Every morning, after eating breakfast in the North Block chow hall, the smiling face of inmate Lenny Rideout greets prisoners as they clear their trays.
“I get along with everyone,” Rideout said, “And if they took away my ability to be social with everyone, I would really be hurt.”
In his 51 years of life, Rideout has learned that a smile on his face goes a long way. Boston Woodard says, “Lenny can turn the otherwise mundane job of working the chow hall tray line into a unique place to greet people, where he treats everyone the same, saying, ‘Have a good day.’”
He finds comfort in his Christian faith, something he admittedly shied away from in the years that led up to him coming to prison for torture and robbery.
Rideout moved to San Diego from the East Coast in 1991. He lacked structure in his new life in California and started working for his brother, a professional jazz musician, as a sound engineer.
The nightlife brought him into contact with drugs and spurred an addiction that spun his life out of control.
This is not the first time Rideout has been in trouble, but it is the most serious crime for which he has been convicted. He did a federal prison term and a Pennsylvania prison term before migrating to California.
Rideout walks with a limp today because of a rotated pelvis. When he lived on the East Coast, he was driving drunk and got in a traffic accident that left him in a coma for three months.
When he woke up, he had to learn to walk again, and he said he would never drive drunk again.
Today, Rideout is learning lessons the easy way. He is a student in the Prison University Project, which gives him great pride. He has been at San Quentin since October 2009, and in that time he has taken advantage of self-help programs and education opportunities.
Family is the most important part of Rideout’s life. He is most proud of is his 24-year-old daughter and 4-year-old grandson. He recently lost his mother and father, but he is determined not to let that get him down.
“I have many losses in life while I’ve been locked up,” he said. “I’m getting used to knowing we are only on this planet a short time.”
Rideout says life doesn’t get him down too often. He attributes this to his personal philosophy: never take life too seriously.
