What not to say, and who not to say it to (part 1 of 1)
federalprisondude.com/going-to-federal-prison/what-it-is-really-like/what-not-to-say

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
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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
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- 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
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Electronic messages (the inmate email/phone/money system, all
monitored) 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
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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.