Who has been to prison, what is it like?

jsmoke

jsmoke

jsmoke

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I have been watching Americas toughest prisons and I can't imagine the British prisons are anything like them. This is maybe not the best topic for here as I doubt many have been to prison but, is it like a holiday camp or is it a bit more brutal than that?
 
Take a one pence piece and a fifty pence piece and compare the size of them......that's what will happen before and after prison ;)
 
I think some people just don't get it, I mean you hear those shouting it's to soft and they get telly, radios, books, gym and four meals a day, but it isn't how easy or hard it is, it's the loss of liberty that hits you the hardest, you can't go watch tv when you feel like it, you can't go for a walk, nip down the pub for a bevvy, pop round your mates for a chat, you really have to experience it to understand it.
 
A lot depends on which prison you go to and what category of prison it is. I've never been in one myself, but it's seems like even an open prison wouldn't be too nice. Obviously in a maximum security prison, you would imagine things to be at their worst as the people inside represent the most extreme elements of criminality in society.
 
A few mates done 18mths stretches in class A jail back in the 90's and I used to visit regularly. Not somewhere I want to go but they seemed to cope well enough and got pretty big and muscle bound whilst in. Only one time did I see one of them not looking to sharp but I think he had been hitting the rock a bit hard.
 
The "holiday camp" paradigm is one that is dreamt up by Daily Mail readers. I believe it's very different to the US in many ways (soap dropping is not a problem in the UK). Your standard prison has you locked up in a cell for 23 hours a day with someone else, and he's probably a smoker. Want to make a phone call? Do it at 8am and pay 30p+ a minute because at 9am you're going to be locked in your cell again. If you're there for a 3-ish months you can buy Playstations and similar items at market rates; probably not the latest kit. Drugs abuse is prolific.

Category D (open prisons) are better in that you have a key to your room and a job (cleaning, cooking etc) and you can wear your own clothes. You can go to the gym a couple of times a week between a certain couple of set hours, might even be able to play football. You only have one visit per week and on a certain day - it's not like in the movies where they turn up visit someone.
 
copy/pasta from the last time i posted about this....

marc2003 said:
uh oh. a scumbag criminal is posting.....

might as well tell my experience as nobody knows me here..... i spent 5 weeks on remand in gloucester prison last year and for me it really was a doddle. i think gloucester is fairly soft i didn't see a single violent incident of any kind. the thing that surprised me most was how quiet it was at night. sometimes you'd get a few jokers singing but nothing worse than that. at first i was on B wing where it was mostly people around my age and older (i'm 35). then after a few weeks i got moved to A wing and everyone said oh it's much worse cause it's full of kids but it really wasn't. a few had stereos in their cells blaring crappy rnb during the day but nothing to be bothered about.

it's a category B prison i think and most people there are on short term sentences. most are in for burglary, shoplifting, theft. most people saw it as a break from their alcohol/drug abuse on the outside. i really didn't see any drugs on the inside although i'm sure it does go on. but my main point is that for the drinkers especially, it's a chance for their bodies to recover the abuse their internal organs take on the outside. many said they would be dead if it wasn't for their time in prison spent away from the drink. they see it as a time to recover and fatten themselves up again. food is the last thing they'll be spending money on when outside. yes there is a large choice of at least 5-6 items for lunch and tea but it's all crap. it's basically stodge that fills you up. you won't ever go hungry but don't expect anything to taste good either. if you have something like stew, i'm sure catfood has better quality meat in it (not that i've verified this but suffice to say it was not nice :p). apparently the budget for food is roughly £2.50 per prisoner per day. that's for 2 meals served at the canteen (you return to your cell with the tray and eat it there) plus a breakfast pack. what struck me as really odd was how everyone had their own plastic cutlery and plates (i assume for safety reasons). but every cell has a kettle. i wouldn't fancy sharing with some nutter. imagine scolding water being poured on you. :eek:

