LIFE IN FEDERAL PRISON          What is your image of prison life? Most Americans have gotten their ideas about prison life from Hollywood images. Unfortunately, these images are not very useful in facing the true obstacles of life in prison. The person facing prison for the first time would do himself/herself a favor by putting his/her preconception about prison on a shelf, and living in reality rather than Hollywood’s images, and arm him/herself with factual data and support to abolish the fear of the upcoming aggressive unknown.        You can overcome the difficulties of life in prison. Thousands of people do it everyday, and many of those who are living life triumphantly in prison are not the ones with all the money and education. You can do it; you can be successful, but it isn’t just going to happen. You must take control of what you can influence, rather than letting events you can't control, control you. You may have to reach into yourself and be tough, have courage, be teachable, be street-smart, and embrace a positive attitude rather than sinking into a pity party.

August 2006, Robert During Incarceration Big Spring Federal Correctional Institution

     How do you keep your head when a system is designed to grind up your self esteem? You have to know yourself and your value as a person. Those who recognize they have a value are often the one's who don't let the system grind them into becoming institutionalized criminals or become over powered by the harded criminals. Institutionalized is a prison slang word used to describe an inmate's state of mind who has been locked down for an extended amount of time. An up-to-date list of Prison Slang Words and Terminology is available.

     If you allow the system to have its full impact on you emotionally, and spiritually, it will institutionalize you, criminalize you. Prison may simply become a school for learning crime. Most people that are sucked into the system never get out. The recidivism rate of people released and coming back to prison is exceptionally high. It is between 8 out of 10 to perhaps 9 out of 10 coming back. And many come back within the first year of being released.

     Why? Because the B.O.P. does not try to rehabilitate, they foremost are designed to warehouse people. Many prisons are actually controlled quietly by the inmates. “Shot-callers”, the different cliques, run each group of inmates. While the prison staff maintains a general loose control over the inmates, in most prisons the real control is held by inmates.  

     If the inmate is able to go to a low or camp facility, he/she may escape the tight controls that inmates have over a facility. Lest you think that it is wrong for inmates to run the day-to-day affairs of inmate life, just accept the fact that prison staff quietly acknowledges inmate shot-callers and work with them.

     In reality, there are the written laws, and then there are the inmates’ self administered laws of the jungle. Laws, within laws, within laws. It can be rather bewildering to some inmates to decide who to obey. Each inmate works out how close he/she wants to work with his/her religion, the prison staff, and the inmate cliques. Do not join an inmate clique unless you want that for the rest of your life. Once you are identified as a gang member, the “jacket” will be left on you by both staff and inmates. The B.O.P. is tightening up on gang members. Once an inmate is a member of a gang clique, it may mean losing your life to leave. Do not casually become a snitch or openly work with prison staff, doing so, especially as a snitch may mean losing your life. After a person is identified as a snitch, he/she is usually “PC’d Up”, and sent to the hole to do his/her time in relative safety from the general prison population.

     You don’t have to necessarily do the journey of prison life alone. Many people transitioning into prison life have never been down the road before, and don’t know what to expect. New inmates stand out like a sore thumb, and can best be characterized as the age old saying of  'like a deer caught in the headlights'. McDorman & Associates can help you and assist in understanding the mindset of prison culture so the transition is smoother.

     Many inmates have more resources available than they realize, but if the system has its full impact, they will lose their resources outside of prison. Prison is much more manageable if the inmate has human and other resources on the outside. This one single point is invaluable to the inmate's incarceration success or failure.

     Managing one’s resources wisely can be assisted by McDorman & Associates. For instance, don’t burn your bridges with your family and friends. One reason inmates sink into institutional behavior is they have burned the bridges to people on the outside. The inmates get into a ‘they against us’ attitude, and become anti-society, viewing society as the enemy. They may not even realize they have adopted this attitude. Due to the constant negative and demoralizing environment in which they are surrounded.

     The inmate needs to understand and accept as each month goes by his/her family and/or friends will lose interest and compassion for his/her situation and will gradually distance their selves from the inmate. Most family and/or friends right away regardless of the strong tie will turn their backs on the inmate almost immediately, such as "out of sight, out of mind". This can best be characterized as the family member(s) who become hospitalized, at first the whole family and social entourage come to visit, but as time passes the interest of the hospitalized one's survival needs are quickly forgotten and the moral support goes by the wayside. The hospitalized falls into the laws of the jungle, 'the well leave and distance themselves from the sick and weak with little compassion or concern for their existence or mere survival'. 
     

The unwritten inmate rules will vary from institution to institution, and from region to region. If you eat or associate very much with other races; it could mean losing your life at some institutions. Watch what the other inmates are doing and then decide where you fit into prison society. Perhaps you want to deal with all races and religions, as Robert McDorman did. Perhaps you become involved in the chapel, or education department or some job or organization that provides you with an excuse to spend time with other races and religions. This is where Robert can help with your early transition success to prison life.       Prison life can best be described by the common parable of “the young boy who crossed the broad, swift river”. The further from the bank the boy got, the swifter the current and undertow became, and the quicker the passing debris that passed. In order for the boy to successfully make it to the other side, he had to quickly learn to drift

August 2006 Big Spring, Texas

with the current, and not fight the undertow, or he would surely drowned. If he did not navigate through the passing debris successfully he would surely die. This is much the way of prison life, if you fight the system, you will die. If you learn to drift with the flow and not get caught in the debris, you will survive. Allow McDorman & Associates to help you not drowned or be struck by an object as you enter the prison system.

     Realize that some inmates will never extend complete trust and a close friendship to anyone in prison. Some people enjoy being miserable, don’t be ‘Mr./Ms. Congeniality’ by always singing and smiling, this may be taken offensively. Respect the fact that miserable people want to be miserable, and treat them the way they want to be treated, with extreme caution and discipline.

     An important thing Robert McDorman can do to help a defendant is to help one properly transition into an institutional society, a new culture. An inmate's successful or unsuccessful transition into incarceration life is ultimately decided the first three to five days of incarceration. Don't be the unsuccessful one. Let McDorman & Associates help remove the fear of the unknown and help you overcome your justifiable fears.

The best way to solve trouble is to avoid it altogether. In the prison, RDAP, is a drug program that teaches inmates to overcome drug addictions. The inmates are taught to walk away from fights. It takes a strong person to walk away from a fight. If you want to fight every obnoxious person, you will have more fights on your hands than you have time for. The inmates have to have a balanced approached to dealing with other inmates and staff. Choose the battles wisely or there will be constant conflict and problems. Let Robert assist you with this essential balance needed to survive.      Avoid making enemies. Avoid disrespecting anyone. This means saying “I’m sorry” if you bump into someone. Also, don’t over crowd others, criminals need more space for their comfort zone than the average person. Avoid saying anything that may be misunderstood. In tense situations, people are more apt to misunderstand than in a situation where close friends are interacting. Many inmates believe that one never has a friend in prison.

August 2006 Big Spring, Texas

Revised September 17, 2006.