What Are Common Misconceptions TV Makes About Prison?

redditors who have done time what are common misconceptions tv makes about prison jail i was scared shitless going in and pleasantly surprised at how nice people were when once i was inside the worst part for me was waiting in the holding cell before you go to an actual cell with beds tv etc you need to be arraigned before the judge i was arrested on a thursday evening and it was a busy week so the judge didn't have time to see me on friday i had to wait in the holding cell until monday which was torture for me just a concrete room concrete bench and a toilet at the end of the room it's impossible to get comfortable and i could only sleep for a few minutes at a time i really can't imagine being in solitary for an extended period of time once i got assigned to a cell i was so happy most of my cell mates were in for stupid crap like drugs child support dui they were all pretty nice a couple times during the weekend they had some really drunk people brought it which was pretty entertaining i felt bad for one guy when he woke up to discover he was in jail for the first time in his life man i was in a holding cell five days that concrete sucks the warmth out of you then your hips shoulders and knees ache from the pressure of that cold hard floor that it's boring i spent a weekend in jail we had tv from 6am until 10 pm dish network so we had access to whatever three meals a day we all traded around coffee three times a day with cream and sugar packets and one hour from 7 8 am to go to the library to get a book it wasn't normal every day but it's not this horrible vision of what it would be like maybe i got lucky there were seven of us in the cell six of them knew each other and were on bunk beds then i came in and had to find room on the floor for my cot the clothes and shoes didn't fit so i went around in my socks and tied my orange jumpsuit around my hips with the arms and wore it that way like everyone else was doing bc they're underfunded the men were kept on the opposite side of the jail and you could hear them yelling and fighting all the time i mean i wouldn't do it again but i read an entire book in two days and i kind of miss the people i was in there with sounds like being in a mental institution there are tv coffee books and food three times a day that it's a scary place at first it's overwhelming but not really scary most people in there are just waiting to get out or sentenced lots just want peace and quiet you can tell when a person who's never been in jail come in they are usually loud and act tough which they aren't some cry that's even worse just take your three hots and a cot and shut up if the guards ask you to do something do it you don't want to be extracted from the cell or be in solitary it's pretty much eat sleep watch tv and cards a lot of the people in jail aren't really that bad just made a mistake i found that there was kind of a comfort in basically having everything done for you the pressure of having to make decisions is just taken away you just do what you're told all the time everyone else's comments makes the places sound like a very strict resort dang ama about african prison it's as crap as you'd expect i did about four days in one of those open floor jails like a drunk tank but it's a whole building with staff and cots and stuff the deal was basically go to real jail and get sentenced or stu and detox in this cot i chose the latter tv tends to show people vying for position of alpha in the open space and there's always that one tatted up man lady who glares and everyone knows to stay away from i did not experience that no one spoke much except when it was time to pick the next vhs movie and everyone was easy going on the selection food was crap though barely edible but everyone was chill boring f yo did four years in a federal penitentiary in british columbia canada i had my own single cell in a unit of only single cells so quiet you could hear a mouse fart had my own 15-inch flat screen tv an n64 game console with three games zelda wrestlemania 2000 and golden eye a small cd player my own shoes that i ordered from a catalog and all my own cloths no hoodies or butting up shirts allowed food was garbage especially during a lockdown the canteen provided most of my meals kd noodles tuna chicken garlic coils cheese etc had the best job too maintenance drove through the compound in a golf cart with a hilti drill in the back for drilling holes in walls for cork boards and cabinets made 69 a week the guards were chill and respectful and if you needed help with any paperwork they were always willing couldn't ask for better scenery in the yard as we were surrounded by mountains on the north south and west and farmland in the east school library or gymnasium was always available all day up to 9 pm other than the fact that i couldn't leave to see my family it was easy time we had pfv houses so you could have your family come and for a weekend and you could play house for a few days always sad when they leave though i was lucky just did what i had to and left everyone to their own time made some good friends most people here are saying is not as bad as tv makes it out to be but my experience was that it was the most soul-crushing thing i've ever been through and i wasn't even in jail very long everything is dirty like it feels disgusting to the touch walls have a greasy feeling all the time because nothing is cleaned there's nothing to do but wait and watch tv or read you're surrounded by people but lonely all the time there's never any privacy of any kind sure it's not as violent as tv makes it but anything that could make you feel human is gone from your life it's because you weren't there very long you see tea like that i figure the longer you're inside the easier it is i spent a night in jail and the pills kicked in when i got to my jail cell there was an infomercial 470s soft rock and it the majority of each song featured by paul simon