Fights happen in prison the same way they happen anywhere people are confined together under stress with limited options and no ability to simply walk away. They are a reality of the environment but they are far from inevitable for someone who understands how to navigate the social dynamics inside. The frequency and severity of fighting depend heavily on the security level of the facility. Higher security prisons house people with longer sentences, more serious offenses, and in many cases histories...

It depends entirely on the state and the facility, but yes, some systems have moved to free calls for inmates. New York and Pennsylvania are two of the most notable examples. The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision eliminated charges for calls made from state prisons, making them free for both the inmate and the person receiving the call. Pennsylvania's DOC followed a similar path. These policy shifts were driven by years of advocacy around the financial burden...

He will serve 85% of his sentence unless there are incident reports that take away the 15% good time credits they get automatically.  It is NOT true that most inmates get raped. It does happen but it depends on where they are doing time, what their profile is (their age and size), and if they are unwise as to how to do their time. Inmates must not put themselves in a position where they can be taken advantage of or...

Rikers Island operates as a complex of multiple facilities on the same island rather than a single building, which makes this question more nuanced than a transfer between two separate institutions in different locations. When an inmate moves from one facility to another within the Rikers complex, such as from AMKC to EMTC, the mail handling outcome depends largely on how efficiently the mailroom at the original facility processes forwarding. Because all of the facilities share the same island and the...

The idea that inmates who have been down the longest are the ones most likely to pursue sexual activity with newcomers is a myth that gets perpetuated by movies and television more than reality. Consensual sexual activity between inmates, where it occurs, has nothing to do with how long someone has been incarcerated. It is not a hierarchy based on seniority and new arrivals are not automatically targets simply because they are new. The dynamics inside are more nuanced than that...

On the sentencing question, sex offenses involving child pornography and exploitation are among the most strictly enforced categories in both the federal and state systems. Whether someone serves the full sentence depends on the jurisdiction and the specific charges, but the short answer is that good time reductions are limited and supervision requirements are extensive. In the federal system, sex offenders are subject to the 85 percent rule meaning at minimum 85 percent of the imposed sentence must be served before...

The phone service at a particular correctional center is set up through a bid process. In this case, Global Tel*Link has the contract for all inmate outbound calling and to tape record the calls - essentially a monopoly. Therefore, you have to use them to receive any calls. The choice is whether you pay GTL for a long-distance call (to your number) or a local call (to a number that we get you). If you are already local, we cannot...