• Life Advice & Visual Arts Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    🌌 Share Your Dreams! 🌌
    📸 15 Years of Photo Contests 📸
  • LAVA Moderator: Mysterier

What is jail really like?

your day starts off obscenly early with nasty chow, hope you like overcooked boiled eggs and salt free grits and tasteless oatmeal. then go back to sleep on an uncomfortable and dirty mat and a few sheets and a nasty blanket. free time is spent watching shit others want, don't get involved in their drama, stay in your bunk. be cool to the officers. most are shit, but there are sincerely good ones, find them. grieve what needs to be grieved, if it is valid, it will be sent via the good officers. be aware of the laws that entitle you to certain things, i.e. 3 hours of rec in my state. get the laws, and be sure they are enforced. without being a smartass of course. most importantly, watch your ass. murders in jail are not unheard of. unfortunately we just had one in my town, while two men were in lockdown. pencil through the skull into the brain.
 
DarthMom said:
be aware of the laws that entitle you to certain things, i.e. 3 hours of rec in my state. get the laws, and be sure they are enforced. without being a smartass of course
Click to expand...

While you are absolutely entitled to request information from the law library, that doesn't mean you will actually receive it. This is one of the most frustrating things about being incarcerated. If you've heard that the guards or corrections officers in jails try to make the prisoners as miserable as possible, you are correct. And then some. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't been to jail. While there are exceptions, few and far between, you can expect to be treated like an animal. While incarcerated, especially when you don't have a release date, time as you know it ceases to exist. Imagine going to the McDonald's drive-thru and there's 70 cars in front of you. Then when you finally get to the window, they tell you they are no longer taking orders. Or they just look at you, smile, and say nothing at all. Or they just completely ignore you. Or maybe they acknowledge you by telling you to "fuck off."

Bottom line, if everybody knew what actually happened inside jails, if they could actually experience it themselves firsthand, jails probably wouldn't exist anymore. Ignorance is bliss.
 
I dont know about that..... ^ ^ Kids get previews of jails all the time but tstill seem to end up in one.....
 
ChemicalSmile said:
I dont know about that..... ^ ^ Kids get previews of jails all the time but tstill seem to end up in one.....
Click to expand...

I assume you are referring to that Steve Wilkos/Maury Povich shit or some other kind of "this could be you" intervention. That's pussy shit. They are in there for like 1 night.

This is part of what I went through and what most people are completely unware of. I was arrested, transported to jail, booked (fingerprinted,etc), placed in a holding cell and waited to be processed. 7 hours later I was processed and given my phone call. Probably 3 (maybe 5) hours later I was moved upstairs to the 2nd floor where I would reside for a week. Then I was moved upstairs to the 4th floor where I would be for another week. Then I finally got my court date. Meanwhile, during those first 2 weeks, I had no idea when my court date was coming. The mental anguish concerning that uncertainty is inexplainable. Not to mention you get no credit (time served) for that period before your arraignment. Then once I'm transferred to the next facility, I'm given an indeterminate amount of time before I'm transferred to the next facility. Even once I get there, I'm once again given an indeterminate amount of time before a bunk is open in the SAP (substance abuse program) cell block, where I'm to spend 30 days.

Err....I could go on and on. I'mma watch a movie and chill out.
 
Spent 4 or 5 months in county and 13 months in prison. If you want to know what my county jail is like refer to ingannilo post (5th). There was only one time i was in a cell anyone was abused in (dude forced a handjob) on a punk ( gay). Ive heard other stories about abuse in county's but not to much. If your small and worried Bubba might think your ass is sexy avoid isolation (the box,hole) You dont get to choose who is going to be bunking with you and you8 never know what a man will do when he is looking at some serious time.
Tips for jail - respect, go under the radar with the guards, dont live hr by her looking at the calander, don't cough on peoples food ( or reach over a tray), try to read or get a group to start a regural crew for cards, dont constantly talk about how your next couple months will suck (you might get some one thinking about the yrs they are looking forward too AND dont fucking LIE.


PRISON is different. Depending on what level custody u are. There is more work involved. Jail u sit back and sleep most of your time. Prison your gonna work weather your a houseman(dorm cleaner, kitchen,. grounds or wtf ever they have you doing). I went through 3 different camps in 2 months and than 11 at my main camp. If I had to choose I'd probly take prison ( cigs, food, get to go out side, better commissary, get closer to people cus you know for the most part if they will be leaving)

Prison Rules in FL - 1 Don't get the gaurds mad at you (crooked and in fl it seems the guards are all related)
2. If you see some freaky shit keep it 2 ur self
3. Dont borrow or gamble what you cant afford
4. if it aint your homeboy giving you something it aint for free (leverage, borrow with interest, who knows what kinda crazy shit someone will say)
5. DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT A YR that fucker eavesdropping next to u might have something against u and might wanna back your time


2 some it up just lay back and do your time. Observe it might look like the one that just came in the cell with a big mouth is getting love from people but give him a month and hell be in some shit (guards or inmates) Also know that if you are in with convicts than dont try to switch shit up on them they might have been doing the same thing for the last 4 yrs so they are used to it. That is a way the guards break inmates down (when the inmates get comfortable with something weather it is chow time, hygiene, the bunk there in, or wtf ever they swtich it on the inmates to shake the inmates up)
Keep ur head up and your butt hole tight
 
Thank you for your responses.