paul mccartney and others that helped me calm down and mellow out that morning i gave my roommate my sandwich and got bailed out if anyone could find the infomercial for that that came out in 2002 to 2003-ish i'd forever be grateful so i haven't done time as an inmate but i have worked as a corrections officer for the last eight years one of the biggest things that bugs me about the portrayal of ceos in tv and movies is that we are either all corrupt and or incompetent if that's not the case then we are almost always portrayed as being absolute buttholes who are verbally or physically abusive in reality most of us are pretty laid back just like most inmates are in all honesty obviously this experience is very widely on the type of facility and where it is located but overall it's just a bunch of guys on both sides of the bars trying to kill time and move on with their lives oh and not every single god damn door you walk through in a correctional facility makes a loud buzzing noise i mean some do but not every single one my good friend just got out of prison he was in for six years he said that it depends on the prison some are really laid back and some of them are super tense and violent also they can't get anything in there for the right price i want you to sneak in rita hayworth cell block is terrifying but once you settle everyone there is chill just waiting to get released or send to gen pop no beds and if you need to prepare to do it in the open there is a tiny wall between you and 15 guys cops are tired and don't want to hear any bs not deal with anyone so just listen and obey and stay calm control your breathing and don't open your mouth others will respect you if you remain calm and if you don't advertise what you did they may even fear you trying to guess what you did the good news is that the experience is so bad that if you are not into heavy stuff you'll never want to go back again and try to stay away from that place btw 85 percent of the guys i met and there they all started with a freaking dui i was in for a week my uncle told me to sleep as much as possible and turn yourself off i had people try and shake me but i guess they just try to see who the week are to figure out who might snitch on them i was yelled demanded my possessions and deserts i never responded to any of it just kept a blank face i'm type 1 diabetic very brittle so i visited the nurse often this funny exchange happened on my way back guy a few cells down hey mother why do i see you walking by so often me i see the nurse i'm diabetic guys so plenty of suckers in here are diabetic me i'm type one in high risk of cesaries guy crapping i'm white and don't feel comfortable typing it you got the dangerous diabetes ill yell for the co if i hear you flop around at night healthcare sucks in prison but the guys look after each other they gave me extra servings during meal time funny thing is apparently white people get harassed in there always getting their crap stolen or forcibly taken mayo i'm glad someone was looking out how clean and made-up actresses are every woman is hairy as heck no makeup wear messy etc it makes me chuckle how pretty the actress is in oranges the new black and wentworth are you should see the wentworth cast in real life they are all very pretty i actually watched some of them last night on the australian version of family feud and they're very nice and personable as well jail and prison are completely different jail is basically adult day care you don't really have to worry about getting into fights or any of that crap in fact you really have to try to get into a fight for the most part people just want to do their time and get out prison is where all the scary crap happens because people there don't have much to lose jail is for people who are spending a year or less there i absolutely never knew there was even a difference i ended up in a large cell that i shared with like 10 other guys i don't know about you but i had never known about cells at large and had only seen two four person cells maximum and worst part is the toilet is just right there in the open i do remember now being asked questions about if i had problems with other people as i was being processed in and i would have answered them differently if i had to do it again i think a lot of people don't understand the difference between jail and prison on account of tv i haven't been to prison but i did do a four-month stint in a texas border jail jails don't have amenities like prisons do the libraries wreck yards group therapy etc that you might envision as part of jail life is mostly only in prisons jail is just waiting also the food isn't as terrible as people make it out to be it's basically the same crap at school lunch spent 27 months in military and federal prison it's boring everyone else's lives keep going but your life stops play cards write letters watch tv eat work out sleep this is the sum of your existence for the time you're in i spent two days in jail and would like to point out something that is not a misconception the food definitely tastes like crap but the one thing tv gets right i did a bit of time but on the other side of the bars i was a prison officer for a couple of years it's not as cushy as people think being banged up yes prisoners get tvs playstations etc but most of the time it's very basic the tvs are tiny usually no more than 15 and they're only allowed basic games consoles ps2 original xbox etc the main reason for that is that those consoles weren't able to easily be connected to the internet and certainly didn't have wi-fi most of the reasoning for allowing them to have those luxuries was for staff benefits with a couple of hundred prisoners in a single wing usually controlled by a literal handful of staff we needed anything possible to keep them entertained as previously mentioned the literacy levels inside can be very low so you can't expect everyone to curl up with a good book the tvs are also restricted so no