Unjustly incarcerated January 6 defendant Stewart Parks, who was released from a Nashville halfway house last week marking his official exit from federal custody, detailed his nearly six month experience in a federal prison during an exclusive interview with The Michael Patrick Leahy Show on Monday.
Parks was sentenced in November 2023 to three years imprisonment on misdemeanor trespassing, disorderly conduct, and theft charges by D.C. Circuit Court Judge Amit P. Mehta, who has presided over several trials related to the January 6 Capitol riot. Parks, however, served his sentence concurrently, reducing his term to eight months behind bars.
Despite not having a criminal history or history of violence, Parks was ordered to serve out his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis instead of a minimum security satellite camp.
After serving more than five months of his eight-month prison term at FCI Memphis, which he self-reported to on February 7, Parks officially exited federal custody on August 5 upon his release from a Nashville halfway house.
Reminiscing back to the day he surrendered at FCI Memphis, Stewart said prison staff branded him as part of the “Trump gang” for being a J6 inmate.
“When I first got in there, it was funny. I showed up and I’m in a suit, well dressed…and they didn’t even realize it was me. They thought it was my dad who was dressed casually. So they were just shocked that I was in there. So they took me to the regular screening and they photographed me, trying to see if I have any tattoos. I remember at one point they asked, ‘Are you part of any gangs?’ And I said no, and then they said, ‘Oh you’re part of the Trump gang’,” Parks said.
Parks said for being a J6 inmate, he initially thought he wouldn’t be well received by other inmates; however, was surprised by the warm reception he ended up receiving.
“I say this in the humblest of terms, I was really shocked at the reception of the inmates,” Parks said.
“From the moment of being escorted by the guards into the general population, the prison yard, my plan was to lay low and just be good. And literally as the guard was handing me off to a leader of the prison organization, he goes, ‘This is a January 6th inmate.’ And the inmate was almost star struck. I say this in the humblest of terms and the guy said, ‘Oh, right on’,” Parks added.
However, Parks’ experiences with some other inmates were not as pleasant.
Parks said while he was at FCI Memphis, he was bitten by a compulsive, mentally ill inmate on three separate occasions.
“I was bit three times…by an inmate with a mental illness,” Parks said. “There are individuals that are just so compulsive. They do something and then, hours later, they realize what they’ve done…He had some severe compulsive behavior which explains why he did it.”
One instance, Parks said the inmate with the mental illness had bitten him on his elbow while he was asleep.
Parks said he did not react in a defensive manner due to the possibility of the behavior reflecting badly on him, thus extending his prison sentence.
“I would still be in prison right now if I had done a normal reaction,” Parks noted.
In regards to prison life, Parks said the rumors about how inmates treat each other based on the crimes they committed are true, saying, “They do not treat snitches kindly or people that do inappropriate things with children.”
Parks also explained that he had to be cautious not to be in conflict with “hostile organizations,” which he said was made up of “shocking” individuals, including illegal immigrants whose backgrounds were widely unknown.
When it came to his contact with the outside world, Parks said that lieutenants in the prison would “actively” monitor his phone calls, due to the “political aspect” of his crimes.
All things considered, Parks, having served his time in federal prison, said, “You do not want to go to federal prison and be in federal custody, especially with this communist Biden-Harris regime.”
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Image “Stewart Parks and Michael Patrick Leahy” by The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
