Survive Prison — Ask the Inmate
Surviving prison, mentally, physically, and with your record intact, requires a set of skills and strategies that nobody teaches you before you go in. The adjustment is enormous, and how you handle the first days and weeks sets the tone for everything that follows. This section covers the practical realities of daily life inside a correctional facility, how to navigate the social environment without becoming a target or a participant in activities that will extend your sentence, how to protect your mental health during a long sentence, what the research shows about maintaining family connections and why they matter for survival, how to use the time productively rather than letting it use you, and what the people who come out strongest have in common. The guidance here comes from someone who served 66 months in the federal system and built a business around helping the people left behind. Do the time. Do not let the time do you. See also our sections on Prison Violence, Prison Discipline, and Re-entry and Rehabilitation.
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There are many things that might have caused the delay. If he has no minutes left on the card, if there was some sort of group punishment where the phone use was restricted, or he could have lost his phone privileges. Being in jail is not like he's staying at a hotel. He is told when to go to sleep, when to wake up, when to eat, when to go to rec, when to shower and on and on. You
Read moreOur advice is to call the facility and try to speak to the counselor first and see where that gets you. If you feel stonewalled, call the chaplain. If that gets you nowhere, you have to go to the head of the jail, whether that is the warden or a captain and express your concerns in the most humble and respectful manner. If you are convinced after trying a few people that they are not helping you get the information
Read moreIt is not going to be easy but it definitely can be done. If this is a jail with heavy gang activity like Cook County, Illinois or Los Angeles County, California there might be the need to align with people of your own race. This is more important if you have a long sentence. If somebody is threatening y ou in jail, you need to make some friends. People won’t be as likely to fight with you if you
Read moreHow other people in their case got shorter sentences and that they snitched to get a reduction.
Read moreInmates are basically the property of the jurisdiction they are held by and there is very little people on the outside can do to effectuate change on the inside. We have of course heard of stories similar to what you are referring to. But, we would caution you to not take everything your inmate says as 100% accurate. Inmates are notorious for currying favor from their loved ones with stories of abuse - amplifying your imagery of jail life.
Read moreThis is not a normal procedure but for some inmates that have to endure it, it is called "diesel therapy". Diesel therapy is a form of punishment in which prisoners are shackled and then transported for days or weeks bouncing from county jail to county jail. This is how law-enforcement personnel gets rid of troublesome individuals by placing them on a bus to many another jurisdictions. It has been described as "the cruelest aspect of being a federal inmate."
Read moreThe higher the number, the higher the security level of the prison. G5 is maximum security. Inmates are designated by the department of corrections after they are sentenced. After an inmate has begun his sentence, there are intervals of behavioral and advancement analysis done. This is used to determine if the inmate is showing signs of accepting incarceration and working on improving themselves. This improvement is rewarded by lowering their security level status and making them eligible for downward transfer,
Read moreThis is a serious situation and you need to act on multiple fronts simultaneously. Do not wait to see if it resolves on its own. Document everything right now. Write down everything your son told you, the dates, what happened, who was involved if names are known, what injuries occurred, and when. Every conversation you have from this point forward should be documented with dates and the names of people you spoke with. This record becomes the foundation for
Read moreThe rumor about an extended lockdown is plausible. When a serious incident occurs at a USP, particularly one involving injury to staff, lockdowns can run for weeks or even several months while the institution conducts investigations, identifies participants, and restores order. A broken wrist on a corrections officer is exactly the kind of event that triggers a long one. So while no one can confirm the February timeline from the outside, it would not be surprising if it held.
Read moreJail seems like the movie "Groundhog Day". Every day is exactly like the day before and the day before that. Even holidays lack any substantive change. Inmates with a long sentence has a sense of hopelessness and will find it hard to see optimism in anything. Make no mistake, jail is lonely. Inmates are isolated and have to cope with boredom. The longer they are locked up, the easier it becomes to deal with - you get used
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