To ask about prison?

[Peanutbutterjelly1]

Hello everyone.. Just started watching orange is the new black... Me and my husband love it!!!

I've always been pretty fascinated by prison whenever I come into contact with anyone who has been inside I'm immediately interested and always ask what was it like? My own mum was born in Holloway in the 70s as my nan was in there for a string of petty crime.

So my question is have any of you ever been to prison? What did you do? And what was it like?

I know this is a weird question but it's a genuine post. I told my husband the other day that doing time is on my bucket list he thought I was crazy and he is probably right. I think its because prison hasn't changed much in the last 50 years and i am always really interested in anything that has remained the same. I remeber when i started high school it was the same school my dad had attended 25 years before it was the same apart from a few licks of paint he once came to a parents evening and he was pointing to classrooms and certian areas in the corridors and telling stories about his school days i thought it was amazing.

Read Jeffrey Archer's A Prison Diary. Prison is awful (but I do agree there's a certain fascination about it).

Irregardless is a word, isn't it?

I'm sure it is...

Why don't you give it a go OP?

The good thing is that it is easier to get into prison if you are a woman, as women have a higher incarceration rate for similar crimes than men.

So it would all be tikkety boo.

Yes, Deuter it is.

My partner went to prison. He was put there by a woman who claimed he attacked her. She was lying. He was there for 12 weeks until the slow justice system got him out. She retracted her statement on Friday after noon. He got out on Monday. Paperwork had to be done.
23 hours a day in a cell. Not enough food. The only “good” thing that came out of it was he detoxed his liver and went down to a 32 waist. It’s gone up to a 38 now.
The journey with three children was horrendous. Three buses.
He used to do jobs to get out of his cell. Church was was way of getting out for an hour or so.
People did make alcohol but sometimes they would go blind from it. People were on spice.
If you had too many things (e.g 4 mars bars) they were confiscated because you were trading. Books were banned as well.
The only victory was that I was allowed to send stamped addressed envelopes to him.
My son is terrified that this woman is going to make more stuff up about him. She did on Christmas Eve. Said he raped her. He was working and had very firm evidence to put him on the opposite side of London, 50 miles away from her. His work had to put the police straight, give them paperwork, footage etc.
But she tried to put him back in prison over Christmas which would of been devastating for everyone.

Part of my job involved involves visiting a local women's prison regularly for mental health assessments.
I can't say it's somewhere inviting or welcoming and I would imagine it to be a pretty horrible place to live.

OP prison is not a fun place and to say that it is on your bucket list is completely childish.

I was under the impression that prison was quite cushy from newspaper reports about PlayStation etc. Having seen all the unglamorous reality in rl In a work capacity I have now changed my opinion. I wouldn't aspire to check it out for longer than an hour or two, but I must admit it was an interesting experience.

Irregardless is definitely NOT a word.

It’s like conversating and various other words people have invented.

It’s a word.

I really hope no one answers you. Prison must be a very difficult and personal experience. Not to be glamourised. Perhaps you should find an autobiography / book to read.

The tv isn’t a depiction of real life.
Many people are in there are suffering and many have been totally failed but the education system and are just unable to communicate or read and write well.
And as for the continuous threat of violence.
I am referring to male violent offenders. But I doubt it is all articulate chats like on tv elsewhere.

My DH is a PCSO and every day he comes home uninjured I am thankful for.

He has cut people down from hanging themselves, watched a man ten years younger than himself die of a heart attack (after performing CPR until the paramedics got there, he had councilling over the nightmares caused by that incident), been taken hostage in a cell and broken fingers restraining prisoners high on drugs.

This is not to mention the children that come to prison to see Daddy that have to be dragged away screaming after playing with Daddy in the playground with a cage!

Thats just what the PCSOs go through. Being a prisoner will be worse.

You are deluded. Utterly, disgustingly deluded. So glad I don't know you in RL. What a frightening attitude. Bucket list indeed.

OP, while I can understand being interested in prisons, the history of them etc., saying that doing time is on your bucket list is frankly bizarre. What does it have to do with prisons 'not changing much?' Very confusing.

Also, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/irregardless

Just to offer a slightly different slant, my husband is a prison officer in a prison for vulnerable people where nothing much happens. He enjoys his job and doesn't find it as stressful as his previous work. I understand he's lucky compared to most but it's certainly not the worst job in the world.

It's an "informal" word, I guess like "Hey" and "yeah". An Americanisation, by the looks of it.

I visit prisons, it is part of my work.

They are cramped, dirty and small with a sense of hopelessness.

Most of the people in there were watching day time TV (on small TVs) and manage little or no time outside their cell. They are locked up entirely from 5pm on a Friday through to Monday morning at 10am. Usually three grown men in the same size as an average box room. It is tense.

A bucket list entry might seem funny to you, but I would imagine your sense of fun and adventure might end in the first hour of being there after you have been intimately strip searched on arrival.

Personally I prefer the urban dictionary explanation. Here are a couple of less insulting responses.

It’s non standard, and incorrect.

Bucket list?! What the fuck?

Like pps my work has often connected me with prisons and those who have been inside. Nothing like the telly box. You made me think of the Simpson’s episode where Marj gets a break from family life and begs to stay, it’s pretty funny and I have heard the joke in a few places - well at least it’s three meals a day that I haven’t cooked etc.

Bit of course it’s a joke, and ignores the violent reality

I disagree fundamentally with the suggestions of volunteering. Without significant training and support I think you would do more harm than good. And yes yes to reading Phil Scraton’s books on the topic, you could also consider giving financial support to inquest or a charity supporting women’s prisons.

I disagree fundamentally with the suggestions of volunteering. Without significant training and support I think you would do more harm than good.

I agree.

Male prison: dull, depending where you are also violent, drugs esp spice a problem. Lots of people with drug and alcohol problems, illiteracy, undiagnosed SEN, lots of ex-forces with PTSD, huge amounts of mental health probs.

Female prison: still dull, huge proportion will have been victims of abuse by a partner or family, same issues with SEN, mental health, drugs and alcohol. Lots will have been in care or now have their own children in care. Slightly less crap as female estate has a bigger budget than male.

Some research to show high proportion have been victims of a head injury in the past.

Still want to go?

speakout
That sounds awful. I cannot begin to imagine. Your story is exactly why I don’t want anyone, who has been in prison to answer the op .

AnnaMagnani perhaps you think prisons are "dull " places.

Presumably as a visitor you had a great deal of protection under a controlled situation.

Prisons are far from dull- they are terrifying.