What is the meaning and significance of knocking out your front teeth upon arrival at jail?

Answer 1

There is no meaning or significance to this act. It, in fact, could put you in a compromised position.

While jail is a very survivable situation, a number of myths have risen about it that may have been true at one time, but are no more.

There is a certain amount of danger involved in incarceration, however, there is no inmate named Bubba who is waiting for you to show up so he can make you his house frau. There are no gangs of thugs waiting to beat you into paste for showing up in the wrong colors. What there are, is a group of largely broken down old men, confused young kids, and stunned middle aged men who are mostly shocked by a system that neither cares about their welfare or their rights as a human being. And, the keepers of this system often go out of their way to make life as miserable as possible for the incarcerated.

There is danger, just as there is danger for an individual rat who is placed in a box that already contains too many rats. More often than not, inmates take their frustration out on each other rather than their jailers. They are encouraged to do so. They are permitted to do so by an overcrowded system and slow response of staff to open conflict. It is important to convey a strong position in such an environment. Not so you can take charge, or become "King turd of the manure pile." Rather, so you can survive, perhaps learn something about yourself and your behavior, and so you can come out the other side a better person.

See, here's the thing, there are three types of people who are incarcerated (this included inmates and "cops"): there are predators, there are prey, and there are goundlings.

Predators are those who look for and take advantage of those who are weaker than they. Predators are the truly bad who are locked up. Predators exist in these places on both sides of the bars.

Prey is just that, food for predators. They are the weak, the uncertain, the indecisive, the slow (mentally and physically). They provide entertainment and sustenance for the predators. The mentally unbalanced, the mentally challenged, the mentally ill of incarceration, those referred to as "Bugs" most typically are marked as prey.

Groundlings, like the play goers of William Shakespeare's time, are there to watch the performance, the dance between predator and prey. Generally, they do not become involved. Occasionally, they will speak out in defense of someone who is truly being taken advantage of, but by and large it is best in jail or prison to keep one's mouth shut. So they do.

Now, to the quick of it, knocking one's teeth out upon arrival to jail, will result in two things: first, the recognition of the apathy of the system. You may eventually receive medical treatment, but you are more likely to find yourself trussed up in a chair, awaiting Psychiatric Evaluation. No prison dentist is going to stick his fingers into the mouth of a new arrival who demonstrates such psychotic behavior. And, second, you will automatically mark yourself as a candidate for predation. You will become prey. You will be marked as a Bug, and will become the pet project of some predator.