(Part One) Oral History Series With Brandon M. Smith, Former California Prisoner Convicted as an Adult in Childhood
"I’ve seen some of the worst attributes that humans can exhibit."
(Brandon Smith spent 17 and a half years of his life in California prisons. He was convicted and sentenced as an adult while still a child and was released in February of 2024, a little over a year ago. He did time from age 17 to 21 and then 25 to 39. I interviewed him over the phone in February of 2025 for an oral history series with HTR about his experiences in the California prison system.)
(Above: Brandon M. Smith)
What are you doing for work now?
Currently, I’m doing security. I had an opportunity to work at a drug and alcohol treatment facility, which actually leads into my skillset. So, that’s where I’m at right now… I actually just turned 40 last week… I’m just trying to add value to wherever God places me in this current chapter of my life.
Our mutual friend didn’t really tell me anything about your story. He just mentioned you’d be a good person to interview. So, we’ll just start broadly. What is your experience with the prison system?
I have an extensive background when it comes to the California prison industrial complex. I’ve navigated all parts of it from the juvenile hall to the county jails, to prisons, Pelican Bay on down.
I was what we consider out here “unfit.” Those are juveniles who are being charged as adults in their cases. So, that was my first experience with the system out here, when I was 17 years old.
I got charged with 36 robberies. I was fighting 80 years. I ended up with five, and I went to the mainline prison. I went from juvenile hall to Chino State Prison when I turned 18, and from there, I’ve been through the whole California system. So, I have extensive firsthand knowledge on all aspects of it, from the staff level, and navigating dealing with police and COs, to the inmate level and navigating the gang culture, the gang world, and all aspects of that.
How long were you in juvenile hall before being transferred to an adult facility?
Probably like seven, eight months.
What was juvenile detention like?
In Southern California, you have three facilities, and it’s currently changing right now, if you’re not familiar with the juvenile system now.1 It’s turned over on its head. But, back then, you had what they called “Los Padrinos,” or “LP,” and that’s for people who come from my particular portion of the county, which is like Long Beach, Compton, Watts, all of those areas, Carson and all that. That’s where you mainly go. But then you also have Central, and that’s where all the LA people go. And then you have Sylmar, and that’s where most of the people from the Valley go. That’s where they have the compound, what’s called “the compound,” and that’s where all the unfits go, the kids who are being charged as adults. That’s where they housed us. So, I’ve been to all the juvenile halls in LA County.
What was the treatment of the kids like?
So, really having nothing else to compare it to, it wasn’t as gruesome as some of the adult facilities. But, me being the type of man that I am and educating myself and looking back on it, they had some school programs and they had a couple of extracurricular activities to engage in, but it wasn’t really focused on the rehabilitation process. It was more so just housing you until you go onto your next part of your journey, whether that be a camp program or the Youth Authority or prison.
So, it wasn’t the most healthy environment. Plus, with the gang culture, that’s like ground zero for a lot of the teenagers. So, there’s a lot of gang activity and a lot of fights and different levels of violence, depending on your personal involvement in that world.
I had my fair share of fights. We had some riots. We had some race riots. You have some gang riots. In juvenile hall, you didn’t really see too much weapon use. It was more so just fights and little melees amongst your different sub groups and things of that sort.
Do you remember the day you were transferred to adult prisons and what that was like?
Absolutely. I believe it was August 25th, 2003, if I’m not mistaken, and the prison transportation bus pulled up to Central Juvenile Hall to pick me up, and I just remember them coming and cuffing me up, putting the chains around my waist and my ankles, and I remember the look from all the other teenagers, the youths that were in the juvenile hall. And they’re looking like, once they got word that I was headed to prison, it’s a different level of seriousness to it. So, everybody is looking.
You see a couple of the younger kids crying. I’m like, “Ah man.” They were scared for me.
And then I just remember walking out with those ankle chains and getting onto that adult bus, and all the adults who were coming from the county jail, everybody, looking at me like, “Who is this kid, and what has he done that was serious enough that he’s going from juvenile hall to prison?”
