I got caught with a sizeable amount of MDMA at the beginning of this year and am due in crown court at the end of the month charged with intent to supply. I've got nothing on my criminal record in terms of previous, but it was about 80 grams or so, which means I've about a 50/50 chance of going to prison for about 9-18 months.
I've never been to prison before and the little knowledge I have of the inside is gleaned from Hollywood movies and the like. I was wondering if anyone here does have any experience of what it's like inside? I'm fairly personable and have an easy time making friends with a wide array of people, but I'm also a bit of a wet blanket to be honest! I hate violence and I'm not particularly, um, "street" innit (ahem).
Any advice for a slightly frightened humble Pakistani boy would be warmly recieved!
I got 16 months mate for a very similar offence. Hopefully it doesn't come to it mate. The fact you are on here now is good as clearly you've got bail, you'd already be inside had they remanded you.
Not sure where you are, but you generally move to a local jail for a couple of weeks (worse if its around Christmas, I ended up staying there for a month) and then you will likely move down to a category C where dependant on the jail (they differ) you will get more 'freedoms'.
Category B's are generally the local jails. I shared a four man cell with 3 Romanian guys I couldn't understand which was incredibly frustrating over Christmas away from my family and you share one shitter between yourselves. I spent about 23 hours a day locked in my cell, but you were allowed out for association to make a phone call, or go outside and stuff for an hour or two, and also could get out for 10-20 minutes to get your food during the day. The guys that have been there longer, (generally because they misbehave in the lower category jails and get sent back) have education and stuff but you likely won't be there long enough to get onto that stuff so you'll just stay in your cell.
My biggest advice would be to take money with you into court (not an excessive amount as they'll only link it to your offence and take it off you) but something like £20-50. You'll be able to put this onto your canteen sheet which is what you'll order phone credit, stamps, envelopes, coffee, other food stuffs etc from. Once a week you submit the canteen sheet and then a week later you receive all the stuff through. As a prisoner you are either on Basic, Standard, or Enhanced. You'll be on standard which is I think £15.50 you are allowed to spend per week. Basic is for prisoners who behave badly and is £5.50 and Enhanced is after 6-7 weeks or so if you behave well and is £25.50.
If you are crap with phone numbers, take a bit of paper into court with you that has names, addresses and phone numbers of people you might want to contact because you'll regret it afterwards. My solicitor told me I probably would get a suspended sentence and I went in without this sort of crucial information, which makes the first few days a little more depressing. You get a letter when you first get in, and I found it quite comforting writing one home straight away in order to get everything off my chest.
Don't worry about being in for drugs. You'll be fine on that sort of offence. If you were in for anything sexual related etc then you'd be up for a lot more horrible time. I've seen screws openly tell prisoners about other prisoners offences. While clearly they did a terrible wrong, I don't think that's right either
Anyway, that's Category B's. After a while you will move to a category C. In my category C we had dorms. I couldn't leave my corridor, but I could move between cells, if I wanted to play Chess with someone in a different cell I could. If you strike up a friendship with someone there, you can request to be moved into their cell at some point. Generally the screws like it if you get along with your cell mates as it makes it easier for them to run the wing. I was fortunate enough to be moved into a cell with two people of a similar age, and I remained there until I left. I arrived after they were there, and left before them.
I wasn't in long enough to move to a category D and I doubt you will either, but they come with more freedoms.
Erm, there is quite a lot to cover and it really depends on how much you need to know. Visits are often every couple weeks, and you'll need to send visitor order out. You can do courses and stuff inside.
Playstations and the like are only for prisoners who a) behave themselves and are enhanced and b) save up money through their canteen sheet and purchase it out the catalogue. For those reasons, seeing as you'll have a relatively short sentence, you won't be able to get one- but you may encounter someone who has got one and get to play. We used to do a Pro Evo tournament on a Saturday with 16 of us on the wing to waste time- before watching MOTD later on.
Oh yeah, that's a good tip, try and avoid the results on a Satdee and MOTD becomes a little more exciting. I devised a game with my cell mates where we would predict the scores and we had a league table running in our cell.
Overall, there will be lots of mood swings I found. While people may be aghast at how easy it is, the feeling of limbo of being stuck wasting your time not being able to do things, while other people (friends/girlfriends) move on with their lifes is difficult. A few people I knew left the country while I was in and I couldn't say goodbye properly. Christmas away from my family was particularly bad, especially watching adverts on BBC like "everyone's home for Christmas" and being stuck in a cell with people I couldn't understand I felt very lonely and sad over that time (I deserved it I guess) but it still wasn't pleasant. Having the chance to play a playstation on a Saturday certainly didn't make me feel any better about my situation, and I had zero access to the internet. In regards to the debate about 'having it easy' - it depends on your view of prison. If you give prisoners absolutely no reward for good behaviour, the carrot approach etc, how will they change their mentality over time? Equally, if there is little to do with themselves, I've seen first hand how quickly frustrations can turn to violence etc.
“Too often imprisonment is thought of as the process by which magistrates and judges pluck out alien characters from our society and segregate them for the benefit of the rest of us. In reality prisoners are part of our society. They come from it and they will return to it” (Flynn, 1998:10)
There were good parts, I met a mate of mine who had been on the run just after Christmas, who because I had no canteen money or phone numbers, sorted me out coffee, writing paper, envelopes, stamps etc which I was appreciative of. Visits were particularly enjoyable, humbling to know that friends and family would take such time out of their day, to come and see you in a prison far away from home despite what you'd done or how much you deserved it. Although I had one visit where my mates were to come for the 1st time and they didn't make it in time, so that was pretty upsetting that day, after looking forward to it all week, going back to my cell knowing I'd have to wait another fortnight to see them.
Although I don't think going to prison necessarily makes someone a bad person and I don't think I am a bad person, I made some grave errors and have corrected them (I managed to get into a good uni afterwards with an interview demonstrating to them how much I wanted to change) and am moving forwards with my life having come through it.
If you need any help or assistance or I haven't covered anything, just ask mate. You'll know you've let yourself down by doing what you've done, I did too, but it's happened now, and the best thing to do is to deal with it as big as you can. In some ways I am glad I went as I think it made me into more of a man, and helped me to value my life a lot more.
Like someone said, I doubt you'll get a custodial sentence, especially if it's a first offence, but I remember being very worried myself about what might happen, so while lengthy I hope everything I've written helps, feel free to PM me mate.
Edit: Actually, after my brother read this post and PM'd me, we both agree you are right about having a 50-50 chance of jail. So I wouldn't go in expecting to walk out, but if you do, treat it as a bonus. So make SURE you pack a bag. Put smokes there if you smoke, I'd recommend rolling baccy as it lasts longer, nothing excessive, perhaps two ounces, some of your own clothes, trackie bottoms and that. Some jails allow your own bedding, some don't.