rehabilitation was pretty much a joke there. because it was mainly a prison for short term stays they didn't have much of budget for education and this was a cause of frustration for some people i spoke to. they could do basic maths/english certificates worth less than a GCSE but couldn't do anything more than that. i was only on remand so i didn't have to work but all prisoners are expected to work after they are sentenced. you can earn upto 15 quid a week max. all the jobs were basically involved in the running of the place: canteen, cleaning, outside cleaning. on top of that wage you can get money sent in from the outside. depending on what level of privilege you're at (for good behaviour) will determine how much you can spend each week. at the very most you can spend roughly 50 quid. every friday is canteen day and this is basically a corner shop inside jail. except you don't browse. you get a list and you tick off all the items you want and then you pick them up. it ranges from sweets, condiments, crisps, tobacco, shavers, personal hygiene products. you can have standard issue prison toothpaste and shampoo for free if you want but some people prefer to buy colgate and decent shower gel. this was quite a luxury i didn't know about until i saw it with my own eyes. there were no game consoles that i saw. every cell has a 14in TV with limited freeview channels. having film4 was good as there was no limit to how late you could keep your tv on. you lose the tv for a week if you misbehave but as you share a cell with someone else, it's generally not a good idea to make them lose it as well. :o there was a short-list of about 3 different stereos people could buy - the most expensive being around £80 from argos. they had catalogue pages on the wall.

as well as the work and "education" classes there are 3-4 1.5 hour sessions of association a week depending on the rota. this where you to get to mingle with all the other de-generates and use the phones outside in the hall. credit could be purchased from your balance. also, there is the gym which i think is a terrible idea. why make crooks bigger, stronger and faster. :D

i think when sentenced you could have 4 visits a month plus you get 2 stamped enevlopes a week for writing letters. additional stationary could be bought i think but i didn't have any use for that any of that.

i think the biggest factor that will affect your time inside and that's who you end up sharing a cell with. i was lucky really. although he was an alky on the outside, he was of course totally clean having already been resident before i moved in. he used to talk some crap but then that's no different to people you're stuck with on a day to day basis outside.

for me, the guards were pretty much invisible. behave yourself and you've got nothing to worry about.

the time dragged like hell. it was certainly the longest 5 weeks of my life. incidentally, i ended up there because of a family row. basically my whole family ignored my existence for years and then rattled my cage for no reason. so i got a bit upset and threatened one of them with a blunt weapon. i didn't use it and no one got hurt but the magistrates thought i was a danger despite it being a first offence so i was remanded. my case was referred to crown court costing the taxpayers thousands (not to mention the 800 odd quid a week to keep me inside). when i got there, the crown court couldn't believe my case hadn't been dealt with by the magistrate. it was a moment of madness for which i showed full remorse for and will never do again. i was finally released and sentenced to 120 hours community service for affray. :o
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Google 10 Pence Short Prison Diary, see if there's any of it still online (most of it is removed sadly).

He was a CTRO member who was sent down for dangerous driving or something similar, and he posted some well written 'blogs' on his whole experience.

Edit.

You have to find his profile on PH and email him, he will send you a PDF copy.
 
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Did three months detention centre at north sea camp in 1981 and while it was brutal I found an easier regime in an adult open prison to be just as tormenting. Loss of liberty being the real punishment.
 
I work in mental health, so I know a little bit about our prisons. As the OP has said, they're not as tough as US prisons, but you can sitll forget the "holiday camp" stories. Only a small minority gets a Playstation - those who are given "enhanced" status for good behaviour, which is typically only 10% (1 wing) of the prison camp. Also, remember it's only a PS1, so we're talking a console of mid-90s origin. For most prisons, the only mod-con you'll get is a 14" 4:3 telly with the basic channels. To maintain a good prison record, you'll have to take up a job of approx. 40 hours per week. Your salary? Only around £12-£15 per week! You can use that to buy chocolate bars, newspapers and essentials like soap in the prison shop, but they charge more than supermarket / newsagent prices, so your £12 won't go as far inside as it does outside. Prison food is low-sugar and low-salt, read: very bland. You'll have to rely on the shop for that occasional chocolate bar treat.
 
My mates doing 9 years, he's hated every minute of it. He's just got Cat D so he's near home and goes out to work every day.
 
My Auntie works in Portland prison HMP The Verne Cat C, and once a year you are allowed to take family members for a tour of the facilities. I was expecting what you see on TV the steel doors 23 hours a day locked up and all that, but that was far from what it was like.