So, getting on the bus, it’s a whole different level of politics. You have certain people of other racial backgrounds not wanting to communicate and talk to you. And then you had a couple older dudes that were Black asking me where I was from, so they can identify what group and who I belong to.
Just being introduced to that whole world, it changes your whole mentality. You’re like, “Okay, this isn’t juvenile hall fights over cookies and stuff like that. It’s serious.”
Describe the transportation process in more detail.
So, for that particular trip, because I was going to Chino State Prison, it wasn’t a long trip. It was like 45 minutes to get there from LA. But, once you jump on the transportation bus, the transportation COs are a little more aggressive. So, they’ll tell you right off the bat, “No talking at all. If we catch you talking, your property is going to disappear.” So, basically, they’re telling you if you don’t follow their rules, they’re going to throw away all of your earthly possessions, and you’ve got to take it on the chin.
So, I just remember getting on the bus and it being super quiet. And then once we got onto the freeway, then they’ll turn on some oldies, play some music, but it’s real stiff. There’s a stale stench on the bus. It wasn’t the most pleasant form of transportation, for sure.
On the longer rides, what happens if somebody has to go to the bathroom?
On the back of the transportation bus, they have a porta-potty, so you can use the restroom, but you have to walk over people and all this stuff. But you’re basically using the bathroom in full waist chains and ankle chains, so you have to navigate your jumpsuit and figure out how you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do while you’re on the road. So, the bus is driving. You’re chained up. You’ve just got to figure it out.
How long were you in that first prison?
Chino is basically a reception center, so I was only there for a few months. Then I got called back down to court, so I had to go to LA County Jail for some additional charges. So, once I left Chino, I went to LA County Jail, and that’s a whole other world in and of itself.
LA County is everything that it’s been built up to be. I’m sure you’ve heard all the stories and the rumors that go along with being in LA County Jail, and it’s all true. At that time, it was probably one of the worst environments that I’ve ever been in, that I’ve seen firsthand.
I’ve seen some of the worst attributes that humans can exhibit. People do a lot of harm to other humans in that facility, and that’s both inmates and police. That’s when you really come to the realization that you are not guaranteed to make it home. So, that’s what that experience was like.
Back then, you had what would be a collaborative effort amongst the gangs and the police. The police operated like gangs at the same time. You had a collaborative effort to further that lifestyle.
You would have police officers who would facilitate different little violent fights and riots, or putting people in dorms that they know that they shouldn’t be in, but because the police may have had an awkward exchange with somebody, or the person wasn’t as cooperative as they would have liked for them to be, they’ll send them to an adverse dorm, where they know they’re going to run into opposition from the gangs that the police represented. So, the police were facilitating the violence, and they were all in on it, and the inmates would be working with the gang and some of the inmates would be working with the police to be able to further their gang lifestyle as well.
What were some of the scariest things you saw there, firsthand?
Well, there’s one that was the scariest. The scariest one was when I heard, and smelled, a guy being sexually assaulted.
You have the Charlie Row and the Baker Row, and they sit on top of each other, so it was in the cell downstairs from me. And in there, it’s open cells with jail bars. It’s not closed off. So, you can hear, and you can smell.
How long were you there, and where did you go after that?
I done been to LA County like four times. But, at that time, I think I was only there for a couple of court dates, so a few months. From there, I went to Delano State Prison.
So, when I got to Delano — and to remind you, I’m still 18 at this point — I get there, and I get into a cell fight in my second day there. And then I end up moving to another dorm.
My second week there, I get into it in a race riot, and I get stabbed in the head. So, it was a tricky start to my prison time.
Did that have long lasting impacts on you?
The trauma, the PTSD that comes with that, for sure. It lives on to this day. To actually be stabbed in the head and attacked because you’re Black, especially as an 18 year old kid, you don’t let that go easy. Even to this day, it’s part of the fabric of who I am. And of course I have way more stories than that, but it’s just, from that moment on, me being 18 and entering that system, that shit has been with me throughout the rest of my life. I’m 40 now, and I still can’t get away from it.
https://www.cjcj.org/history-education/juvenile-corrections-reform-in-california#:~:text=On%20June%2030%2C%202023%2C%20California,history%20of%20neglect%20and%20abuse.