Prisons and jails can be daunting places to find oneself. For first-timers, the unfamiliarity and uncertainty of navigating these environments can be overwhelming. Even for those already incarcerated, there are countless aspects that remain unfamiliar, as prisons and jails create their own peculiar set of circumstances. This book aims to guide individuals step by step, from the moment handcuffs are placed on them or an arrest warrant is issued, all the way to their eventual release from prison or jail. It provides a comprehensive understanding of what to expect and how to navigate the challenges that arise.
Readers will gain valuable insights on how to effectively manage their time, avoid potential pitfalls, and, above all, survive in the midst of this challenging environment. For loved ones who have someone incarcerated or awaiting imprisonment, this book serves as a guide to understanding the trials their loved ones face behind bars. It sheds light on the experiences they endure, sometimes choosing not to share their struggles in order to spare their loved ones’ worry.
By comprehending the new world one finds themselves in or is about to enter, readers will gain insight into why individuals often emerge from the system worse off than when they entered, and why the most powerful country in the world has a staggering recidivism rate of 67%. This book serves as a blueprint for survival and offers guidance on how to avoid reentering the penal system.
READ AN EXCERPT
Introduction
Without jails and prisons, there will not be a lot of jobs. Professions like Judges, Law Enforcement, Commissioners, Bail Bonds, Correctional Officers, Parole and Probation Officers, Case Managers, Wardens, and much more will be out of a career, so it is safe to say that some people live in someone else’s misery. With over three million and counting men, women, and youths incarcerated, including 117 Federal prison housing 217,000 or more Federal inmates, but not including the thousands on parole and probation, inmates in halfway houses, court-ordered drug programs, and home detention, totaling over 7 million people either incarcerated or are on some type of paper such as probation, making the judiciary and penal system a fast-growing and profitable business.
The average cost of incarceration in the United States is determined by different methods. It costs anywhere between $34,000 and $47,000 per year to house inmates in federal and state correctional facilities. The cost of incarceration increases according to the level of security, the prison itself, and the state and county the prison is located. New York City pays over $160,000 to feed, house, and guard each inmate while New York State pays about $70.000. The most expensive prison in America is located in Cuba; Housing an inmate in Guantanamo Bay costs $900,000 per year. Funds assigned to corrections departments across the U.S. take up a substantial part of state budgets.
The budget office indicates that 83 percent of the expense per prisoner comes from wages, benefits for staff, and pension costs. This book will teach an individual what to do before going to jail or prison and once there or already in there this book will teach an individual how to survive in there as one rehabilitates oneself because the system has no desire to see someone rehabilitated. One will learn how to conduct oneself in jail or prison. By reading this informational book one will also learn how to prepare for release and get ready for society and will be given the tools not to re-offend as part of the 67% recidivism that continue to go back and forth to jail or prison. One will also discover what family and friends go through in society due to their loved ones being incarcerated.
Lou: Serving two life sentences. Convicted of killing his wife and her lover. Everyone in here has a story and my story is one. I was in the army and came home sooner than planned. I tried to surprise my wife, but she ended up surprising me. I silently entered the house, and knowing that my wife might still be asleep, I tip-towed up the stairs and down the hallway. Couldn’t wait to see the expression on my wife’s face for coming home sooner than planned, I opened the bedroom door only to see my wife laying there with another man, I lost it and killed them. I went from the fields of Afghanistan to now serving the rest of my life in the belly of the beast.
Carlos: Serving 15 years has already served 11 years and is soon to get released. Convicted of drug and gun charges. Man, I had everything on the streets, women, cars, big houses, jewelry, and clothes that I might wear only once. I also had respect all because of the money I made selling cocaine. It took one jealous mutha fucker to set me up leading them to catch me with a brick (1 kilogram of cocaine), and a Glock .45. On my first charge ever I was given a mandatory ten-year sentence for the drugs and five years for the gun and ran my case wild meaning I must first serve the ten years, then begin my five-year sentence. Since then I have lost everything including my woman.
Mark: In a county jail facing a Theft less than $500 charge and is given a $2,500 bail. This County jail is worst than prison from what I heard and I now see why. I have not even been to court and this jail shit is killing me. I am here for theft of less than five hundred, but I am being punished like I have killed someone. I guess that’s why they call this jail shit the belly of the beast.
Richard(Rich): Serving a 20-year sentence, with 10 years in for armed robbery, just made parole. When I first got here you couldn’t tell me anything. I never joined the gang or any religious services or religion and also did not do anything else. At first, I was mad at the world for the mistakes I have made. I eventually got myself together, I even took some courses the prison has to offer and all of this ended up paying off. After the years I made parole on a twenty-year sentence.
Part One
FACING YOUR FEARS: Jails and prisons are designed for the worst of humanity, the rejects, the meanest, the ugliest, and the evilest. With that in mind, that should give the one who is heading to jail and prison to prepare because that person might not be any of that, but society is quick to punish. Facing your fears means that you are ready to face what is ahead of you and you are ready to accept and face the challenges ahead. You will face the reality that you don’t want to be where you are, and there is nothing you can do.
