#LifeAfterPrison #PrisonExperience #Reentry #PrisonLife #SecondChances
🔗 Life After Prison: Understanding the Challenges and Struggles
For the people who have been to prison, the experience can be incredibly challenging and life-altering. While every individual’s experience may vary, there are common themes and struggles that many people face during and after their time behind bars. In this article, we’ll explore some of the worst things about being in prison, as well as the difficulties that arise during the reentry process into society.
Understanding the Challenges of Prison Life
For those who have experienced time in prison, the impact can be profound. Here are some of the worst things about being in prison:
1. Loss of freedom: Perhaps the most obvious and difficult aspect of being in prison is the loss of freedom. Being confined to a small space with limited access to the outside world can be incredibly isolating and disheartening.
2. Lack of privacy: In a prison setting, privacy is virtually nonexistent. From sharing living quarters to being constantly monitored by guards, individuals in prison have little to no personal space.
3. Violence and danger: Many prisons are rife with violence and danger, both from other inmates and from prison staff. This constant threat can create a pervasive sense of fear and anxiety.
4. Limited access to resources: In prison, individuals often have limited access to education, healthcare, and supportive services. This can make it incredibly difficult to address physical and mental health needs or to prepare for a successful reentry into society.
Navigating Life After Prison
The challenges don’t end once a person is released from prison. The reentry process can be just as daunting, with a new set of obstacles to overcome. Here are some of the struggles that individuals may face after leaving prison:
1. Finding employment: Many employers are hesitant to hire individuals with a criminal record, making it difficult for former inmates to find stable employment.
2. Rebuilding relationships: The stigma of having been in prison can strain existing relationships and make it challenging to establish new ones.
3. Housing insecurity: Securing stable housing can be a major challenge for people leaving prison, as many landlords are hesitant to rent to individuals with a criminal history.
4. Access to support services: Despite the need for support services, many individuals struggle to access necessary resources such as mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and reentry programs.
Moving Forward and Finding Support
While the challenges of life after prison can seem overwhelming, it’s important to remember that there is support available. Whether through community organizations, government programs, or personal networks, there are resources to help individuals navigate the reentry process and build a successful life after prison.
By seeking out support and staying resilient, individuals can overcome the worst aspects of prison and create a brighter future for themselves. With the proper support and determination, it’s possible to move past the difficulties of prison and build a fulfilling and meaningful life after reentering society.
In conclusion, the worst thing about being in prison is the profound loss of freedom and the myriad challenges that arise both during and after the incarceration period. By understanding these struggles and seeking out the necessary support, individuals can overcome these obstacles and build a successful life after prison. Remember, everyone deserves a second chance, and with the right resources and determination, it’s possible to create a bright future after experiencing time behind bars.
They have animals behind cages but it’s nothing like the zoo.
We feared the COs more than fellow inmates. If you anger them they can absolutely make your life hell and there’s little to no recourse.
Oh, and they get **creative** too. Forget about “No cruel and unusual punishment.” We’ve seen the news stories about prisoners dying locked in scalding showers and the COs barely even get in trouble then, so don’t think anything’s going to happen when you report them!
The worst I saw was a cellmate who got in a fight, and was punished later than evening by being ordered to lie down in the cell (face-up, sitting on hands), while the K-9…used the restroom on him. 🤮🤮
The dementors.
Spent 2 years in SC. It’s always loud. Not like the movies, no one ever sleeps a good nights rest. The food starts its bland taste 4 months in, and it never changes after that.
Being put on a “Disciplinary Diet” for a week.
They had decided Nutraloaf wasn’t gross enough so switched to something just called “Slop.”
It was made much like pig slop – take edible kitchen scraps (both from the prison kitchen and I think even some outside restaurants donated), mix with slightly-sour milk (too off to drink but not yet rotten), blend it into a smoothie, boil it to kill germs, and serve.
Sometimes they would add in a bunch of vinegar at the end too before serving, to make it even less palatable.
Leaving it. Just joking around, can ignore.
Was in military one, was given enough money for either pack of cigarettes or 5 minute call, so cigarettes and chess all day.
Where I grew up (rural-ish Agentina) they believed in short, but very punishing jail sentences for minor-medium crimes.
