How Do You Pass Time in Jail?
How Do You Pass Time in Jail?Life in jail can be quite boring hence inmates must find ways to pass the time. While television programs portray jail as a horrifying, even medieval realm of brutality and humiliation, reality differs significantly from media portrayals. When you’re in jail, you don’t have the freedom to do anything you want. It means that you cannot participate in the normal activities you’d engage in while out of jail. These activities include watching movies, playing soccer or travelling. As a result, boredom is a major experience for inmates. It makes life hard for prisoners to the extent that it might result in psychological issues such as depression and suicidal thoughts. Consequently, boredom leads to vices such as prison fights and drug use by the prisoner.
Survival and passing time are a piece of cake for a creative prisoner. The following are some suggestions for dealing with boredom in prison.
Working Out to Keep Fit
Exercising is a great way to occupy your mind. In addition, it is an excellent way to stay fit and healthy therefore avoiding doctor appointments. Even without access to any modern instruments, you will be able to do basic stretching, aerobics, and strength training exercises while in jail. The workouts are a wonderful method to pass time while simultaneously strengthening your muscles. Even if you don’t want to get into any fistfights while you’re already in jail, you should always be on the lookout for any violent prisoners. Nevertheless, when it comes down to it, you will be able to protect yourself physically.
Writing Letters
In jail, access to phones and email is highly restricted, with mobile phones almost entirely prohibited. Inmates are only left with traditional ways of communication. Writing letters is crucial for the survival of prisoners. They are in a constant urge to communicate with their families back at home. Writing letters occupies the minds of the inmates, which keeps them away from psychological problems such as depression.
Having a Book and a Pen
These are important necessities for an inmate to help them in the course of their stay in jail. There are many things that a person can do with a book and a pen. For instance, some people find their comfort in art. Therefore, they draw different things they can only express on paper. Moreover, the inmates use the book and pen to plan their future by writing strategizing on how to start their lives after prison.
Additionally, some of the inmates will use books and pens to write songs and poems.
Practicing to be a Jailhouse Lawyer
Convicts with academic qualifications may qualify for the position of a jailhouse lawyer. A jailhouse lawyer is a person who helps other inmates with legal issues such as writing appeals, filing lawsuits, or reading case law. A desire to assist other prisoners and strong reading and reasoning abilities are the requirements of jailhouse attorneys.
The Supreme Court has acknowledged the necessity for jailhouse attorneys since many prisoners are unable to read or cannot afford to hire a counsel to represent them. Many states exclude prison attorneys from licensure requirements if they are assisting poor prisoners who have no other options.
Applying for this position is an important way to pass time as an inmate, which will even expose you to the outside world for employment.
Board Games
One of the best ways to pass the time in prison is to play board games such as chess with fellow inmates. This activity is common in all prisons across the different states. Chess is not only a good way to pass the time, but it may also help with strategic thinking.
Inmate Christopher Schuhmacher of California’s San Quentin State Jail had this to say about chess in prison: “To pass the time during my first few years in prison, I played chess for long hours. I’ve been playing a mail-based game with my father since 2006!”
Gambling
Gambling in jail is technically illegal. However, due to the unenforceable nature of this rule, most jails ignore this activity. The prison staff watch on as prisoners play cards for wagers, operate bookmaking businesses, or bet on prison events.
Inmates will bet on commissary scrip, money saved, cigarettes, and, most often, food. Problems with prisoners gambling away their meals have necessitated tighter wagering restrictions. Meanwhile, many prisons offer decks of cards, including images of cold cases, to elicit memories from inmates. In the end, many inmates become great card players while serving their sentences.
Take Advantage of Prison Programs
Every correctional facility offers a variety of programs to improve the well-being of its inmates. These may include income-generation programs, educational programs, and rehabilitative activities. These programs are vital in seeing through an inmate’s imprisonment life. Some of these programs are optional for the inmates. Prisoners take advantage of these programs rather than spending time in their cells.
Reading Books
Large libraries are common in prisons, with a variety of charities and religious groups collecting books for donation. Due to the lack of electronics for prisoners, they typically have a lot of time to kill. However, many books, ranging from those about gay relationships to gang-related literature, are prohibited in prison libraries.
Apart from the prison library, some jails allow family members to bring only important books to detainees. As such, these inmates have adequate access to important information. For this reason, the idea for the prohibition of access to books to inmates in 2014 faced a lot of criticism. Human rights groups deemed it a pointless and counterproductive move to interfere with basic inmate necessities.
Running and Jogging Activities
While working out in jail is a popular hobby, a few facilities allow prisoners to go beyond it. San Quentin hosts a marathon once a year. During this activity, inmates run 105 laps around the prison’s uneven, rocky grounds, covering about 26.2 miles. Additionally, Salem, Oregon prisons hold regular themed five-kilometer and 10-kilometer races for prisoners on good conduct. These activities are important ways to pass the time for the inmate. Moreover, they reduce the chances of recidivism by keeping the inmates preoccupied.
Master Marketable Skills
While the prison industrial complex is a contentious topic, with some campaigners classifying it as a step beyond slave labor, other inmates make it more personal to them.
Tennessee inmates make wooden toys for children in need. On the other side, prisoners in Colorado and California produce small-batch goods like juice and other foodstuffs. The American Printing House for the Blind employs prisoners to assist in creating textbooks for blind learners. In addition, a Colorado prison produces high-quality fiberglass canoes, while the Prison Blue Jeans Factory in Missouri produces high-quality jeans for ranchers and farmers.
According to a RAND Corporation study, inmates who acquire a vocational skill while in prison show a 43 percent recidivism risk reduction. Additionally, they earn $3-$4 for every dollar invested in their training. Training in anything from metalwork to deep-sea oil rig maintenance is available in prisons throughout the states.
