While you're in federal prison

Information and trust

Assume that nothing you say stays where you said it. That is not paranoia. It is a structural feature of a place where several hundred bored people have nothing to trade but information.

The mechanism

The telephone game

The telephone game is played constantly in prison and it is played badly. Information moves fast, arrives distorted, and gains detail as it travels. Something you said quietly to one person in January will come back to you in March as something you did not say, attributed to a conversation you do not remember having.

This is not paranoia and it is not unique to any one facility. It is a structural feature of a place where several hundred bored people have nothing to trade but information.

Off the table

What never gets discussed

Cooperation — yours, anyone else's, or as an abstract topic;
the specifics of anyone's case, including your own beyond the basics;
your finances or your family's;
anything you would not want repeated to the person it is about;
and anything you would not want a staff member to hear.

On paper

Written material is not private

Electronic messages are monitored and stored. Mail is inspected. Phone calls are recorded. And anything sitting in your locker — letters, notes, a journal — can be read during a shakedown and will be if it looks interesting.

If you keep a journal, write it knowing someone will eventually read it. Most people who get into trouble over written material did not think anyone was paying attention.

The part people skip

Do not repeat things either

Carrying news is a losing position. Whoever delivers a piece of information becomes the person associated with it, and if it turns out to be wrong — and much of it is wrong — that lands on the carrier, not on whoever made it up three tiers back.

Being known as someone who does not repeat things is one of the very few durable reputations worth having, and it is built entirely by saying nothing on a large number of occasions.

Keep reading — part 6 of 9

Working with staff

Start from one assumption and most of this follows: staff will do the minimum required of them, and when they do not, there is no meaningful recourse.

For your people

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.

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

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.

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If this helped, it will help someone else too.