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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Subject: Survive prison
Lucile Plane State Jail is a jail for women located four miles north of Dayton TX on FM 686 off Hwy 321. Plane State was the first jail in the state designated to house only women with a capacity is 2,276 female inmates. The facility is run by Sr. Warden Maricia Jackson overseeing 418 employees. The jail is located on shared land with Hightower Prison Unit and Henley State Jail.
In 2015, Lucile Plane State Jail was involved in a highly publisized legal dispute which...
Read moreSubject: Survive prison
Technically "no", but it is obvious that many, many inmates in fact do. Here are some of the ways that it might happen... 1) inmate sets up a FB account before they go in, they have a significant other manage the changes, 2) inmate PAYS someone to do the updates. there are actual businesses that will do an inmate's FB page for a fee., 3) inmate gets a smuggled smartphone and is doing the page themselves. This way is obviously...
Read moreSubject: Survive prison
It is a tough correctional facility like most state prisons, it's no picnic. there are no good times.
Subject: Survive prison
Inmates are not permitted access to text messaging through any authorized channel, so if you are receiving texts from your friend inside, it is almost certainly coming from a contraband smartphone that was smuggled into the facility.
The contraband phone problem is significant and widespread across correctional facilities nationwide. Smartphones get smuggled in through visits, through corrupt staff, through food deliveries, and through creative methods that facilities work constantly to shut down. Once inside, they circulate and get used for exactly...
Read moreSubject: Survive prison
This is one of the harder conversations a parent has to navigate, and how you handle it matters for your children's relationship with their father long after this period is over.
The most important rule is to keep your own hurt and anger out of the explanation you give the children. Whatever happened between you and their father is separate from who he is to them, and children who hear negative things about a parent from the other parent carry that...
Read moreSubject: Survive prison
As a general rule, the inmates have to work in some small capacity as part of the programming and participation of the prison operations. Whether it be in sanitation, custodial, kitchen, landscaping, education, construction or other roles, the inmates run the prison overseen by COs (corrections officers). Some prisons have no inmate working as it is intake and assessment, usually at the beginning of the sentence. As a rule, pre-trial inmates do not have to work but each facility has...
Read moreSubject: Survive prison
PC or protective custody or administrative segregation is also known as the SHU, special housing unit, the hole, solitary confinement. Therefore the rules are the same for all inmates in the SHU. There is only one phone call per week, limited commissary, limited rec and limited showers. So, to answer your question - "yes they will have to wait unit it is their day to call." Mine was on Friday.
Subject: Survive prison
Being a racial minority in any prison population requires the same fundamental skills that determine how anyone survives inside, and the core of all of it is respect.
If your ex grew up in the hood and understands street culture, he already has the most important tool available to him. Prison social dynamics are built on the same foundation as street dynamics in many ways. Knowing how to carry yourself, how to give and receive respect, how to read a room,...
Read moreSubject: Survive prison
Sixty days in county is manageable and the preparation you do now makes a real difference in how smoothly it goes.
Start with the phone situation. Many Illinois county jails use phone carriers that charge over $13 per call, which adds up fast over two months. Before you go in, find out which carrier your specific jail uses and set up a prepaid account with them using the numbers of the people you call most. That way funds are ready and...
Read moreSubject: Survive prison
The "prison" conditions are the same for men and women. The problem is not the prison, it's the inmates that are there are there at the same time as your loved one. Sometimes, they run smoothly and others not so much. The main problem is boredom and how each inmate deals with it. If your inmate is able to compartmentalize their feelings and thoughts, their time will go smoothly. Never put themselves in a position where they can be isolated by...
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