Life For O.J. Simpson in Prison

Prisoner 1027820 is treated in many ways like any other inmate at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada. He gets the same standard issue blue uniform. He shares a bunk, toilet and sink with a cellmate. He rises around 6:30 a.m., eats an early breakfast. He likes cold cereal, with a muffin and fruit  then heads to his work shift.

He toils in the prison gym, cleaning equipment and mopping floors, four days a week. Like many older inmates, he contends with age and ailments, including bad knees, and he works out on weight machines regularly to stay fit. He also coaches prison sports teams, umpires games and recently became prison softball league commissioner.

But prisoner 1027820 isn’t just another inmate. He is O.J. Simpson: football legend and convicted felon serving nine to 33 years for armed robbery and kidnapping committed in 2007.

“He’s popular especially with the sports crowd — guys go up to him and ask him what he thinks about current sports teams,” said Jon Hawkins, a former Lovelock inmate who was released on parole this year. Mostly, he said, “O.J. is just a regular dude. He does his job and he goes to his cell.”

If Simpson’s mundane and routine life on the inside is hidden from all but fellow inmates and guards, on the outside his life has become the subject of heightened fascination by millions, thanks to two acclaimed TV series that revisit the “trial of the century.”