In most fundamental ways, prisons are prisons. The basics, the counts, the routine, the boredom, the commissary, the mail system, do not vary dramatically from one facility to the next. The walls are different but the daily rhythm is roughly the same wherever you are.
What does vary is who is running the place. Otero is a privately operated facility, and privately managed prisons tend to run tighter than state-operated facilities in some respects. The staff at private prisons are generally well-trained and the rules tend to be enforced strictly and consistently. There is less of the informal flexibility you sometimes find at a state facility where the culture has developed over decades among long-tenured officers.
The practical implication is that rule-following matters more at a place like Otero, not because the rules are harsher, but because the enforcement is more predictable and less subject to individual officer discretion. Test the rules and you will find out quickly that the SHU is not a bluff. Stay within the lines, keep your head down, and it functions like any other low-drama environment.
For families on the outside, communication works the same way it does everywhere. Letters, calls, and commissary deposits all follow the same process regardless of who operates the facility.