L. Smothers, Contributor

Inmate twitter is a form of gossip that is spread throughout the prison by individuals who don’t have a clue as to what they are talking about. 

I don’t listen to “Inmate Twitter.” First of all, most individuals in here spend too much time in front of the TV watching the news ‘til they are transformed into some type of super-reporting agent, eager to report anything — and everything — they hear without the benefit of fact-finding to see if what they heard, or thought they heard, is true. 

These individuals can overhear you speaking to someone else, walk up and catch a small portion of what you said — although you weren’t even speaking to them — then take it and run with it, spreading it around as if it’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 

Inmate Twitter really got out of control during this pandemic. With all the uncertainty of the day-to-day program, people began to speculate as to what was going to happen. They began to spread their ideas without having any kind of insight as to what staff was planning at all. 

If something happened in West Block, for instance, people in North Block would begin to speculate about what took place without receiving any proof whatsoever. 

It’s something like the “telephone” game we used to play in elementary school, where everyone lines up; in the beginning of the line someone would whisper something in the second person’s ear and they would pass on what was said by the first person. By the time the last person in line receives what was said, it is not even close to what the very first person whispered in the second person’s ear. 

People always have to either add or take something out of what was said. Why? I don’t know. 

Brothas are seriously suffering from a severe form of “Type II Lie-abetes.”