If you have never been incarcerated for more than a few months, then it is difficult to phantom these prison frustrations and stresses. What is an everyday item or freedom in our normal lives, it is not so in prison.
I guess the reasons for these insane and sometimes absurd rules is to instill discipline and avoid hoarding. Hoarding would make a cell seem like a hamsters’ cage. For non-military prisoners a.k.a. civilian convicts, discipline is needed in every way to force some regimen and conformity in prisoners’ lives.
Here are some examples of a few rules in military prison. They are as follows:
- A cell cannot have more than 3 pens, unless authorized by the commandant and his/her signature.
2. Any over the counter and prescribed drugs must be discarded upon its expiration date.
3. Any USDB property or item in a cell may not be tampered, damaged, in any way nor modified. This included covering of A/C vents, toilets, etc.
4. X amount of foods may be stored and clothing. Anything over the allowed amount was an infraction.
This gives you an idea what rules and policies are like in a military prison. The punishments for these minor infractions/violations could range from as follows:
- 7 Days no recreation time, and after dinner chow time, you must lockdown by 18:30 pm and to be subjected to daily contraband cell shakedowns.
- For breaking any rules and policies more than 2 times or more, you may be punished with isolation time/hole for 1-4 weeks time. More serious violations such as fighting would be more special housing unit time.
Trust me there are more. Prisoner’s are given a USDB welcome prison book. A must read. (sarcasm). I only discussed a few, too many to enumerate.
How do these punishments rehabilitate a prisoner? They don’t because a convict’s punishment is to be sent to prison for X amount of time. He/she is not to be punished more for frivolous infractions, that makes a person feel more persecuted and instills a criminal mindset. How? Because, simply hiding an extra pen or forgetting to discard expired medication is a violation of USDB regulations. This creates a mindset I am doing something illegal and must do something crafty to avoid detection by the authorities. While every free person in the world can have 100 pens and expired medication.
It is not helpful for a prisoners’ psyche. This is where as a person, you must learn to become mentally strong and overcome these psychological antics. “Comply or die” type deal.
I was caught up on a few of these simple infractions. What made it worse were the daily contraband shakedowns. Which I felt were to “fuck with your mind” and temperament. If the guards that were doing my shakedown were legit, then it was no stress because they would do a neat job and gently shakedown your cell. Lots of respect for that. Remember the guards are active duty soldiers and most don’t forget we were active once. They also know what your crime was.
A digressing note: You can read about sexual frustrations on the blog post, “Sex in the Military Prison”.
Military Prison Experiences 