Specifically, the jail cells stunk to high hell. They sprayed them all with “ferret musk” or “mink musk,” whatever that is? I think it was real, since there was a mink farm not too far away.
Whatever it was is unbearable. I served 3 days there and I’ve never felt so nauseous in my life. You can taste the musk in the air.
I still can’t visit people’s homes with ferrets…it’s a little like that, but way more pungent and 1000 times stronger in those cells.
The people you have to hang around with
Walking out the gates with nothing and no place to go
My friend didn’t mention this being the worst thing but it’s got to be in the top two…..”being in the bottom bunk and having someone in the top bunk farting two feet away from your head.”
My best bud has been to prison in Canada. His experience was not bad at all. He loves bringing up being captain of the ball hockey team
It’s very similar to the military. Neverending boredom punctuated by brief moments of extreme violence.
There is a lot of fantasy and bullshit in here.
Gruel sandwiches
Anyone 18 and over with a GED can become a CO by attending a 6 week academy. Fully paid. You have to not show up in order to fail. The bar is very low.
I’ve been a hostage, which is better than prison in some ways but worse in others. The way it is worse (other than things like gunfights, starving or hypothermia) is that you can get your head blown off at any moment, for any reason. I had already seen that happen to another hostage who wasn’t needed anymore, so that level of uncertainty hanging over you is pretty rough. Got to a point that I thought an hour had gone by when it had been seven minutes.
Used to be a CO, the worst thing about it, for me, was how filthy and dirty it is. And there’s a weird smell, like a dank locker room where no one showers.
I know a guy who committed financial fraud and got medium security prison for 6 years. He said the worst part was the nonstop noise from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Couldn’t find a minute of quiet to just be alone with his thoughts for a few hours. Even reading was impossible.
Rehearsal for the annual prison musical.
The sounds. It really carries far in lonely empty corridors and cells. It’s like having a radio you can’t shut out. 24-7.
You actually get used to the 24 x 7 noise (including snoring at night) and the smell, but you never get used to the absolute soul-sucking boredom.
Prison Mike said it was horrible
The hypocrisy.
Know a few people who were COs and other who were inmates.
Most the complaints I’ve hear are about how stupid every one are. Huge idiots everywhere
What hurts the most is the lack of [respect.](https://youtu.be/Sczun-f_Uiw?si=I3N-3ae0fQAR7t1v)
Being innocent?
I went for a job interview at a prison if it counts, any the worst thing I saw was a guy who had serious psychiatric issues, anyway he’d carved a hole into his own tummy that wouldn’t heal properly as he was always hiding stuff in there. One day he tried to hide a little towel or something in there and apparently bits of it had started fusing to him inside. Pretty much noped out of that job.
I’ve only been to jail for a short time but I feel like the claustrophobia is not talked about much. It was literally torture for me, I was counting minutes til I got bailed out. I guess it’s obvious if you’re locked in a room but yea it’s not as easy as just sitting and waiting. Maybe you get used to it
Waking up to get counted. Every morning I would wake up to “count time, count time” over the speaker. I would have an instant realization that I was still locked up. Lousy feeling to wake up to.
Also getting locked in my cell at night. I’d have an uneasy feeling that I’d never see that door open again. Oh and no women. Can’t forget that
My friend went to jail for a crime he didnt commit, but he was given jobs. Like haircuts. And food delivery to the womens side of the county jail.
The police officers routinely raped the women.
But uh..in before a friend of mine…/irony
The amount of unpredictable crazy people in prison. Since most state run hospitals are shutdown, many mental health consumers are handled in the criminal justice system. These people are on cell blocks and can snap at the slightest thing.
The dementors were the worst.
The boredom.
There is no mental stimulation at all.
Why not just get pre-trial release like all people facing multiple indictments??
Oh I’m from Belarus so there was plenty. Prison wards would pour bleach on the floor every day “to prevent COVID spreading”. Or beat us up and leave barefoot in a dark dank concrete cell. Or just leave lights and loud music for a couple of days. Shut the water off for weeks. But the worst part was listening to them talking to each other or other prisoners, debating about politics and democracy.
Having your sentence extended for disciplinary violations. Especially if you were close to your release date.
The worst thing for me was the fact that I couldn’t get up at 3 o’clock and go to the store for whatever I want. It’s the confinement that makes it so hard. I did 13 years.
The worst part was the hypocrisy.