The inmates all have keys to their rooms and they get the option of whether or not they get a room mate or not. Each wing has their own Wing Leader who they can gripe to about conditions and what not and that person speaks to the warden to correct or change things to suit the inmates more.

One thing about The Verne is that it's a working prison so inmates have the option to work and earn money while they are in there and the things they make go out for sale. Lobster pots from here go to the Scottish isles, garden furniture (excellent quality, all handmade from local wood) Tempted to buy some for my new place actually.

They had an outdoor gym, football pitch, basketball court and indoor gym using real weights an what not. Each room had their own TV, Radio and they (as mentioned in this post before) Playstations and Xbox consoles. I was quite taken back by this thinking this doesn't feel like a prison to me. I was under the misguided impression that if you went to prison then they are all the same.

We were allowed to meet a Wing Leader and he was a chap from Liverpool who has been put in prison for fraud mounting into millions of pounds, for this he was sentenced for 3 years or so. An what he said was how his family are all in Liverpool and he never gets visited and that to him is bad enough as his family can't come and see him due to the distance.

In the end we all went into the prison chapel and the warden addressed us all to ask if we had any questions regarding our trip to "his prison" as he put it. One persons hand went straight up and asked "Why is this place like a holiday camp?" The warden then tried to explain this The Verne is a Cat D with Walls which makes it a Cat C prison so it's not a normal facility and then explained to us the different levels of prisons in the UK.

I'm racking my brains to think of more information for you all but it was almost 3 years ago and my minds a bit foggy.
 
spankingtexan said:
I think some people just don't get it, I mean you hear those shouting it's to soft and they get telly, radios, books, gym and four meals a day, but it isn't how easy or hard it is, it's the loss of liberty that hits you the hardest, you can't go watch tv when you feel like it, you can't go for a walk, nip down the pub for a bevvy, pop round your mates for a chat, you really have to experience it to understand it.
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Everyone manages that for 8-10hrs a day already and half of OCUK spend their spare time sat behind a computer posting on OCUK. :p

I'd imagine the brain adapts fairly easily to the lack of freedom the main issue is going to be boredom.

UK prisons will just be like boarding schools the "it's horrible" stuff and scare stories are probably spread as a deterrent. USA prisons are another matter but then you're probably safer in a US prison than on a US street. :p
 
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esK` said:
My Auntie works in Portland prison HMP The Verne Cat C, and once a year you are allowed to take family members for a tour of the facilities. I was expecting what you see on TV the steel doors 23 hours a day locked up and all that, but that was far from what it was like.

The inmates all have keys to their rooms and they get the option of whether or not they get a room mate or not. Each wing has their own Wing Leader who they can gripe to about conditions and what not and that person speaks to the warden to correct or change things to suit the inmates more.

One thing about The Verne is that it's a working prison so inmates have the option to work and earn money while they are in there and the things they make go out for sale. Lobster pots from here go to the Scottish isles, garden furniture (excellent quality, all handmade from local wood) Tempted to buy some for my new place actually.

They had an outdoor gym, football pitch, basketball court and indoor gym using real weights an what not. Each room had their own TV, Radio and they (as mentioned in this post before) Playstations and Xbox consoles. I was quite taken back by this thinking this doesn't feel like a prison to me. I was under the misguided impression that if you went to prison then they are all the same.

We were allowed to meet a Wing Leader and he was a chap from Liverpool who has been put in prison for fraud mounting into millions of pounds, for this he was sentenced for 3 years or so. An what he said was how his family are all in Liverpool and he never gets visited and that to him is bad enough as his family can't come and see him due to the distance.

In the end we all went into the prison chapel and the warden addressed us all to ask if we had any questions regarding our trip to "his prison" as he put it. One persons hand went straight up and asked "Why is this place like a holiday camp?" The warden then tried to explain this The Verne is a Cat D with Walls which makes it a Cat C prison so it's not a normal facility and then explained to us the different levels of prisons in the UK.

I'm racking my brains to think of more information for you all but it was almost 3 years ago and my minds a bit foggy.
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The old style prisons still exist with the three to a cell steel doors on landings Mcvicar style.
 
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