A terminally ill prisoner didn't want his gang to die with him. So he wrote
LOS ANGELES — From his prison cell, the older man with cancer in his stomach wrote down instructions to ensure his gang would not die with him.
"Choose four representatives. Two youngsters and two older. Youngsters: One of middle school age, one of high school age. And the other two older. They have to be respected by their homies.
"This way you cover all age groups and they know what the homeboys of that age are doing. I know when I was a youngster I knew … those that were active and those that were content just belonging."
Braulio Castellanos wrote those words in May, before a judge granted him compassionate release from prison — a rare legal action that freed him after serving 35 years for two murders. He died this month at 64.
Castellanos was only the eighth inmate granted compassionate release this year across a prison system that incarcerates
