The day
The schedule is the architecture of your life here, and it is not negotiable.
Counts
If the count does not clear, they recount. A bad count can absorb hours. You will spend a genuinely remarkable portion of your sentence waiting for a number.
Controlled movement
At most lows you move between buildings during a window at the top of the hour, usually about ten minutes. Outside that window you are where you are supposed to be. This is
It means planning: if you need the law library and your work assignment ends at the wrong time, that is a problem you solve in advance or not at all.
The rest of it
Chow three times a day, run by unit or by rotation. Work assignment.
Weekly unit inspections are common, and at many facilities the cleanest unit goes to chow and commissary first. That matters more than it sounds like — going last regularly means the stock has run out.
Where you live
Cells or cubicles, depending on the facility. Either way: a bunk, a locker, one other man, and the question of where your space ends.
Hand the rest of this site to your family
You will not be able to look things up once you're inside. They can, and this is where: everything written for the one waiting — a twelve-part guide to mail, visiting, money, and your release date, plus their own FAQ and checklist. Alongside it, a guide to every facility with email alerts when visiting stops, the support group directory, calculators for your release math, and free answers when they have questions.
Send them the link before you report, not after they can't reach you.
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.
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.
Somebody else just found out they got a low. Pass it on.