Blog - Prison Insight

Protective Custody in Prison

By Natalie
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Did you know there is prison inside of a prison? You may have heard it called “the hole” or “the SHU” or “solitary confinement.” But all of those names are referring to one place inside of prison walls – administrative segregation (AdSeg). The specific name depends on the facility, but administrative segregation is always a […]

What is Prison Hooch and How do Inmates Make it?

There is an old saying that claims “necessity is the mother of invention.” The overwhelming evidence that proves that saying is true can be found behind prison walls. Inmates have extremely limited access to items that people in the free world take for granted. This means that everything is repurposed and nothing goes to waste. […]

Is Prison As Bad as People Say it is?

By Natalie
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When I went to prison, I had no idea what to expect. My only exposure to life behind bars was from TV and movies. And, as I’ve explained numerous times on PrisonInsight, Hollywood gets it extremely wrong. To my surprise, prisons aren’t filled with evil murderers and rapists. But please don’t misunderstand me – there […]

Are Prisoners Drafted For War?

By Natalie
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During most blog posts here on Prison Insight, I talk a lot about the things that prison inmates are not allowed to do. I also discuss the rights inmates lose when they are incarcerated as well as when they are released back into society as felons. Today, I am going to talk about something else […]

Why Are Inmates so Muscular?

By Natalie
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Whenever I choose a blog post topic, it is usually based on the questions we receive from our readers. But sometimes, I get inspiration by looking at the Google search trends to see the most frequently asked questions about prison. Today’s blog post is a result of those questions on Google. I chose this topic […]

What Happens if You Fight in Prison?

By Natalie
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There aren’t many things that are universal in American prisons. Every facility has their own way of doing things. Operations and inmate interactions depend on things like the facility’s security level and the housing set-up. Unfortunately, the one thing that you will find in every prison is violence. But inmates don’t usually fight with each […]

Can You Record Prison Visits?

By Natalie
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When you are preparing to visit someone in prison for the first time, you will most likely have a lot of questions. When you walk onto a DOC or BOP property, it’s a completely different world. There are rules about absolutely everything – even for the visitors from the free world. Before making it to […]

How do Inmates Manipulate Correctional Officers?

By Natalie
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It’s not a secret that plenty of crime goes on inside of prison walls. Some inmates are able to run criminal enterprises from their cell and smuggle drugs and cell phones, while others may have inappropriate relationships with officers, resulting in pregnancy. As a former inmate in a women’s prison, I can only speak to […]

Can a Disabled Person go to Jail?

For the past five decades, America has fallen in love with the idea of mass incarceration. The prison population in this country has skyrocketed since the beginning of the drug war, and one of the main reasons the numbers have gone down recently is because of COVID-19. We lock up a greater share of our […]

Why do Inmates go on Death Row?

By Natalie
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This week, the Federal Bureau of Prisons was scheduled to execute the first federal inmate in over 17 years, but a federal judge postponed it because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just three days ahead of convicted killer Daniel Lewis Lee’s execution, Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson from the Southern District of Indiana sided with the family of […]