It would be about a week in upper-middle-class type county jail for a drug offense.

There's a close friend who is in the same jail for FTA on drug charges and resisting arrest/assaulting an officer, what are the chances to see him?
 
Jail is like " So why are you here?"

oh you sold drugs " Teach me okay?"


sure why are you here. Oh you grew hydro? teach me...


its a school, to teach you laws,loopholes and ways to do illegal shit a smarter way
 
You should have nothing to worry about. get someone to send you $25 bucks for food and try to get your hands on a good book.
 
getreal said:
I wonder whats worse. Jail vs homelessness?
Click to expand...

jail is far worse. i think being locked up is one of the most hopeless, helpless, shitty feelings in existence. homeless people might have limited options, but at least they still have their basic freedoms. i know there are people who might appreciate hot meals, a bed, and a roof over their head, but being confined isn't worth it to me. i'd rather starve and sleep in a park than be a prisoner.

if i were ever incarcerated for an extended amount of time i'd probably be one of those people who hang themselves in their cell.
 
Not to mention you get no credit (time served) for that period before your arraignment
Click to expand...

That's incorrect. The FL Statutes provide that a "court imposing a sentence shall allow a defendant credit for all of the time she or he spent in the county jail before sentence" [Florida Statutes § 921.161(1) (2008)]. Now, it is possible that a defendant would be required to waive his/her credit for time served as part of a plea agreement, but that would be voluntary.

There's a lot of good advice in this thread. The most important thing to remember in jail, is to stay out of trouble. The court will impose harsher sentences for crimes committed while in jail, and there may be enhanced penalties for such.
 
See if you ca do weekends...you come in friday and leave sunday....get to be in low security too..............Ive never done it but some people I know have
 
I was in a county jail for about 40 days. It really wasn't that bad. We were allowed out of our cells from 6:30am-9:15pm, except for a few 30 minute head counts and 1 hour shift change. In the common area of the pod there was a TV (with cable), newspapers, and board games; and a small basketball court in a walled cement courtyard. Because of all this time out of our cells, everybody observed bathroom etiquette, you asked your cell mate to leave if he was in there and put a piece of toilet paper in the door to let people know not to come in. Between the solid door and the bed, it was private, nobody could see you. There were 4 semi-private showers (for 60-72 people) with solid doors that blocked view from the knees to mid chest. The food they served was aweful, but there was a large selection of junk food that could be purchased from the commissary (ramen noodles, potato chips, cheetos, honey buns, cookies, m&ms, etc), which also offered name-brand shower and body products to replace the standard crap. Prices were just about the same as gas stations and we could spend $70/week. Fights were rare, and were broken up very quick. If you didn't bother anybody, nobody bothered you.
The biggest problem was the medical care. I came in dopesick, and was refused treatment. 2 weeks later I had abdominal pain so severe I couldn't stand up, chest pain, and the worst headache of my life, and I was ignored for 14 hours then given a Tylenol and an antacid after the nurse refused to let me talk after 2 words and refused to examine me. Another guy in my pod had increasingly worse chest pain for 24 hours and they didn't even let him talk to someone from medical till he dropped in the middle of the pod and they had to call an ambulance. It wasn't the guards causing the problem either, they placed calls to medical whenever somebody asked. Any requests to the nurses who came in for med pass were written down and written responses came back at least a week later, saying an appointment would be scheduled in the next 2 weeks; regardless of severity of condition. The time I got really sick it took a call from my lawyer to get them to do a proper examination with a doctor.
 
I did six months here in Bucks County jail, wasn't too bad - although it really does blow, so fucking boring. There's really nothing sexual going on in county lockup unless you want there to be. The block I was on had quite a few fights, depending on the gaurds as long as you fought in a cell and didn't call attention to it they would let it slide. Got in one fight while I was there, earned me a little respect from the "county lifers", I think 3/4ths of my block was in/out constantly.

Even only a few months in jail changed my outlook on physical confrontation. I'll fight pretty much anyone now, if I feel it's the thing to be done. OTOH I don't really feel like going back to jail with a few months sober, so I TRY to keep my cool ;p.

I remember always being hungry - money for commissary is vital. And at Bucks they switched suppliers. Ramen noodles were 80some cents a piece! The same supplier was at Philly jails - and they were under 20 cents, and Philly is the next county over.

I also got a tattoo while I was there - my first tattoo at that. I'm sure I'll regret it at some point. If your only there for a month just sit it out, I did 6 months, took awhile but fell into somewhat of a routine.
 
A number of people mentioned that sexual issues are more of a choice than forced.

Is being openly gay in a jail more of a good or a bad thing? Can a gay guy make good "connections" by offering favours?

I also find it curious how almost everyone who answered here is from the US. Does this say that American society is overly dependant on incarceration or that the majority of people reading this board are American (which I really doubt)?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top