18 Ex-Cons Describe The Horrible Parts Of Prison That No One Knows About
Answers found on Ask Reddit
1. “It’s NEVER quiet.”
2. “When you get out, the feeling of soft carpet on your bare feet is borderline orgasmic and you’ll never take it for granted again.”
3. “Guards can and will withhold medical treatment.”
4. “The smell. The. Smell.”
5. “There are an unbelievable amount of rules that have to be followed. Even for visitors. Some of them you can pick the rationale out, but a lot are just rules for the sake of rules. You don’t follow, you get punished. The whole point seems to be to try and get you bothered, and remind you that you’re powerless.”
6. “After a while i told my family to stop visiting, the bullshit inmates have to go through both before and after each visit was enough to make me not want any.
I had to go through 4 security checkpoints to get to the visit center, then its a full strip search (bend over part your cheeks etc), get dressed in what i can only describe as a canvas one piece jumpsuit with a collar, they then threat a zip tie through the collar and pull it tight around your neck. Reverse procedure after visit too.”
7. “Many people think the prison system purposely underfeeds its inmates so they are more compelled to buy off them. $1.50 for 75 cent pastries, ramen packs for $1 (prob .33 cents per), $10 for $1 long johns, etc. Also the insane costs for phone calls.”
8. “They take your mugshot last.
Suddenly Lindsay Lohan’s mugshot progression makes so much more sense.”
9. “The thing that most members of the public don’t get is that it’s a soul crushing and dehumanizing experience that 99% of the time just makes people worse. Our prison systems (in the west) aren’t about rehabilitation, they’re about punishment and profit, they’re about appearing tough on crime etc.
And what do people have to look forward to after they have paid their debt to society? Ongoing discrimination, social isolation etc etc, basic things like getting a job, applying for a rental property, getting utilities connected. There’s a good reason why recidivism rates are at 80% or so (depending on how many years it takes to return).”
10. “[My fiance] worked in the kitchen and said all the meat labeled there was labeled ‘not for human consumption.’ He told other inmates about it and he got kicked out of his kitchen job and put in the hole for telling people.”
11. “Not me, but my mother. They had to put her in her own area because she was pregnant and people kept threatening the baby.”
12. “There are a lot of addicts in prison for nothing other than being in possession of the substance they are addicted to… No assault or robbery… Not even distribution… Simple possession.”
13. “Prisoners have to pay a bill for their incarceration after being released. Sometimes massive amounts of money that they obviously don’t have which just feeds back into the circle of getting arrested again. It didn’t use to be a large percent of released people but of course like everything it’s gone up in recent years.”
14. “I’m not a con but someone I knew was. I don’t know if this is where I live specifically but apparently they put medicine in their kool-aid to prevent them from getting hard to prevent rape. Not as fucked up as some of the other things here but an interesting fact I learned.”
15. “Everything can be currency in prison, and I mean everything. From cigarettes to any extra food from commissary, socks, deodorant, there’s an intricate trade system and anything that’s not your basic scrubs or what they give you walking in the door has a value.”
16. “They only give you 15 pads a month for your period (the pads are like thin cotton balls with a sheet wrapper & a sticky strip.) & that’s all you get after you have a baby also, doesn’t matter how bad your bleeding, whether you weren’t there when they passed them out, or if they got stolen.. if you can’t buy some at canteen, you’re fucked. Oh & sometimes they shut down canteen for weeks, so you’re fucked anyway.”
17. “You must have your boots on when awake, or be checked by your people. when tensions are high, you may be required to sleep in them as well (dorm living).”
18. “At all three of the facilities that I was in during my incarceration, the child molesters flock together and tend to stand in the yard in a group singing hymns and doing Bible study. Many people refused to go to the church services even though they were religious people because of the large number of child molesters and sex offenders who attended the religious services.” 