who here is been in jail or prision. What is that like?

Jail is drama city. You've got people coming and going, people in for probation violations, people in and waiting for their court cases to be heard, and it's just a hot mess. You don't dare talk about anything to do with your case if it hasn't been heard yet, because you're surrounded by people who will sell you out to get a better deal.

Prison is a whole other level. There's still the drama, and basically how I would describe it is high school all over again, except that the cool kids have knives. You've got your white supremacist gangs, your Mexican gangs, your black gangs, and the Russian guys nobody dares to mess with. And basically, you've got a couple of choices. You either keep to yourself and interact with nobody, or you find a gang that causes the least amount of drama and join up, if they'll have you. Or you can do what they always tell you to do in the movies, which is fine the biggest guy on the yard and take a swing at him. That will land you in the infirmary, but everybody will assume you're crazy and leave you alone.

I'll tell you the funniest thing I found about prison. Even when you take away money, and leave people without currency to trade for stuff, they will determine that something new is currency. When I was there, it was envelopes, or just lopes for short. Everything people wanted to sell, they wanted a certain number of lopes. You wanted a scoop of coffee mix? That's two lopes. A soup? That's one lope.

I bought a piece of artwork once from Keith Jesperson, the Happy Face Kіӏӏer. He sold it to me in exchange for a box of colored pencils and three Manila envelopes. Two of the envelopes were for him to take apart and put together so that he could fit the art in them and mail them to my house. The third one was as a mailing fee. (I later sold it to one of those weird serial kіӏӏer fans for like $200.)

The dumbest thing I would say I saw in prison is the way different gangs claimed certain cell blocks. Like, how TF are you going to sit there and say you own the cage the state has you locked in? That's just a sad, pathetic attempt to regain control of your life.

I was in jail for 4 hours. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was mortifying. First thing I did when I got back was hug my cat,drink wine and pass out.

I'm guessing quite a few from here.😄

I just got out not very long ago. I did my time in the county detention center which sucks the way it worked out better than having to go to state prison. Is the worst thing . I'll describe it other than that you really want to be out and hate every single day. You think about what you did to be in there a lot if you have a conscience. And it bothers you a lot. And it just seems like the punishment is just never going to end as time goes by so slow. I served 20 and a half months of a 7 year sentence. If I look at someone wrong I will go to state prison to do the rest which is 5 years and 3 and a half months. I did my crime 20 years before I was arrested and eventually put on trial. I eventually made a plea bargain, admitted I did it which I did. It felt like my life had ended. I don't want to say why I was there. I'll just say that everyone would be upset that I didn't have to serve my full punishment. People don't understand how bad the time actually is. They think a year is like a year being free. No, it's like you've been there for 5 years. I still could go back. The rules for parole are hard to keep even if you try really hard. I think they want me to serve the rest of the time because of the circumstances of my crime.. So they'll see to it that I go back but this time to a scary ass prison that I'll have to go to if I return.

Hijinks!

Overnight maybe 4 or 5 times in civilian jails. Keep in mind, I was in the Navy!
I was also in something called "birds" which was a "confinement to base" while in said Navy.

Nothing is is soft and everything tastes bad.

Not me

👀