ARC Valley is home to 1,000 inmates half
of whom are violent offenders a few are
juveniles like 17 year old lorenzo
chavez who has just arrived
I’d rather be in Juarez from what I
heard there’s more beneficial things at
y OS for young offenders but because of
the nature of his crime
Chavez wasn’t eligible for y ou s never
thought I’d be here at 17 another adult
prison it’s just not a good environment
to be I’m 19 more years to go I kind of
try not to think about it cuz it does
get depressing if I think about how much
time I got Chavez has been in and out of
Correction since he was 10 as a teen he
was dealing coke and heroin in Denver at
16 he was convicted of second-degree
murder the result of a drug deal gone
bad
but this is the big house here he has to
constantly look over his shoulder you
really got to watch yourself and what
you say around people and what you do it
just makes me stay on my toes and makes
me watch my every move to survive in
prison Chavez will have to find inmates
he can ally himself with for protection
but it’s hard to know who he can trust I
seen somebody get beat up here seen a
couple people dragged out in handcuffs
and dogs brought through there’s meiling
ways to get in trouble and more if he’s
lucky one of the lifers will show him
how to keep other inmates from preying
on it a lifer like Eric Davis he’s just
a kid lost in a man’s world Eric Davis
was given a life sentence for
first-degree murder and armed robbery
when he was just 18
he says predators were waiting to take
advantage of him
whether it’s tricking you out of money
or pressuring you for sexual favors
probably was in 25 fights in the first
year that I was in prison there’s no one
here to protect you staff won’t protect
you and other inmates don’t protect you
you have to take care of yourself
younger inmates who are physically
smaller and more easily intimidated can
have a hard time figuring out how to
survive you’re a boy
taking your care of yourself in them pod
for a bunch of man is unfathomable
because none of the rules make any sense
in here frost the wrong inmate and the
results are fast and violent it’s
full-on brutal violence guys trying to
kill other guys in the purest ways no
there’s face to face and it’s ugly and
it’s mean and and there’s no one to stop
him Davis says he has to stay away from
young felons like Chavez who other
inmates may victimize that’s trouble for
me all the way around
I can’t befriend him because then I
would stand between him and the knife
after having served 22 years Davis
thinks adult prison is the wrong place
for Lorenzo Chavez taught him in prison
to make him a bigger stronger convict or
or a bigger stronger predator or a
victim to be taken and turned into a
monster maybe makes no sense
of whom are violent offenders a few are
juveniles like 17 year old lorenzo
chavez who has just arrived
I’d rather be in Juarez from what I
heard there’s more beneficial things at
y OS for young offenders but because of
the nature of his crime
Chavez wasn’t eligible for y ou s never
thought I’d be here at 17 another adult
prison it’s just not a good environment
to be I’m 19 more years to go I kind of
try not to think about it cuz it does
get depressing if I think about how much
time I got Chavez has been in and out of
Correction since he was 10 as a teen he
was dealing coke and heroin in Denver at
16 he was convicted of second-degree
murder the result of a drug deal gone
bad
but this is the big house here he has to
constantly look over his shoulder you
really got to watch yourself and what
you say around people and what you do it
just makes me stay on my toes and makes
me watch my every move to survive in
prison Chavez will have to find inmates
he can ally himself with for protection
but it’s hard to know who he can trust I
seen somebody get beat up here seen a
couple people dragged out in handcuffs
and dogs brought through there’s meiling
ways to get in trouble and more if he’s
lucky one of the lifers will show him
how to keep other inmates from preying
on it a lifer like Eric Davis he’s just
a kid lost in a man’s world Eric Davis
was given a life sentence for
first-degree murder and armed robbery
when he was just 18
he says predators were waiting to take
advantage of him
whether it’s tricking you out of money
or pressuring you for sexual favors
probably was in 25 fights in the first
year that I was in prison there’s no one
here to protect you staff won’t protect
you and other inmates don’t protect you
you have to take care of yourself
younger inmates who are physically
smaller and more easily intimidated can
have a hard time figuring out how to
survive you’re a boy
taking your care of yourself in them pod
for a bunch of man is unfathomable
because none of the rules make any sense
in here frost the wrong inmate and the
results are fast and violent it’s
full-on brutal violence guys trying to
kill other guys in the purest ways no
there’s face to face and it’s ugly and
it’s mean and and there’s no one to stop
him Davis says he has to stay away from
young felons like Chavez who other
inmates may victimize that’s trouble for
me all the way around
I can’t befriend him because then I
would stand between him and the knife
after having served 22 years Davis
thinks adult prison is the wrong place
for Lorenzo Chavez taught him in prison
to make him a bigger stronger convict or
or a bigger stronger predator or a
victim to be taken and turned into a
monster maybe makes no sense
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