cable to pick from hundreds of channels prisoners also have to pay for their tv sets a weekly charge of a few pound symbol this covered a basic no frills 20 year old crt set they could buy a flat screen but when their weekly income from working if they had a prison job was usually less than 10 pounds which also had to cover buying their luxury items biscuits cigarettes better toiletries etc it could take them months or more to save together the 150 pound odd to get a better set especially if they had no friends or family to send them money that's as much as i can be bothered to type right now but happy to answer questions later if anyone wants to know more from my side of the bars i've never been but i've heard from people that society underestimates the endless boredom it's just sitting around doing nothing much of the time well they gotta be punished keep them locked up until they lose their job and lose touch with their family and friends keep them bored until they go crazy and then release them that may not be the best way to do things but it seems to be what the people want this is for jail as i've never been to the dock or prison no one tries to make you there be in my experience some guys act tough or talk a lot of crap but when it comes down to it no one wants to frick up their release date it really just sucks and is boring and they make you wait freaking forever for every little thing bologna sandwiches for every meal eventually you get hot food but it's not great i've lucked out and been transferred to the pod that cleans other pods every time i've been in jail you have more freedom can walk around the pod mostly freely can shower almost anytime there are milks and sometimes other drinks that you can just grab also the food is the same but there's more of it and you get more blankets which is good cause it can get pretty cold in a dark musty cave lol the cops are all be though they won't answer crap bow they do treat you substantially better if you're in the cleaning crew pod but seriously jail's the only place you can work while not knowing a single freaking thing about anything related to your job it's depressing that jail is considered justice what a dumb way to handle problems in a society my boyfriend did a bit of time at a workhouse meaning most of the prisoners had work release according to him it was pretty awesome they were fed had heat a lot of free time little responsibility interesting company etc it still doesn't exactly sound like a picnic to me but that might be privileged talking for him it was a bit of retreat from an otherwise tough circumstance that said he has done well to stay out never been in a prison i know people who have worked in them and won x-con attempted murder stories i've heard are much more placid than expected uk prisons here's what i feel tv makes it appear worse by only showing the worst do a search for tv programs about the toughest scariest prisons and you'll be presented with lots of programs then do a search for the best top reforming prisons and it's unlikely you'll find such a program to watch not saying prisons aren't tough i'm not naive to that but tv strengthens the perception that we already have in my experience if you want to make a phone call they don't just hand you a phone the ceos create some kind of account for you to call out on the pay phone in the cell block and it takes hours i seriously waited like three hours to be able to make a collect call and found out my parent cell company doesn't take collect calls the reason for the accounts is the calls are recorded and they want to know who is making them and who they are calling also if the inmate has a victim crime they will block the victim's number so the inmate cannot call it and harass the person one of the most common misconceptions i noticed was everybody thought it was the most horrible time of my entire life everybody always told me how sorry they were that that happened to me due to the fact it was only a marijuana case that caught me three years the truth is that place helped me mature more in three years than i did in eight years of college and high school everybody assumes it's the most miserable three years of my life when in reality it was probably three of the best years of my life sure there are tons of things i missed and wish i could have had while i was incarcerated but there's also lots of things that stress me out day to day in the real world that were not there to bother me but the way i see it now is prison is only punishment if you do not use that time to better yourself and get your life back in order unless you're in a major metropolitan area gl is freaking boring and interesting criminals forget about it bunch of morons talking about the food in other jails they've been to and playing dominoes oh and legal advice guys in jail think they posses wise legal advice for some reason tv makes jail look really exciting like something is always going on someone fighting or you doing your trial or whatever the reality is jail is boring as crap and you spend so much time just waiting in limbo some of the jails i was in had nicer tvs than others the one i spent the most time in had an old school small bus tv with normal channels and it was locked high up on the wall outside the bars so you could possibly sew and watch the pictures but if you wanted to hear it you had to stand there with your face pressed against the bars there were cards but that gets sold no library at that jail although one jail i was it had a small selection of books including harry potter and the deathly hallows which i kept the whole time for comfort of that same jail had radios you could purchase on commissary for about 35 but the other jails i was a didn't you spend so much time waiting when you first get arrested you are waiting to go through the booking process which is about the most exciting thing to happen the whole time you wait to get dressed out in jail clothes you wait to see the judge for your arraignment