Misconceptions About Prison Life

Common Myths & Facts
The following are some common myths and facts about life in prison.

I N M A T E P A Y

Inmates do not receive large pay for the work they perform. Many states do not pay them at all. In AZ most inmates earn ten cents per hour. They clean our highways do road construction and in many rural areas they are the only fire department available for the public. Many people complain that inmates should not be paid at all.
But there are many things in prison that they must buy. Soap, shampoo toothpaste etc. They are required to be clean showered, well dressed and clean shaven so they must have money to purchase these things, the family may not send them in to the inmate they must be purchased through the prison. For inmates with no family the money is essential, besides you don’t want them using your tax money for such things right?
Many private profit making corporations hire inmates to work for them. They are not even paid minimum wage for such work in most cases. Imagine how many jobs would be lost to the freeworld population if the corporations didn’t have to pay them anything at all?

S T A F F

Some prisons have a hard time keeping staff so they are often short officers on a regular basis. Most of the time officers do not quit because of trouble with the inmates. It is the other officers or higher ranking staff that cause them problems. If you are considerate to an inmate or treat them like a human being in many places the other staff will call you an “inmate lover” or a “social worker” those are both insults by the way and then they may set you up to get rid of you.
Many new officers are taught in the training academy that they are just supposed to follow policy, and of course that is correct, but many times at the prisons themselves no one can determine exactly what “policy” is. It changes from day to day, from supervisor to supervisor, so everyone is always left wondering where they stand. The officers, the inmates, the family’s.

Prisoners are well fed on our tax money

Prison diets are often insufficient for the needs of the human body. Because so often they leave the table hungry many inmates will spend money they can scarcely afford on food that is sold in the prison commissary. While snacks are available much of what is bought by the inmates is canned tuna, (plain on crackers) canned sardines, peanut butter, (no jelly) canned ham etc. [Comment and discuss this article on the PhenomenalWomen.com forum: "Misconceptions About Prison Life."]

The prison kitchen is often under the control of a private company that profits by spending less on food. so portions may be smaller than necessary for adult men and women. Food is often moldy or spoiled . Generally “real’ meat is served one time a week and that is usually chicken. They may only have ten minutes in which to eat, so eat what is there fast.

I pay for televisions for inmates with my tax money

No. Many states do not allow the inmates to have television at all. Those states that do require the families to provide the televisions and the inmates are charged a fee for the use of electricity. Televisions are a handcuffs privilege, therefore they provide the prison a means of controlling the inmate. If the inmate does not follow all prison rules, LOP {loss of privileges} can mean the loss of television along with visits and phone calls, may result. So for the good of the inmates and the good of the staff things such as televisions are a benefit and the cost you, the taxpayer, nothing.

Inmates are lazy

Well some of them may be. Many of them want to work but there is not enough work available for them to do. So they are forced to spend long periods with nothing to do and no way to improve themselves. Work is also a privilege it is something that must be earned and may be taken away if you infringe upon any one of a million rules.

Inmates receive better medical care than I do and I have to work for it

If you believe that inmates get top quality medical care, think again. Inmates must pay for their medical care, three dollars a visit in most cases. That’s nothing you may say to your self but to an inmate who makes only ten cents per hour that could be a months work. As for the quality, my husband was told by the doctor that he has a pre-cancerous condition of the skin. but “I can’t do anything about it” he said. In the free world this is when the doctor would be doing something about it, not waiting until it is full blown cancer then trying to treat it, not waiting until it is life threatening then saying okay let’s fix this.

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Take into account also the boy held at the AZ Boys Ranch here in Arizona. He had two quarts of pus in his lungs and the nurse told him he was just faking it to get out of working!! As punishment he was forced to do push ups over a bucket containing his soiled clothes, you see he was not allowed to use the restroom and soiled his clothes, but he was just a “slacker” as far as the staff was concerned. He was forced to carry this bucket for several days before his death. When he would not eat or do clalestenics he was called a manipulator and sometimes it is told by one of the other boys he was thrown into a wall in an attempt to get him to cooperate. He was covered with 71 scrapes and bruises when he died. Now he’s dead! Now finally someone has closed the ranch.

But that’s what it took for someone to sit up and take notice of the things that were going on there. A sixteen year old boy to die. If we treat our youth in this manner just imagine how we treat our adults. And still after this child has died at the hands of these people there are many people who still have faith in the AZ boy’s Ranch, Even some of the parents of the children left in there care at other facilities. This is the service you have paid for with your tax dollars if you live in California where most of the boys are from. AZ does not contract with The Arizona Boys Ranch, go figure. Ranch officials of course still say that none of the boys were abused and they all just “made up the stories.” cont.

[Comment and discuss this article on the PhenomenalWomen.com forum: "Misconceptions About Prison Life."]