The courting of a hotshot inmate

By Michael Dobie | Staff Correspondent

July 11, 2004

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ENFIELD, Conn. - When you're good, word gets around. That's important when an inmate athlete transfers prisons. Before he gets to his new institution, coaches with contacts know he's coming.

"Guys are familiar with the best in every facility," Connecticut inmate Jimi Cooper said. "Prior to him arriving they're waiting for him . . . They'll have a jump on it. They'll get word to the select players."

Cooper has been in 11 different prisons -- some moves were at his request, some standard prison procedure -- and made the varsity basketball and softball teams in every facility that had such squads. As an intramural player, he's in demand.

In some prisons, intramural teams represent housing areas. Other prisons conduct drafts with inmate coaches making selections. Good players might be lobbied by several coaches, Cooper said.

"Guys will come to you and say, 'Who you playing for? You going to play with us on our squad?' I'd be, like, 'No, I don't think.' Just looking at their team you'd be, like, no," Cooper said, after transferring last fall to Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in Enfield.

When he decides which team he'd like to play for, Cooper said, "I'd go to the coach or if he comes to me, 'You playing with us?' [I'd say,] 'Yeah, just make sure you get me on the roster.' "

When told that sounds like college recruiting, Cooper agreed.

"Yup, that's exactly what it is," he said. "That's basically what we're mimicking here, just try to organize the league just as they are in college."

Cooper, 33, has been both recruit and scout.

"From my neighborhood, mostly all the young guys, we grow up playing basketball," said Cooper, who was 18 and a resident of New Haven when he was sentenced to 25 years for manslaughter and carrying a pistol without a permit. "So the younger guys that come in that are familiar with me just from the streets, I will automatically know they are athletic enough to play. So I will pull strings and get them on my team."

Chuck Poole, a former recreation supervisor in Arizona, said wardens in his state recruited inmate athletes from other prisons.

"When it was time for the inter-institutional softball tournament, they would send some of their counselors to other facilities and say, 'Hey, we're going to take this guy,' " Poole said. "Every so often, I'd get a call: 'That so and so is trying to raid my softball team.' "

Even in prisons where teams represent housing areas, Cooper said an inmate can "choose" his intramural team. Cooper said he once transferred prisons and got his assigned cellblock switched so he could play with a different team.

"You're familiar with lieutenants and captains, you know, guys in the administration," Cooper said. "After so many years you can go to them, let them know you're uncomfortable over here, see if you can get when a bed is available."

In prison, betting also is part of the action.

"You might have a guy who will just offer a spread," Cooper said. "If it's like an unbeaten team, obviously a guy that's riding with the favorite will give you some points."

Wagers of $20 are common, Cooper said, and paid for with food or items from the commissary. That's steep for inmates who earn no more than $30 a month from prison jobs.

"The guys that are gambling, they've got outside help. They're getting money orders from their friends," Cooper said.

"I hear them talking about beating the spread," a Connecticut recreation supervisor said. "I'm, like, 'Guys, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to know.' "

With prison newspapers covering games and inmates keeping their clippings, the whole enterprise bears a striking resemblance to sports on the other side of the bars.

"It's a world inside of a world," Cooper said. "Same thing happens in here that happens out there."