Engaging in these activities is important in building the CV of the inmate. The inmates earn a living while in prison while engaging in activities that better their future.
Enrolling for Prison College Studies
Numerous studies show that prisoners who continue their education while behind bars, from obtaining a GED to enrolling in advanced college courses, reap significant benefits. There is a decrease in recidivism and a reduction in sentence length for such inmates. Furthermore, the cost of giving a college education to a prisoner is much less than the expense of keeping them locked up.
In 1994, Congress enacted legislation that made it impossible for inmates to receive Pell Grants to continue their education. After 20 years, a pilot program was enacted to provide scholarships to inmates who are due to be released within five years.
Becoming a Trustee
Inmates who volunteer to perform odd tasks around the cell block in return for time off their sentence or other benefits are known as prison trustees. However, being a trustee requires caution. In some jails, trustees effectively control the cell block, while in others, they are seen as collaborators and snitches. As a result, they might get harmed by fellow inmates or face seclusion.
Spending Time Watching Television
Inmates are increasingly getting permission to have small televisions in their cells, while some have huge common areas with televisions. Many inmates claim to spend hours watching television. However, they typically only have access to broadcast networks rather than cable. Cable televisions are expensive, and taxpayers don’t want to believe that their money goes towards making jail life more pleasant. Moreover, prisons do not filter the television channels they receive as it is time-consuming
There are also DVDs available, but typically nothing R-rated.
Sports and Recreation Activities
Sports help prisoners to help reduce tension and violence inside the facility. Basketball, tennis, billiards, and puzzles, and games are all available. The activities are intended to encourage inmates to live healthy lives in order to reduce medical expenses. The jails include team activities to promote good social skills, while fitness programs help prisoners create a better self-image.
All of the prisoners get recreation time. This is the time for them to hone their skills and abilities. Every individual has a creative streak. You can sew, knit, paint, and learn to play an instrument, among other things. Hobbies require time to develop, which forces you to practice patience. Hobbies help to soothe tense nerves.
Engage in Spiritual Activities
Inmates have religious freedom. All prisoners are allowed to practice their religion’s rites, with orderly behavior monitored by prison officials. Every jail and penal farm has a religious guidance advisor or priest. The jail chaplain sets up every regular spiritual activity. He is an institution official in charge of the prison chapel’s functioning.
Baptism or other sacraments may be administered to inmates. RVOs (Religious Volunteer Officers) from various Christian organizations lead weekly religious events such as bible studies, devotions, prayer sessions, and praise and worship. With a majority of the jail population being Roman Catholic, a Catholic Mass is a regular part of the spiritual activities of the prison communities. However, restrictions are enforced if security is jeopardized during religious activities or if a program is excessively costly.
Write Books
Hundreds of well-known pieces of literature are products of prisoners. While in a Spanish debtors’ jail, Cervantes wrote Don Quixote. In addition, Martin Luther King, Jr. authored Letters from Birmingham Jail, and Nelson Mandela wrote his autobiography while in prison in South Africa.
More notoriously, when Adolf Hitler was imprisoned for his attempted coup, he dictated Mein Kampf. At the same time, Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich was penned while the Nazi architect was imprisoned in Spandau Prison.
The reason for the creativity is that inmates usually have plenty of time to recollect their thoughts without outside pressure. The educational programs also play a key role in helping inmates improve their creativity.
Learning Yoga
Yoga Behind Bars, a Seattle initiative, teaches male and female prisoners yoga, meditation, and breathing techniques. The following are some of the advantages that yoga benefits inmates with:
Physical Therapy
Many convicts have been physically abused. However, jails often lack the medical treatment that these inmates need to heal and manage their suffering. Painkillers are costly and addictive; in fact, for people in recovery from addiction, they may not be a choice at all. Yoga helps individuals heal faster by increasing circulation and boosting blood flow to damaged regions while relaxing and strengthening muscles.
The elderly in jail often face neglect, but yoga may offer an easy-on-the-joints workout that keeps the body supple.
Mental Health
There is no denying that there is a mental disease pandemic in jails, with few prisoners receiving the mental health treatment they need. Yoga is a low-cost technique for prisoners to aid with their mental health management. The endorphins due to the exercise may have a significant effect on mental health.
According to research conducted by the University of Oxford, prisoners who participate in a regular yoga program have reduced psychological discomfort and anxiety rates, better moods, and greater attention. Less worry and psychological suffering frees up energy that prisoners may employ to better themselves.
A is for Art. Always Available.
B is for Burpees. By the Billion.
C is for Chess. Checkmate or Checkers
D is for Distilling.
E is for Eating. Everything Eventually.
F is for Fighting. Fists to Face.
G is for Gangs, Gangrene, and Gawking at anyone female.
H is for Hootch. Homemade Hangovers.
I is for Instant coffee, Islam, and Irritability.
J is for “Justice” and other Juvenile myths.
K is for… actual Killing. 😉
L is for Let the Loser guards Learn the hard way.
M is for Marijuana. Making Munchies. Mo fo!
N is for Neglect and Nicking whatever ain’t Nailed down.
O is for Overhearing stuff you wish you hadn’t.
P is for Poker. Pay or Pain.
Q is for Quiet… remember what that was like? Yeah. Me neither.
R is for Reading. ‘till Retinas Reel.
S is for Spades. Somewhat Sick of that game.
T is for Television till neurons flat line.
U is for feeling Useless, Unwanted, and Unforgiven.
V is for Visits. If you’re lucky.
W is for Waiting, Working out, and more Waiting.
X is for eXercise because there’s more than just a bit.
Y is for Yanking it… and pretty much every other letter as well. 😉
Z is for snoring. ’cause I couldn’t think of anything else.
Pretty sad list. I’m open to suggestions!