Low security

# Doing time at a low

[The companion guides](/going-in/while-youre-in) cover what holds across the federal system. This one covers what is specific to a low security federal correctional institution — how you get sorted, how tight things are, how conflict actually happens, and what the economy looks like.

This is the guide I can write with the most confidence, because it is where I did my time.

Thirteen parts, written to be read in order. The rest of this page is the front matter: what this covers, and one thing to know before part one.

The frame

## Scope

Men's low security. Eighteen months, first-hand.

Lows vary more than people expect. Some are calm and loosely run. Some lock down at the slightest provocation. Mine was among the worst-run institutions in the system, which gave me a useful baseline but also means my normal may be harsher than yours. Where something is specific to a badly-run facility rather than to lows generally, it is marked.

This guide assumes you have read [While you're in](/going-in/while-youre-in), which covers everything that holds everywhere: the role, debt, information, the unwritten rules. This one only covers what a low changes.

Read this first

## A note about race

The population sorts into groups — cars (your social group inside) — organized largely along racial lines and then by region. This is more pronounced and more enforced at a low than at a camp.

I am describing a structure. I did not build it and I do not defend it. It is here because someone who arrives without knowing it misreads their first conversation and makes mistakes in week one that follow them for years. That is the only reason.

Start here

## The four things that matter most

If you read nothing else:

Cheat sheet

- **Plan around the fence.** Movement is scheduled, not open. Anything you need, you arrange in advance or not at all.
- **Answer the paperwork question plainly.** Name the offense, briefly. Vagueness is the only wrong answer.
- **Route disputes through your car.** Handling something yourself is what causes problems, not the reverse.
- **Do not discuss money.** Not what you had, not what you have, not your restitution number.

The guide

## The thirteen parts

### [What a low actually is](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/what-a-low-actually-is)

The fence, the compound behind it, and a population that surprises people: drug conspiracies, immigration, and almost no white collar.

### [The day](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/the-day)

Counts that stop everything, ten-minute movement windows, and why a remarkable portion of your sentence is spent waiting for a number.

### [Where you live](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/where-you-live)

Cells at some lows, open dorm cubes at others. The bunk, the locker, the property cap, and the small set of rules that make a cellmate work.

### [Your first days](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/your-first-days)

The intake staff do not conduct: the paperwork conversation, what people will assume about you, and what to say about your case afterward.

### [Cars at a low](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/cars-at-a-low)

What your car actually does, who the driver is, why your conduct lands on the group, and why none of it governs who you can be friends with.

### [Coexistence](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/coexistence)

A large share of a low's population is serving time for sex offenses, and everyone shares the same compound. The rules, and the uncomfortable part.

### [Staff at a low](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/staff-at-a-low)

Officers here mostly want a quiet shift. The visibility problem, and why you bring a witness to anything beyond a passing exchange.

### [How conflict actually happens](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/how-conflict-actually-happens)

Debt, property, the phone, and the television. The slow escalation pattern, what to do when it starts, and what a twenty-second fight costs.

### [Shakedowns, the hole, and lockdowns](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/shakedowns-the-hole-and-lockdowns)

Searches with no notice, the special housing unit and what it stops, and the compound closures that vary more by facility than anything else.

### [The economy at a low](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/the-economy-at-a-low)

Ordinary services run at ordinary prices. Everything contraband costs more, because the fence is priced in. Phones, minutes, packs, and tobacco.

### [Jobs and programming](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/jobs-and-programming)

Food service, orderly, maintenance, warehouse, education, UNICOR. Ask early, and do the near-useless classes anyway — they are your credits.

### [Getting to a camp from a low](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/getting-to-a-camp)

If no public safety factor holds you, clean time can move you down. How the review works, what to push on, and what nobody can sell you.

### [The honest comparison](/going-in/security-levels/at-a-low/the-honest-comparison)

What is worse than a camp, what is better than people expect, and the thing that actually gets you. It is not what the films taught you.

**Need help with this? Just ask.**

These pages cover the general rules. Your situation has details they don't. Email me a question. **Answers are free** , and "you don't need to pay anyone for this" is my most common answer.

[josh@federalprisondude.com](mailto:josh@federalprisondude.com?subject=Low%20security%20question)

I answer in the order received, usually within a couple of days. I have a day job. If your situation genuinely needs more than an email, I take a limited number of consults, so say so and we'll work it out.