Category: Prison Rules

When I was sentenced to prison to serve two 15-year sentences (concurrently) for marijuana possession, I had no idea what I was walking into. The only thing I knew about prison was what I had learned in TV and movies. I quickly discovered that a pop culture prison education wasn’t based on any kind of… Continue reading Prison Slang – A List of Terms You’ll Hopefully Never Need to Use

When someone is sentenced to prison, their experience behind bars depends on a number of factors. To begin with, prison experiences vary greatly among different countries because every sovereign nation has their own method for handling people found guilty of committing a crime. When we focus on prison inmates in the United States, someone incarcerated… Continue reading What Is Military Prison Like Compared to Civilian Prison?

When you are convicted of a felony and sentenced to prison, you lose a lot of your constitutional and human rights while you are incarcerated. In some states, some of those rights aren’t automatically reinstated upon an inmate’s release, and it’s possible the former inmate won’t ever get all of their rights back (most notably,… Continue reading What Rights Do Inmates Have?

I used to think that everyone who was in prison deserved to be there, but when I was put behind bars, I discovered that I couldn’t have been more wrong. The majority of people in prison are there for a non-violent offense. Oftentimes, the only victim of the “crime” is the state, in my opinion. … Continue reading What Happens if You are Found Innocent After Being in Prison?

Tattoos are a common part of prison culture. In my experience, the majority of inmates already have ink before they start doing their time, but some don’t get their art work done until they are behind bars.  No, prisons don’t have tattoo parlors where you can drop some cash to get professional work done. Instead,… Continue reading What Are The Meanings of Prison Tattoos?

We all know that when someone is convicted of the crime of murder, they will end up in prison. It’s the most violent crime in the criminal code, and it comes with the harshest penalties. Taking someone’s life usually results in a lengthy prison sentence. In many states, there’s no possibility for parole. In some… Continue reading Can You Get Life in Prison for Manslaughter?

We’ve all been in situations where we’ve lost our temper. But sometimes, things can get out of hand, which can cause the law to get involved. If you have knowingly inflicted or attempted to inflict serious physical injury to someone, that’s considered assault. And if you get charged with the crime of assault, things can… Continue reading Can You go to Prison for Assault?

The United States has between 1.5 million and 2 million people behind bars at any given moment, which means it incarcerates a larger proportion of its citizens than any other developed country in the world.  If you’ve never lived or worked inside a prison, you really don’t know what life is like on the inside.… Continue reading Why Inmates Join Prison Gangs?

I have written in the past about the mass incarceration problem in the United States. In my opinion, one of the reasons our prisons and jails are so crowded is because we lock people up for non-violent “crimes” that often have no victims.  The truth is, the 50 states that make up our great country… Continue reading Can You go to Prison for Criminal Damage?

A common phrase I heard from the prison guards during my four years of incarceration was: “if you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have come to prison.” One of the white shirts (the guard in charge) used to say that line in response to every inmate complaint.  Sometimes, it was an appropriate response, but as… Continue reading Can You Sue Prison?