understand. Like, stop doing it. And then sure enough, five minutes later, he's like, 12B. No.
I remember the guard that was friendly with me. The kid's name was, it was spelled G-U-D.
Yeah.
But it was pronounced good. But the one DI that was friendly with me would call him good. He's like, shut up, good. You're always wrong, good. I don't know. That guy, Ken Jenkins, I think his name was. They're all sheriff's deputies. They worked at the jail. They went through a boot camp. They had to go through a two-week boot camp to be the drill instructors at boot camp.
And now he's like, I look all these people up. The ones whose names I remember, you're going to love this one, dude. So I found Ken Jenkins because I was like, man, I'd love to have a beer with this guy. He was funny. He would basically do stand-up on the Saturday classes. I would look forward to it. uh, but he works at the Pinellas County.
He's like the Lieutenant of the bailiffs at the jail or something. I didn't reach out. I'm not gonna, I don't want to hang out with a cop, but, uh, but there was this one female guard who was a smoke show, dude. I mean, like I'm talking about furious, furious masturbation at night when she was working, like, and, uh, She was always the one, too.
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