Prison Inmate Talk

Education in the federal prison camp was mandatory, required or optional and self taught depending on your status of education. There was a lot of educational material available, a library and BOP personnel staff assigned to education. Most of the teaching was done by the white collar crime inmates or those with an education under the supervision of BOP staff.

There is a zero tolerance policy for fighting in a federal prison camp. People caught fighting are immediately removed from the camp and both are put behind bars called the hole for investigation. Then one or both parties involved lose their camp privileges and usually placed in a low or medium security prison depending on the nature of violence. Notice that I said caught fighting. The inmates know of the seriousness and consequences of fighting in camp. I have personally witness one fight, heard of others and seen busted lips from those involved in which no disciplinary action was taken. This is because of two reasons.

Currency is defined as money in circulation. We always associate money as being the Federal Reserve note or more commonly called the dollar. This form of money is not allowed in camp by the BOP and any inmate caught with it is questioned and investigated. So what kind of currency is being used in place of the dollar among federal prison camp inmates.

Bartering has been around longer than any form of money. This system of exchanging something for something else is still widely used today and especially in the prison camp. It has become the primary way of getting things you need or want. The bartering between inmates has gone back to the way it was from the beginning. You exchange for everything including personal services, items for items or a special skill people want.

In my opinion, profanity has got to be one ot the most ugly and dirtiest thing in a federal prison camp. I thank and praise God that He shielded my mind and speech from such filth. Profanity is as common as everyday speaking to some without any regard to proper language. Most inmates just chose to talk that way. I know this because when a camp officer or administrator is around their words quickly become a polite English language. Then like a light switch, when all is clear, they resort back to the same foul words that dirty their mouth and minds. How sad.

Did you know that inmates worked and got paid to be in a federal prison camp? It’s true, an inmates puts in an average of 7 hours a day, 35 hours a week and gets paid an hourly wage. Each month they would receive a financial deposit in their personal commissary account for their compensation of work.

What kind of medical services do inmates receive in federal prison camp? Now that is an interesting question that I think most people would want to know. Therefore I will enlighten you with the facts in a five part series of my experience regarding one prison camp’s medical service. Upon self-surrender, all new inmates within the first few weeks receive a physical from the BOP (bureau of prison) medical staff. A pretty routine check-up like blood pressure, eyesight, hearing, heart and lung, light muscle exercises, reflex testing, a urine sample for lab work and a series of questions pertaining to inmates personal medical history. A simple and painless check-up every man should get once a year.

Drugs and medicine, health related medication from a doctor for certain illnesses that require a prescription are handled two ways depending on the type of drug. First, most medication is given to the inmates the same way as if they were at home. Get a prescription from the doctor, get it filled, the patient takes them till they run out and then get a refill if needed based on their condition. For example, like an inmate on blood pressure or heart medication.

Medical appointments of physical illnesses to serious surgery needs are evaluated by the federal prison camp administration and medical staff. If an inmate needed or wanted to see a doctor for any reason, they are required to fill out a standard form that applied to all inmates for any request and then submitted to the camp administration. Those forms which related to medical services were routed to the medical staff and inmates had to wait for medical to respond.

Stat! I am sure everyone knows or heard that word before in a medical TV show, it means immediately. Well I’m hear to tell you, when there is a near death experience by an inmate in the federal prison camp the medical staff and others move with quickness. Here is a true story I saw first hand. There was an inmate who worked at the garage with me and one day he just started walking around in circles and became disoriented. Other inmates and I help him to sit down while other called for the correctional officer in charge. His eyes were glassy and there was no response to questioning from us or the officer.

My opinion is that if you are to be incarcerated and you have time before you self-surrender. I recommend you get a complete physical before going in by your personal or family doctor and if possible have a copy of those medical records with you when you check in. I say that because medical records get lost, for example the medical staff at the prison camp wanted to give me a second tetanus shot after a few months because they had no record of giving me one earlier, go figure.

Men who like to gamble will always find a way to do it and the federal prison system is no deterrent to that way of life or habit. Although gambling is forbidden and stopped when it’s really obvious or when it gets out of hand. The fact remains, inmates will always create or find a way to do it and do it secretly. The games in which the inmates play are pretty much the same as in the free world, no difference except for the stakes and how payments are made. Poker, dice and sports events betting are still among the favorites.

One of the things that impressed me about the BOP is that the educational and recreational department encouraged the inmates to take up a hobby. Catalogs were available and provided to inmates for ordering supplies. Forms were easy to fill out for release of inmate commissary funds to order and purchase supplies. They even provided a hobby card to inmates who participated in hobbies so that their materials were not considered contraband.

How can someone sleep with all those people around? Simple, you adapt and get used to it and before you know it, you are sleeping like a baby. I remember the first night in a strange place with 90 or so other inmates going to bed after lights out. I would wake up to every little sound and believe me there are a lot of noises with that many people. Actually I was more concerned about falling out of bed because I was in a top bunk five feet off the ground and the bed was only 30 inches wide but Praise God it never happened.