Because we love our prison stories
Because we love our prison stories
I just read all of this thread - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=136858 - someone talking about two years in a Michigan prison. It is unexpectedly well written.
One time I built a matter transporter, but things got screwed up (long story, lol) and I ended up turning into a kind of half-human, half-housefly monstrosity.
- Serious Paul
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- Serious Paul
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A lot.
In order:
In order:
- The smell. This depends greatly on which prison you're locked up in, which is generally what almost all of this depends upon. This guy has pretty clearly never actually been inside of a real prison.
- White People. Again this depends on which prison you're in. The further North you go, the less true this becomes. The closer to Detroit you get, the more true this is. However, he is correct in that more black men are incarcerated than white men.
- Rape is a big deal. It is very common place in lower level settings, and is becoming increasingly common in higher security levels as more and more prisoners are crowded into smaller spaces.
- There hasn't been 33 murders in the Michigan Department of Corrections int he last 20 years, let alone in a single prison. Not all of them are white.
- Getting Fat. Clearly he's never eaten a meal inside a prison. A lot of prisoners would rather go hungry than eat what's served inside a prison chow hall-as it's invariably horrible. And that's on a good day. Convicts who can order food from the prison store system do so. Everyone else eats what's given, which is getting smaller by the day as they try to control costs. Calorie counts are being slashed to the point where staff actually fear a riot based on hunger.
- Exercise equipment is hard to come by, but what we have is in CONSTANT use. if nothing else because people are bored. The track is almost always in use even in the harshest winters.
- Solitary is actually known as "The Hole" to convicts, and "Seg" to staff. It's actually a preferred method of confinement because you won't be raped-or well, I guess at least your chances are reduced of actually being raped and assaulted in a single man cell.
- Drugs are a problem but the drug choice varies, and I have my personal doubts about anyone using their thumbnail to open a vein when there a lot easier ways to consume drugs-prescription, and illicit.
- He clearly doesn't understand the prison economy in any actual way.
- Some people cut the connection to the outside, but the successful ones don't. Visit's, mail. etc...are things worth dying for inside. Convicts often complain that people forget them, but few actively work to cut that cord.
- Cliques, gangs, whatever are still a massive problem. It's bullshit to think staff target anyone who hangs in a group larger than three because everyone hangs in a group larger than three. Policy officially frowns upon large groups, but eve the definition of that varies from joint to joint. Again it's pretty clear whoever wrote this never spent any actual time inside a prison.
- The last guy, and only guy, to get shot in the head by staff in Michigan was well after this guy made this post.
- There are no tasers allowed to be used inside the Michigan Department of Corrections. Period.
- Taser's don't make holes in people. They don't have enough juice. Period.
- No one gets an allowance inside. Some people get paid for various jobs, or to attend school but it's not enough to buy good drugs, or store goods.
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- UncleJoseph
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No. Staff do not carry weaponry of any sort. The idea is that prisoners out number staff at best 5 to 1, and by much more in some facilities. So if you had something they could simply take it, and then they have it.DV8 wrote:The most convincing argument you made was the one about tasers. Doesn't MDOC issue any non-lethal take-down weapons to the staff at all? Like those bean-bag shooty thingers?
A staff member at a different facility was recently fired because it looked the staff member may have used a set of handcuffs as a pair of knuckledusters. In the end the staff member got their job back, but they had to fight for a few months and went through hell.
Now in some special circumstances staff are issued chemical agents-but tasers have never been approved by the Department for use, even though some staff have asked for them. (I am not one of those staff members, just an FYI. I'm not sure they'd be of any real use .) But these situations are ALWAYS documented, and very often if not always recorded on video.
The CDC is on the fore front of using this kind of stuff but they have a way bigger budget, a lot more violence, and a crap ton more willingness to end up in court. (The MDOC fears the courts like a neat freak fears a leper.)
I do wonder about the smell issue though: every institution I've been in has had this terrible smell. Not like an overpowering smell like a porta-jon that ain't been emptied out, but this underlying scent of disinfectant, and underneath that a scent of stale sweat and piss/mildew. But this goes for the Jails, Prisons, College dorms(some of them are set up exactly like prison dorms...I freak out when I go inside those places) and schools I've been to. Not saying you're wrong, but I wonder if maybe you've grown accustomed to that aroma, and just don't notice it as much?
