By Malice Intended

Many have always encouraged a “lock em’ up and throw away the key” mentality in regards America’s prison system.  This includes (and is sometimes especially directed toward) non-violent drug offenders.  They are the casualties of a war that has been waged for generations, yet so many willingly turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to their take on the situation.

Seth Ferranti, a self-proclaimed prisoner of the war on drugs, has fought many obstacles to ensure that his voice wasn’t marginalized or silenced.  He is currently serving a 25 year and four month sentence after being convicted as a “drug kingpin” for the sale of LSD.   Seth has employed the power of the pen to speak for those who are slowly and painfully being digested in the belly of the beast.  Through Gorilla Convict Publications, he has released two volumes of his Street Soldiers series, chronicling the stories of modern day urban outlaws such as Frank Matthews and Wayne Perry.  His work has also appeared in long-running street magazines such as F.E.D.S and Don Diva.  Seth’s own life struggles have been profiled in the pages of Rolling Stone.

Planet Ill recently had a chance to correspond via e-mail with Mr. Ferranti.  He offered a candid and unfiltered view of life on the inside, as well as genuine perspective on America’s drug policies.  He also provides some insight on the creative process behind his writing.  This is Seth “Soul Man” Ferranti: Raw and uncut.

Planet Ill: Would you say that prison is more about rehabilitation or retribution?

Seth Ferranti: I would definitely say retribution. These places are warehouses for men. It goes even further than retribution. They put these prisons in rural areas to prop up the economy. In a lot of places where they have these prisons there is nothing else, job wise, for the local populace. Only these sprawling industrial prison complexes. Whole families work at these places. Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, fathers and sons and even their daughters- generations of families work in these places- the government has created a dynasty of prison working families in these towns and rural areas just as they have created on the flipside, generations of minorities in prison, with these draconian laws and sentences.

Prisons are definitely not about rehabilitation, no matter what they say or the policy they espouse. I am a prime example of that. I have fought and overcome tremendous obstacles to get my AA, BA and MA degree while incarcerated through correspondence courses. You would not believe all the hassles I went through to get these degrees. So I know from my own experiences that no matter what they say they are not about rehabilitation at all.

Planet Ill: How has prison life changed you? Have any of those changes been for the better?

Seth Ferranti: I have changed a lot. I was an upper-middle-class suburban white boy who came to prison at the age of 22 with a 25 year sentence for selling LSD and marijuana at East Coast colleges. It was quite a shock to say the least. I was literally thrown in with the wolves and I survived. I became a man behind these fences with my reputation and honor intact. I have become extremely comfortable and secure with who I am. I know what I am about and what I can do in any given circumstance. I have been tested again and again and proved my mettle under the most dire situations. So I wouldn’t change who I am for the world. I like who I am and who I have become and am very comfortable with that.

But I am a harder man. I am less merciful. I have no tolerance for bullshit and I tend to judge quickly. I probably have different values that I have adopted in my struggle to survive and thrive in here that might not be suited for society. Not to say that I can’t change again. But in here you must act rapidly and decisively in order to maintain your status. Not that its all bad but its not all good either. But prison has changed me. Not that I mind the changes. But I am definitely not the young white suburbanite I was when I came in. I am a different person now, for better or worse.

Planet Ill: Some see the prison industrial complex as a form of modern day slavery and the war on drugs is a way to keep the machine going. Do you agree with this sentiment?

Seth Ferranti: Most definitely. I touched on this in my first answer. Although nowadays they are locking up anyone not just Blacks or Latinos. With all the new white collar crime laws and computer laws everybody is fair game. Most of the people locked up now don’t even deserve to be. They got people in here for all kinds of bullshit. But the war on drugs is the biggest culprit. Giving people sentences of decades for trivial amounts of drugs is ridiculous. There are guys in here with ten years for a couple of crack rocks. That is crazy. It is a form of modern day slavery but there is a better phrase for it, they are propping up the economy on the backs of the downfallen, and note I don’t say downtrodden, I say downfallen.

These CO’s and prison administrators and judges and prosecutors are making money off other people’s misfortunes. They are making a living off other people’s lives and that is some bullshit for real. In my eyes they are the criminals. They are the ones who will have to answer one day to the people of the United States. Just like they had the Nuremburg trials and hunted down all the Nazi’s, they might do the same thing in this country one day in the future but it will be called the Drug War Crime trials and all the wardens, CO’s and lawmakers will be hunted down and made to atone for their actions. It’s not as farfetched as it seems and who knows what the future holds. All I know is that they have kept people locked up for essentially non-violent crimes for decades of their lives under the pretense of the War on Drugs which is a war on our own people, crazy yes?

Planet Ill: What is your position on the decriminalization of drugs? Do you think the legalization of drugs could alleviate America’s drug problem?

