Juelz Santana Says Prison Made Him 'Smarter': 'I Turned Jail Into Yale'

Juelz Santana has shared details about some of his past prison experiences, and how the conditions in his cell made him much smarter.

Speaking to VladTV, the Dipset rapper was asked about his time serving a two-year sentence at FCI Petersburg Medium in Hopewell, Virginia. Vlad had spoken of his own experiences in a holding cell where conditions were horrible, but Juelz made it clear prison was much different.

“A holding cell in a couple days is way different from being in jail it’s not dirty and pissy,” Juelz said. “A holding cell where you go to is way different from what you getting and you locked down and you ’bout to be in the cell and you got a cellmate and stuff like that. Cause for one, n-gga your cellmate ain’t going to let you be in no dirty, pissy…one of y’all going to be fighting.

He added: “N-ggas keep their shit clean in jail. All that pissy, dirty shit, that’s at the bookings with muthafuckers that don’t give a fuck and there’s no order. You go to jail, there’s order n-gga. There’s order, there’s politics and there’s shit going on.”

Juelz explained that inmates are tasked with maintaining their cells and cleaning other parts of the prison. As he explained, inmates live in prison as opposed to a holding cell where people mostly go home the next day.

“For the most part, now it’s like ’cause n-ggas know they’re there to live there,” Juelz said. “When you’re in a holding cell, most of them muthafuckers are like, ‘I’m going home tomorrow. My mommy bout to bail me out, this ’bout to happen.’ They not going to be there long.”

related news

Juelz Santana Teases New Project Set To Drop Next Month

November 21, 2022

He continued: “Now when it’s time, and they tell you pack your shit you go ahead and everybody looking at your face. Now you walking into a cell with a muthafucker who cell look nice and neat and he got his books all cleaned up. I wish you would piss on the floor n-gga. N-gga will be pissing on your muthafucking head literally, and that’s a fact.”

Despite speaking highly of the cleanliness of prison, Juelz reiterated it was not a good time, and he prayed for the days he could return back home to his family. According to the 40-year-old, he made the best out of his situation and made a plan for himself.

“I hated being there, but it was a learning experience,” Juelz said. “For me I got to turn jail into Yale. I got to be smarter, I got to read a lot more and I got back to writing. Like I wrote so much in there. Like my execution plans since I been home been phenomenal right now, like I’m just all the way in getting to it.”

Santana was arrested in March 2018 after security at Newark Liberty International Airport found a loaded gun and oxycodone pills in his carry-on bag. He was handed down a 27-month prison sentence in December 2018 and came home in August 2020.