Every correctional facility operates under a disciplinary system that governs inmate behavior and imposes consequences for rule violations. Understanding how that system works is essential for anyone trying to navigate incarceration successfully, because a disciplinary record can affect housing assignments, program eligibility, good time credits, halfway house placement, and parole decisions. This section covers what types of disciplinary infractions exist and how they are classified, what the disciplinary hearing process looks like, what rights inmates have when facing a disciplinary charge, what sanctions can be imposed including loss of privileges, solitary confinement, and good time forfeiture, and how to appeal a disciplinary decision. The guidance here is written for inmates who want to understand the rules clearly enough to avoid violations and for families who want to help their loved one protect their record. See also our sections on Prison Violence, Survive Prison, and Sentence Reduction
Subject: Prison discipline
The Secure Housing Unit (SHU) is segregated housing and it is used for disciplinary or administrative reasons. When an inmate is in PC or Protective Custody for their own safety, this is where they go to be secure from danger. Unfortunately it’s a miserable existence.
Subject: Prison discipline
Being moved back to prison from a transitional center this close to a release date almost always means something happened that violated the conditions of the placement.
Transitional centers and residential reentry facilities operate under strict rules specifically because the people there are in the final stage before full release. The conditions are more relaxed than prison but the expectations are non-negotiable. A violation of those conditions, whether a failed drug test, missing a curfew, unauthorized contact with someone prohibited by...
Read moreSubject: Prison discipline
Inmates are not permitted direct internet access and cannot personally operate a Facebook or any other social media account from inside a correctional facility. What is happening is one of two things. Either someone on the outside is managing the account and posting or messaging on the inmate's behalf, or the inmate has access to a contraband device and is operating it themselves in violation of facility rules.
Both situations are serious and both give you a path to address it.
Start...
Read moreSubject: Prison discipline
Prison has its own social hierarchy and moral code, and certain offenses sit at the bottom of it regardless of how the outside world views them. Crimes against women and children consistently rank among the most looked down upon within the inmate population.
Domestic violence cases vary in how they are received depending on the specific circumstances. A situation involving a mutual altercation between adults is viewed differently from one involving severe abuse, serious injury, or children being present. The inmate...
Read moreSubject: Prison discipline
The SHU, or Special Housing Unit, strips away most of what makes daily life manageable, but it does not eliminate all contact with the outside world.
Mail continues to reach SHU inmates. That is one of the few privileges that survives a SHU placement largely intact, which makes letters and photos one of the most meaningful things you can send during this period. InmateAid can get a letter to your person without your home address on the envelope, and having something...
Read moreSubject: Prison discipline
First, the inmate is taken into custody by the correctional officers with handcuffs. They are transported or walked to the area called the Special Housing Unit (SHU), what others call "the hole", also known as solitary confinement. Once there they are stripped-searched and given new clothing to wear. This is a special uniform for SHU inmates, usually an orage jumpsuit with lightweight blue sneakers. They are then walked shackled to their cell. It is usually a one-man cell. There, there...
Read moreSubject: Prison discipline
This situation carries serious consequences on multiple levels and the assault of a corrections officer is what transforms a manageable problem into a potentially devastating one.
Cell phone possession in a California state prison is already a significant infraction. Under federal law the Contraband Cell Phone Act carries up to five years of additional prison time, though in practice California state facilities typically handle phone possession through the institutional disciplinary system rather than new federal charges. The standard response is SHU...
Read moreSubject: Prison discipline
Yes, but you would have to do something illegal that helped them in some way. For instance, if you brought in contraband and your inmate received it from you. On their way back to the housing unit, they search and find what you passed. He is going to the SHU, or worse depending on what it was. Was there something you were thinking about that you want a private answer, please ask, we do not judge anyone for anything.
Subject: Prison discipline
The hole anywhere sucks. It is solitary confinement. There is nothing good about it, except you can sleep a lot... which gets old in a hurry.
Subject: Prison discipline
A contraband cell phone in a North Carolina correctional facility is a serious infraction, and the consequences play out on two separate levels.
At the federal level, the law is clear and significant. The Contraband Cell Phone Act makes it a federal crime to possess a wireless device in a federal prison, carrying up to five years of additional prison time. North Carolina state facilities operate under state law rather than federal jurisdiction in most cases, but the trend across the...
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