Seth Ferranti: I think drugs should be decriminalized and regulated. A softer stance needs to be taken. Right now all our country’s policies are doing is enriching the coffers of the drug cartels which are really mini-empires just like the Medellin Cartel from Colombia, which almost literally succeeding in taking over that country. What is going on in Mexico now is the same thing and that is right on our border. Decriminalization and legalization would destroy the cartels’ profit ratio. I don’t think there is a drug problem. People have always used drugs and will continue to do so no matter what the government does. You can’t regulate what someone ingests in their bodies. That is crazy. Why not regulate our diet then? But still they will sell you sodas and candy and fat foods all day because it is legal. So who is to say what is bad and good for you. I believe it is all down to the individual.

Let people decide for themselves. If they want help to get off drugs have drug programs if they want to shoot heroin give them clean needles and methadone clinics. If they want to smoke marijuana let them smoke it all day. I believe in living how you want. As long as you don’t infringe on someone else rights or family or property it doesn’t matter anyway.

Planet Ill: Do you think that the policies of the prisons and the behavior of prison staff sometimes exacerbate the problems?

Seth Ferranti: Most definitely. Contraband is very prevalent in prisons and who do you think brings the contraband in- be it cell phones, tobacco, drugs, etc- the guards are bringing it in. Why? Money, it’s that plain and simple. You can sell a cell phone for $500 in here, a pack of cigarettes for $200, some marijuana for $800 an ounce. Just like the black market economy on the outside there is a black market economy in here and it is fueled by the CO’s.

Its all about money and everybody is trying to make some and get ahead. The guards know that dudes in here are locked up for some bullshit. A lot of them party and do drugs themselves. It is the American way. Have you ever been to college? What do you think kids do there for four years? Party, party and party some more. I don’t know why we are trying to fool ourselves. The government and media are so critical on things and try to dramatize and blow up and examine everything so much.

We have turned into such a media driven, what is happening right now culture. It’s really quite sick when you think about it. We have created a point the finger culture and that mentality infects every part of our society. Instead of asking what the problem is and attempting to solve it everybody wants to point the finger and put the blame on the next man. That is how these prisons are run. Everybody is scared to make a call or a decision. They just go with the flow even if it fly’s in the face of conventional wisdom.

Planet Ill: How did you get into writing? Were you always a writer or did you start after being incarcerated?

Seth Ferranti: I dabbled in writing my whole life, nothing serious. But when I entered prison I got a job in the recreation dept and some of my homeboys were running the intramural sports leagues doing the stats, making schedules etc. I started working with them and doing a little newsletter or sports paper for the leagues with commentary, game reports and stuff like that.

Dudes on the compound really enjoyed my writing so I kept doing it. At the same time I was taking college classes and was taking courses like journalism, creative writing and stuff like that. So I started doing different types of writing for the courses. When I was at FCI Fort Dix in 1999, I was still doing the sports newsletter thing for the recreation department and some dudes that just came from FCI Allenwood saw my writing on the prisoner bulletin boards and were impressed.

They asked me if I was a reporter or something from the street, I told them I had been locked up, just doing the sports paper. They told me they had a homeboy from Harlem who was starting a magazine and needed some writers. That magazine was Don Diva. It all started from there and I just happened to have the luck to be locked up with some notorious dudes that they wanted stories on so I got the interviews and I got the stories and everything snowballed from there to what it is today.

Planet Ill: Does writing provide you with a creative outlook and a break from the monotony of prison life?

Seth Ferranti: Yes and it provides way more than that. It provides a future for me and some recognition. It lets me accomplish goals from here that will help me after my eventual release. It allows me to build my name from here so that when I get out I have a future. That is everything that I am trying to accomplish with my writing. With so many prime years spent in here I needed a way to get my name out there so that I can get into different things when I come home.

My books and writing is my resume so to speak. This is what I did; this is what I accomplished while I was in prison. Along with my college degrees my writing is my foundation for the future. I hope to keep writing and telling stories that the mainstream media can’t get due to my circumstances and present location. I plan to keep harnessing my ideas and making them into reality with my books, website and articles. I try to stay busy and stay positive so I don’t get drawn into the drama and the bullshit politics of prison life. But don’t get it fucked up I will handle my business when necessary. I don’t have a reputation as a go hard white boy for nothing. Still I am mostly about the future now. The present is only a temporary obstacle in my path. One that I have overcome with my writing and one that hasn’t stop me being recognized in the real world.

Planet Ill: Will all your works focus on crime and prison, or will you eventually branch out into other genres?

Seth Ferranti: For right now this is what I’m doing. I’m trying to establish myself in this market (prison and crime). I have some other ideas plus I have several screenplays I’ve written and documentaries too. I have some other different type of books I’ve written but I don’t know if they will ever be published. On the agenda right now I got Street Legends Vol. 3 and 4 which are subtitled respectively- The Supreme Team: The Birth of Crack and Hip-Hop, Prince’s Reign of Terror and the Supreme/50 Cent Beef Exposed and  Infamous Gangsters: Fat Cat, Rayful and Alpo.  They should both be out in the next year. I also got a street novel I wrote titled Murder Capital, Prison Stories II and an Aryan Brotherhood book I am working on.

