Are jail and prison as bad as they show on tv and in movies?

Answer 1

Yes and no. (See the links below for information; but, read here first to keep the articles in perspective.)

There are a large number of stereotypes that TV and the media promulgate that have little to no basis in fact. One is the prevalence of prison rape. While rape and sexual assault do occur in jail and prison, it is not nearly as common as movies and popular media portray. There is no prison "welcome wagon" led by a large troglodyte named "Bubba" standing by to greet newcomers by stealing their virtue. The "Sisters" of Shawshank are not going to make anyone their "girlfriend." The US Department of Justice shows that about one in 1,000 sexual assaults (some sources report as high as a 5% rate of assault, 1:20--but BJS data is quantifiable where the other is anecdotal at best) occur in the corrections facilities in the US today. Of those fully 46% of them are committed by staff and employees of the facilities, and more than 50% of these are perpetrated against female inmates with a disproportionately (unreported but noted) high rate committed by staff on inmates.

Let's put that into perspective for a minute. A 2004 Department of Justice (DoJ) report cited 2,298 cases of sexual assault in the nation's correctional facilities. At that time, there were approximately 200,000 women locked up in the US, of a total 2.5 million incarcerated. Of the reported cases, roughly 1,200 were perpetrated against female inmates. Now, that's roughly 1:1,000 total population, and six times that against the female inmate population. DoJ and Amnesty International also both report that the incidents of sexual assaults being reported, especially in female facilities is lower than reality for a variety of reasons, including the very real fear of retaliation (I'll get into that a bit more in a moment). To bring the focus to a tighter perspective, in 2004, inmates of Scott Correctional Facility, a women's prison near Detroit, Michigan filed a successful class action lawsuit against the MDOC alleging hundreds of incidents of staff-on-inmate sexual assaults. As a result of the named counts, 155 children were conceived and delivered to inmates who could not possibly have become pregnant prior to being incarcerated (Michigan is among the states that has not permitted conjugal visits since 1995).

The most common problem in US prisons today aside from the above mentioned crimes is physical violence (this is where your attention should be for that retaliation mentioned above). The Department of Justice Bureau of Statistics (BJS) reported in 2003 (the last year the rate was tracked) that prison inmates were slightly less than fives times as likely to be murdered as the average citizen on the street. Of these around 30% are perpetrated by staff against inmates, another 10% are staff victims of inmates, and the remaining 60% are inmate on inmate violence. Now, while no attempt to justify any form of violence is being forwarded here, consider for a moment the ration of inmates to staff in US correctional facilities. Ratios can run from 20:1 at higher level facilities--where inmates are locked down as much as 23 hours a day, to more than 500:1 at lower level prisons and camps. If the inmates chose to rise up, there would never, could never be enough corrections officers to prevent any facility from being over run. That being noted, inmate on staff violence is more often than not the fault of the staff member. Please allow a metaphor: One does not poke the bear in the cage when one shares the cage with the bear; AND, it is good policy to never poke the bear from the other side of the bars if the bear is regularly released from the cage even for short periods.

Another common problem in US corrections facilities is the prevalence of drug use. Popular media would have viewers believe that drug gangs control the flow of illegal substances into prisons. While dealers are able to get "product" into US facilities, it is an incredibly difficult task without help from those who work there. An estimated 65% of America's incarcerated have and continue to use illegal substances. The prisons and their staff members control 100% what enters and leaves the facilities. Better vetting and greater control, as well as strict and severe (and equal treatment under the law) is necessary to prevent this crime within US correctional facilites. Something that is woefully remiss now.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reports more than 1,000 drug incidents within its 33 facilities every year. In the two year span between 2006 and 2008, forty-four inmates died from drug overdoses in the CDCR. The Florida Department of Corrections reports a steady rate of 1.6% positive on random drug tests conducted within that state's prisons. Drug sales in US prison is big business, and high prices for product are luring people including staff and employees into the trade. Hawaiian Department of Corrections 2008 Deputy Director reported that heroin prices in Hawaiian facilities is often ten times higher than regular street value. Newer efforts such as the x-raying of inmate mail and staff bags at state and federal prisons, and ion spectrometry "sniffers" in federal institutions has helped to slow the growth of drug smuggling, but nothing so far has stopped it. Perhaps because efforts remain focused on inmates, rather than on the actual pipeline, staff.

Another problem within the prisons of America, at least from the perspective of inmates is theft. Inmates have few privileged, and one of these few is access to additional food from prison stores and commissaries. Even before the economic crash of 2008, prisons in the US began to tighten the belts of inmates, both figuratively and literally, by reducing the number of calories inmates are fed. The average adult male requires 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day (in non-stressful environments) to maintain healthy weight. The average intake today from prison meals is between 1,500 and 1,800 calories per inmate. This requires inmates to supplement their diet with the meager offerings from prison store lists. Inmates must purchase these stores with money from their personal accounts, funds that are sent by friends and family, or that they earn at an average $1.95 per day for working in prison industries. Additionally, commissary prices are heavily inflated. A common staple of inmate food orders is top ramen noodles. Outside cost for this product vary from .25¢ to .45¢ each. Prison store cost for this same item can be as high as $1.00, effectively a day's pay for many inmates. Alternately, less than 50% of inmates in the US are able to secure employment while incarcerated, and must rely on assistance from outside sources. Many inmates lack even this resource. the result is rampant theft.

Probably the most pathetic issue facing Americas incarcerated population is that of health care, or rather lack of. The US Constitution requires that correctional institutions and facilities of incarceration do due diligence regarding healthcare needs for those in their charge. America's inmate population like its free population is aging. With that comes increased need for healthcare and medical facilities. Add to this the vast number of drug addicted felons who are locked up every year who require rehabilitation services, and the even larger population of mentally ill who are now housed in the nation's correctional facilities, along with the largest population of HIV and hepatitis positive patients in the world. With 3 million incarcerated people in the US, providing even the most basic healthcare would be a huge task. The way most states have chosen to deal with the problem of providing healthcare to inmates is to hire private companies to administrate and facilitate medical services for inmates. One of these companies is Correctional Medical Services. CMS operates in at least 30 states and is the largest private healthcare provider for the nation's correctional facilities. CMS has been sited for multiple wrongful death cases, and has been the target of thousands of 2nd and 8th Amendment Civil Rights violation cases. Yet, it continues to remain in operation, with former governors and congressmen on their board of directors and in lobbying positions in the state and federal legislatures.

No one who has been incarcerated or knows someone who has been will ever agree that being locked up is a good situation. There are huge down sides to the experience. The reality of the situation however is nowhere near that portrayed on television or in movies, both in what is and is not portrayed.