The other thing is: you gotta be a lazy fuck to get fatter in prison, I'd think. Every time I've been locked up in jail, after a day or two everyone starts doing push-ups. It's just a way to pass the time. Got something on your mind, but you don't wanna talk about it? Do some push-ups. Angry? Push-ups? Wanna jerk-off? Push-ups or shower. I've always been in better shape when I get out of jail than I was going in.
The other thing is: you gotta be a lazy fuck to get fatter in prison, I'd think. Every time I've been locked up in jail, after a day or two everyone starts doing push-ups. It's just a way to pass the time. Got something on your mind, but you don't wanna talk about it? Do some push-ups. Angry? Push-ups? Wanna jerk-off? Push-ups or shower. I've always been in better shape when I get out of jail than I was going in.
I suspect that people who speak or write properly are up to no good, or homersexual, or both
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It's certainly possible. But I believe generally speaking older institutions and "high usage" facilities tend to smell worse. But some places aren't that bad. In my own facility one housing unit will smell like shit and desperation for about ten thousand more years, but the housing unit fifty from it generally smells like disinfectant generally.Bonefish wrote:Not saying you're wrong, but I wonder if maybe you've grown accustomed to that aroma, and just don't notice it as much?
This isn't to say a prison will ever smell like a fresh baked apple pie, or happiness. But yeah the Michigan Reformatory smells like old prison. Where as other, newer places don't have that smell...yet.
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Many different institutions have different odors. I would dare say that county jails are bound to be different than prisons. I have been inside dozens of county jails on prisoner transports...some of them have no offensive odor whatsoever. Some of them smell like unshowered homeless person no matter which section you're in.
If you take away their comforts, people are just like any other animal.
Maybe it's just a North Carolina thing? All the Jails, Schools and College dorms I've been in all have a very similar odor to them. Or maybe it's just selective memory?
What is the CDC, btw? California Department of Corrections?
What is the CDC, btw? California Department of Corrections?
I suspect that people who speak or write properly are up to no good, or homersexual, or both
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I think there's one private run prison, and one federal prison. Neither have a good rep-but I've never worked either, or directly met anyone who's worked the federal joint.
The Wackenhut refugees universally agree it was a dangerous place, where the bottom line mattered far more than actual safety and security. I know many of them.
The Wackenhut refugees universally agree it was a dangerous place, where the bottom line mattered far more than actual safety and security. I know many of them.
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At least on the drug usage, the guy's story reads exactly like a dozen other stories I've read written by folks who don't have the first clue about addiction or most drugs. I really like how easily he stopped heroin abuse. The local methadone clinics would love to know his method.
Screw liquid diamond. I want to be able to fling apartment building sized ingots of extracted metal into space.
How does it work? I can't say i've ever been addicted to anything but cigarettes. I have never understood why people get addicted to cocaine, meth, or heroin. I mean, I get that they're good, but I just don't understand why people would use them to the degree that constitutes abuse.
I suspect that people who speak or write properly are up to no good, or homersexual, or both
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For the same reason you can get addicted to cigarettes or alcohol. Heroin is one of the most physiologically addictive substances on the planet. Many times, people who try it once are instantly addicted to it...and the constantly try to get that high they felt the first time they did it. Also, some people are more prone to addiction than others...those folks are more likely to try those types of drugs in the first place.Bonefish wrote:How does it work? I can't say i've ever been addicted to anything but cigarettes. I have never understood why people get addicted to cocaine, meth, or heroin. I mean, I get that they're good, but I just don't understand why people would use them to the degree that constitutes abuse.
What I don't get, is why someone would choose to do them even once, when he or she already knows that the fallout from such a decision has such a high risk factor.
If you take away their comforts, people are just like any other animal.
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To get chicks, of course.UncleJoseph wrote:What I don't get, is why someone would choose to do them even once, when he or she already knows that the fallout from such a decision has such a high risk factor.
Screw liquid diamond. I want to be able to fling apartment building sized ingots of extracted metal into space.
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