That will keep me busy for the next two years or so. I plan to put two books out a year until my release in 2015. I’d like to eventually do a memoir on my case and time in prison. After that who knows where life and writing will take me. I am open to other genres but it has to be something I have a passion for. I’m just not going to do this or that because it makes money. I do what I do because it is my passion. There’s not a lot of money in what I’m doing but this is what I want to do. I would do my books if no one bought them but I am glad to be recognized for my work and I’m glad that people like my books.

Planet Ill: Have any of the subjects profiled in your Street Legends books and Don Diva article ever taken issue with the way they were portrayed?

Seth Ferranti: For the most part I would say no. The way I work is I let the subject who I am writing about or their relative or codefendant see what I wrote before it’s published. Therefore there can be no discrepancies or problems. I live in a fishbowl. I can’t be writing bullshit about these guys because the system is only so big and sooner than later I would run into their homeboy or codefendant or somebody and they could stick a knife in me. That is why I verify all my facts and get as close to the person I am writing about as possible. I have been locked up with a lot of these dudes and the only reason they even gave me their stories is because of whom I am and where I am at.

It’s not like I’m some journalist on the street trying to exploit them, I am here with them trying to tell their side to the world. In most cases people only know the government and mainstream media angle on these cases and these street figures. I am here with them to give the full story, the real story and the background. A lot of the stuff these dudes tell me I can’t even use because I am not here to use my writing as a vehicle to help law enforcement or to put cases on people. So everything I do is very well structured and gone over.

Time and time again to make sure it flows right and leaves the person I am writing about not so much in a favorable light but in a real light. And in a tone that won’t cause him further trouble. I seek to cut through the hype and give the real story. There’s been a couple of cases were things went to print at Don Diva where some facts were in dispute and even wrong on one occasion but it pertained more to alleged snitches on the case than to the subject the story was on itself. And every time where an error occurred there was a correction/clarification.

It only happened because of the in and out correspondences between prisons and when the subject was transferred abruptly or put in the hole for this or that and communication was limited. And with magazines they have a deadline and all the clarifications weren’t made but I have learnt from my mistakes. I am not in the business of burning dudes or putting a false jacket as a snitch on them. In here my work is seen as the gospel truth. That is why I try to investigate all the facts thoroughly and go by the paperwork. But there are always clowns who think they are like that or think the story is about them when it isn’t. Some of these dudes think their stories are worth millions of dollars but nobody is getting a book deal or movie deal from being in Don Diva or F.E.D.S. Not yet, but hopefully we can move in that direction and get these stories in more mainstream magazines like GQ, Esquire, Rolling Stone and Maxim. I’m trying to push this genre as far as it can go and break into the mafia and Colombian cocaine cartel organized crime markets. But if not I will keep doing what I am doing in here and when I go home who knows?

Planet Ill: What do you plan to do after your release from prison?

Seth Ferranti: I want to get into film and entertainment. Documentaries, whatever, multimedia. Eventually I would like to write, produce and direct my own feature films. I have several scripts I have written already. I have a unique vision and I’d like to break into film when I go home and bring that vision to the world. I will definitely be active in film, print and the internet when I go home. Ten times as much as I am now. I can’t wait until the handcuffs are off. I am so limited in what I can do here because4 of my imprisonment.

People on the outside say I have accomplished a lot but when I’m out than they will see what I am truly capable of. I have missed a lot of opportunities being in here and when I get out I plan to seize every opportunity that comes my way with a vengeance. I also would like to go in front of congress and condemn this prison system for what it is. Congress might intend this or intend that with this law or that one but the affect is alarmingly different than the intention.

I like to think that peoples, even lawmakers basic intentions are good but when what they have structured actually gets applied in everyday life it is extremely different than what they may have implied and intended. I want to expose this system and the people who run it and take every advantage of it for what they are. There is a lot of corruption in the Bureau of Prisons and the government.

Planet Ill: Is there anything in closing that you would like to say to the readers of Planet Ill?

Seth Ferranti: Check out my blog at gorillaconvict.com. It has a different street or prison story on it every month. Bookmark it and tell your friends and help my audience grow. Right now I get about 20k unique visitors a month but I would like that audience to increase. I think I have a lot to say and hopefully people want to listen. Leave comments on the message wall on my site, request me as a friend on Facebook and order all my books. I have three out currently PRISON STORIES, STREET LEGENDS VOL 1 and 2. And check back on the site for my new books I mentioned above because they will be coming out in the near future. Take care and thanks for reading this interview with me I appreciate it.

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