IamA former prison inmate currently struggling to stay clean AMA!

Is it difficult to stay clean in prison? Are the services given to you in prison to stay clean effective? Are some groups in prison easier or better to be around to help you keep clean? (religious inmates?)

Yes, because there are drugs everywhere and when you come from money like me people will front you ANYTHING you want. I've been $1k in debt before and the people weren't even worried about me paying. Drugs are so expensive in prison though it's hard to have a -real- habit. A gram of heroin is like $1k, a gram of weed maybe $100. That's buying in bulk though. A $10 fold of weed is maybe 0.05 grams. It's the stuff you would wipe off your shirt when rolling a joint in the world.

NA in prison is a fucking joke. People take it just to get the certificate and show the parole board. The guy that ran NA was in my cube (8 man cell where the walls only go like 8 feet high inside a giant polebarn) and we used to get high together all the time. We would shoot suboxone and heroin. He smoked weed with me a few times too.

It's funny what you say about religious inmates. You must not know about prison culture. Religious inmates = pedophiles. Most people I knew that were actually religious wouldn't even go to church services because it was all chomos. The sex offender unit was next to the school building where church was held. When church let out you'd see a line of a hundred sex offenders walking like ants from church back to their unit.

EDIT: Thanks for the first question, homie!

This comment actually really surprises me because I always thought debt was a huge deal in prison.

It is a huge deal, I was just always able to pay. Imma catch some sleep though guys! I promise to reply to every question.

If you come from money, why are you living in a crack motel?

My grandparents are millionaires. I moved to Ypsilanti to get away from saginaw and stay clean. They pay for my motel after i moved out of he sober house

It's funny you say that about religion in prison. I worked as a C/O for a few years in WA state, and we all hated having to work in the chapel due to all the chimos wanting to chat us up.

What's interesting though is all the undercover chimos who would get gang tats and pretend they were hard. I remember one guy who had "white rage" tatted on his arms, only to find out he had molested his 4 year old daughter. It was pretty funny watching him have to start going to the SOTP, since everyone in the yard can see the walk of shame.

The walk of shame! Hahaha! They made E Unit sex offender only for "SOP" which is sounds like your SOTP. We saw guys we'd NEVER think had those kinds of cases do the walk of shame across the yard with their tote.

The only thing I know about prison is what I've seen from the show Oz. So I know nothing. Im not religious, Im just curious if they are more or less likely to use religiobln as a crutch.

It doesn't seem like they're really doing anything(not surpising). So what do you think they should be doing? What do people need on the inside to help them? What can prisons reasonably do to help people who want to be helped?

Oz is awesome! Child molesters almost always go to religion. In county jail a lot of people read like 2 sentences out of the bible a night. I never understood this.

Most people in prison are scum, just being honest. They don't want to change. I think they should offer more vocational training and education. For the few people that DO want to change there aren't many resources. My friend was a tutor in prison (worlds hardest job, the lady that taught Helen Keller had an easier job than teaching these morons) and he said there were guys that had been in the GED class for 5+ years. They refuse to do the work. People that aren't retarded finish it in a matter of weeks. A lot of guys will literally go to the class for years without doing work instead of just getting it over with. I don't get why because I believe you have to sit in the class like 4 or 5 hours a week, even if you don't want to. So why not just get it finished.

What's prison like? Is it boring? What did you do to keep busy? Also, how did you get in touch with Oxycontin?

I was prescribed Vicodin for a bullshit eye infection when I was 15. First time I ever got high and I LOVED it. I didn't meet people that did drugs until a year later and I sought out opiates because I knew how they made me feel. I got Oxies from black dudes in the hood that knew old ladies that were prescribed them. It was a very common hustle for older women in the hood who were struggling with money.

County jail is boring. Four walls just staring at you. In county jail you look up at the TV and Transformers is on. You read your book, play a few games of cards, write a letter to your girl, call home, take a shower, jerk off, take a shit, talk with your friend, wash your clothes, then look up... and the same fucking movie is still on TV... it's only been 40 minutes.

A day in prison for me went like this:

Wake up at 10:30am or so, make a quick cup of coffee before count at 11. You have to be inside your cube for count which runs for like an hour. At noon when yard opened I'd go eat lunch. After that yard was open until 4. I'd hang out with friends, play sports, whatever. Count again then dinner. At night yard I would usually get my workout in for most of the time, then bullshit with my friends and walk laps for the rest of yard until 9:30. The best shows usually come on at 10pm so I'd watch something like Sons of Anarchy or Breaking Bad until 11pm. Adult swim until midnight which is when they make you shut your TV off. The COs would do a round and we'd smoke a cigarette or weed if we had it. Then I'd usually read for an hour. I made a GIANT post about books in prison, you might be able to see it in my history. Some nazi mod removed it though I think.

Has your time in prison effected the way you view the outside world?

I was kind of racist for a while when I came home. Being white you are targeted. I also think people cry too much over small things. You know how miserable it is to be dope sick on a concrete floor? Knowing you're going to prison?

Also it made me view racism in an interesting perspective. Blacks run michigan prisons and victimize white people. Do they do it because they're black? No, because I'm sure if white people ran prison they would do the same thing back. I feel like it's almost human nature for the dominant group to try to hold back others.

what group where you the most afraid of ?

I mean, no one really. I didn't put myself into too many problems. I guess the black muslims because they run prison and there's like 500 of them on a 1700 man yard.

What security level was your prison (or section of the prison)?

Does Michigan have different security levels, and what are those?

Thanks!

Level 1. Michigan has 1 - When yard is open you can go in and out as you please, 8 man cube setting 2 - 2 man cell. Controlled movement, which means when they call "yard out" you have to go out, or stay inside. You can't just walk back an dforth in and out.

no level 3

4 - Locked in your cell 23 hours a day

5 aka IMAX - locked in 24 hours a day.

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I don't get what you're asking. My best friend was a Molenic (sp?) but for the most part I didn't fuck with the black muslims. Many of them are racist towards whites, but definitely not all. I could write a lot about the different muslim groups in prison. They're really just gangs. There is one group, I wanna say The Nation of Islam or the Sunnis that was actually trying to help put the younger black kids on a better path. I really respected them for that despite the fact they hated white people, haha.

Pookie and RayRay, you aint lying. I do have a job though, I've always kept a job. Thank you for the kidn words.