and pray he releases you on an or bond when he inevitably doesn't you wait to be assigned to a cell you wait to get cleared by medical you wait to get assigned a public defender you wait to use the phone take a shower eat meals for me i was detoxing from h so once i would get past the original sickness i was starving all the time and we'd eat dinner at like 4 p.m and not eat again until 7am and i couldn't sleep due to the withdrawal so that was pretty brutal one jail i was at didn't have food on commissary they only sold hygiene products so all you could eat was what they gave you you wait for your next court date which might be a week to a couple months out you wait and hope for your family to come see you time just drags on and on and it's empty and meaningless so really the boredom the apathy the waiting that was all the worst for me i never got into a real fight myself although i did see others some cos were decent others were horrible horrible people most people in jail i knew slept about 16 hours a day cause what else can you do i hear prisoners better with more activities but i wouldn't personally know i spent four years as a guest of the government in a pa state prison personally i think what tv doesn't and really can't portray is the amount of painfully crippling boredom it would make for some really bad tv lol it's pretty weird actually you would think it would drag on because you're not having a good time but the months and years sort of just melt away jail sucks in my perspective because i live a relatively good life with a house a girlfriend loving family and friends on the outside but when i did a short stay in jail i found a lot of homeless and mentally ill alcoholic and drug abusers their perspective was that jail isn't that bad because at least they have a roof over their head three meals a day shower gym tv one homeless man that i befriended and there was a really nice guy he said he didn't want to be outside for winter so he did a petty crime got sentenced six months because of his history but he wasn't sad since he was going to miss all of winter i learned how to make a cribbage set out of a sandal a comb and toothpaste i learned how to turn a regular pencil into eyeliner i finally met other pinnacle players but it was tough to sleep they don't turn the lights off at night lots of girls slept on the floor there aren't enough beds it is freaking boring county jail is not a fun place to be when i was there it was 23 hours a day in your cell i couldn't wait to be moved to the actual jail where it was open dorms and not time to do what little you were permitted the bathrooms were also highly monitored only a few people were allowed in at a time as long as you were respectful and didn't try to cause trouble it was relatively safe only saw a couple scuffles and it was mostly over in a couple seconds the gangs intermingled as well skinheads and other races got along and hung out i think it was mostly a situation of we are cool but if you frick with me you have to deal with all of us i'd compare it to a summer camp you didn't want to be at you're fed clothed and given a place to sleep as long as you realize that you will be getting out eventually most of us you'll be fine federal is pretty oddly racially regionally divided not just hispanics go with hispanics but mexicans go with mexicans who grew up in ex-area a lot of times race didn't matter and it came down to where you're from there was a black guy in my dad's group of south texas mexicans because he spoke spanish and was from south texas interesting thing i didn't know the bosses of each group always had body guards from the group with them no matter what quick also respect is the most important thing you have in jail give it out and earn it it could quite literally save your life people need to understand that being in prison is better than being homeless we get housing guaranteed meals and showers healthcare and entertainment now try getting that in winter they never show anyone playing handball people in my pod played all the time including myself i was one of the best in there i can't move really fast for a fat guy they soon found out this would be the first post i see after nine days in the clink it's not that violent just really boring except for my second to last night when i witnessed an inmate get arrested for felony assault of an officer while already serving a one-year sentence that it sucks i've only done a few small stretches around two plus years apiece mind you but a few years inside isn't as bad as everyone thinks i got to read countless books get in the best shape of my life and have been motivated to succeed ever since i tell folks including professionally it was one of the best times of my life in retrospect of course but really your time is what you make it spent 23 days in jail drank instant coffee and had breakfast trade stories with other dudes in pod nap until lunch eat and shower read until dinner eat and play spades and watch tv until bedtime was the first time in years i had structure and quite mind in years lot of cool dudes in there they just made mistakes hope i never see any of them again but i will never forget some of them if you are new to the channel you can subscribe i publish new videos every day until then check another video [Music] bye for now

Channel: Updoot

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Keywords: prison, prison real life, prison reality show, prison reality tv, prison real life stories, prison real stories, #updootst, updoot, updoot reddit, updoot everything, reddit on tap, toadfilms, pewdiepie, reddit, askreddit, funny reddit, reddit stories, top posts, reddit top posts, reddit cringe, comedy, reddit compilation, /r, r/, r/askreddit, top posts of r/, askreddit reading, best reddit posts, top posts of all time, people of reddit, askreddit question, ask reddit, subreddit, sub

Id: SFLpXxgw1yo

Length: 25min 3sec (1503 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2020