You will miss your family and loved ones. You will have to face yourself. If you know you are guilty of the crime that has brought you this journey, own it to yourself. Be honest with yourself, if you broke the law understand that you must now pay for your mistakes, and that does not make you a bad person. A state of Denial only hardens you because it will cloud your judgment of working harder to self-rehabilitate and work towards an early release.
This book is not asking you to confess to anyone just to yourself. If you are wrongly charged and or convicted, you must understand you are there for a reason good or bad and the world is not fair you may get out without even knowing why you were ever dealt with that hand, but work must be done and this book will guide you through the process.
This book will inform you of any fears that may arise, and fear is not a bad thing it keeps one focused. One must prepare for the nastiest food probably have tasted. One must prepare for the longest night of your life because one cannot sleep no matter how hard one tries. Jails and prisons can be life-changing events, either for the good or for the bad. The good news to help you combat some of these views is. Jails and prisons are not as violent as they used to be. Once someone enters jail or prison they are now officially the property of that County, State, or Federal meaning the United States government. With that said these agencies will do their best to protect their property meaning, meaning that will do their best to keep you from being harmed, but don’t depend on that, there are no heroes in the correctional facility and that is why they called it the belly of the beast.
Preparing To Start Doing Your Time
It will be wonderful t know when you are about to start your sentence. This will allow you the opportunity to prepare. For those who are not awarded this privilege, they should have some comfort knowing that the time spent awaiting sentence (if you couldn’t make bail and have to stay in as you go through the legal process) is not in vain since that time will be subtracted from their sentence. For those who are out on bond awaiting their sentence, there are a few things one should think of before sentencing. Money:
Money should be the first thing one should put on the side. This money does not have to be a great amount, a few hundred can be enough and of course, the more saved will make staying a little better. This money should be saved up specifically for this journey, just like saving up for a trip. Most people make the mistake of not putting such money aside with the hope that their family and friends will always send them money, which may be true, but there are some factors to consider when thinking that your family and friends got you.
What if your family does not have it like that, you know if your family got it like that or not. If they do not saving your own money before you start your sentence will lessen the burden of them coming up with any money to take care of you in jail or prison right away. This will give them time to adjust to where you are, and how to deal without you out in society to help and allow them to rearrange their finance to start helping you in the near future. Even if your family and friends have this money and you know you can depend on them throughout your entire incarceration you should still have money on the side because life goes on with you incarcerated to things will change, people you know will lose their job, divorce, illness, and so forth. So you do not know where their finances will be a week, month, or year from now.
You can even talk to family and friends and let them know exactly what you are doing, you are collecting money so that when you start your sentence you will have some money to buy your necessities. People are quick to help you much more with you being out than you were in, so get as much money as you can. One will be amazed how for just a few hundred dollars can go to jail or prison especially when you are just beginning your sentence. With just $500 you can begin your sentence and live comfortably for months and by that time you should have already maintained a job in the jail or prison. Family and friends will respect you more without you asking them for money to go start a sentence for a crime you have committed(unless you are innocent), That Talk
That talk is the talk one will have to have with their family, especially their spouse. If one is going to be incarcerated for only days, weeks, or months then this talk may not even be necessary. It all depends on the type of relationship one has with their partner. When one is facing years then this talk is essential. Can or will your spouse wait for you? There is no need to ask them if they will be faithful, that is something tested throughout time since they might be faithful now but not hold true for the entire time of the incarceration. What is more important than being faithful in this unusual situation are they going to wait for you and be in the same position they are now in(wife, husband, boyfriend, and or girlfriend).
Once you get their answer that is what you must go by and nothing else. Don’t try to predict what the future holds whether can she or he be faithful or not, or will they leave you down the line. Don’t stress over those matters, go by your spouse’s answer and let nature take its course. If your spouse or partner is honest enough and tells you they cannot wait or you sense that they cannot wait, you are facing a lot of years then it will be best to end the romantic relationship, and if you two can start a new relationship strictly as friends. Time is the enemy of the relationship of the incarcerated. Most relationships do not last once you start your sentence, the longer the sentence the probability of the relationship lasting decreases. A friendship relationship with someone you care about will last longer than a romantic relationship.
If you can remain only as friends then there is no expectation on either part. It is better to be on friendly terms. This is much more beneficial for the one who is about to start their sentence since they will be the ones with idle time to wonder if their spouse or partner is being faithful or not. If one does end the relationship and remains only as friends there is always the possibility of reuniting back to a romantic relationship once the incarcerated is closer to release or completely free. The best thing for the one who is about to start their sentence is to have some type of communication with someone in the real world. Someone once a while you can reach out to either through a letter, visit, and these days even through email.
Institutional problems will arise and sometimes knowing someone outside will make a major difference in how someone is treated in jail or prison once a situation arises. There is nothing like someone calling the institution their loved one is housed wondering why you still have not received specific medical attention, and so forth. That is why it is important to have such a talk, it is better to lose a wife, husband, girlfriend, or boyfriend and gain a friend that will be with you throughout your sentence, especially a lengthy one.
