Ever been to prison?

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=K2ekNmsz-Iw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DK2ekNmsz-Iw

 

Bring cigarettes?

 

Never been to prison for an interview or anything else for that matter. But, I am envious of you for the experience. Would love to know your thoughts afterwards.

 

I am? Enough of the frat boy stuff. What are you talking about?

 

You may meet this guy when you visit. Granted this guy was dirty but a routine traffic stop? What's routine about getting out of your car prepare to fire on someone you have just pulled over?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/rasoul-speight-heroin-in-anus_n_2761050.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

 

Sirs, Madames,

I volunteered at a minimum-security facility when I was in university. Was thinking about social-work as a grad course. Generally pretty decent people, especially the non-violent repeat offenders I worked with.

One story at a max institution, whole other ballgame.

YHS, etc

 

Been there several times as lawyer. Some good advise already posted.
1. Prisons don't allow cell phones. (some of the inmates have them, but they're not supposed to). Leave yours in the car.
2. Most prisons discourage money. The inmates aren't allowed to have any. If it stays in your wallet/purse that's fine but I usually lock mine in the car glove compartment. (Don't leave it sitting out-most prisons have inmates working in the parking lot).
3. If you go by your middle name, but your ID has your full name, make sure when you make your appointment you do so by the name on your ID. I go by my middle name and my assistant would sometimes schedule by middle name and they would always hassle me about it.
4. If you need the prisoner to bring something with him/her, write ahead to the prisoner and let him/her know that. They won't let him/her just go back to the cell to get it. (as someone already posted, they strip search, including anal search, the prisoner every time he/she gets a contact visit).
5. Don't have anything in your car that you don't want seen. Being on the prison grounds is grounds for your car being searched. (idiot story: I went to a prison visit one time and forgot I had a chainsaw in the trunk that I was returning to my dad. They of course searched the trunk that day. They did still let me in).
6. Bring ID.

 

I've done a jail interview once, at a large metro area's county jail. It was a very surreal experience. After going through security, they handed me a card with the number of the floor I needed to go to and sent me, unaccompanied, to a bank of elevators. When one opened, I walked in and showed my card to the camera in the elevator. There were no buttons. The elevator took me to the floor, I got out and walked to a small room, sat down in the one chair, in front of a glass window with a phone attached to the wall, and waited. The prisoner wasd excorted in on the other side of the window and we spoke by telephone. There were no guards on either side that I could tell while we were talking, but as soon as we were finished, one showed up to escort the guy out. I went back to the elevators and waited by myself for one to come. I remember being more than a little nervous -- what if an elevator doesn't show up? How do I contact someone to let them know I'm up here? Of course, they're watching everything from downstairs through the cameras mounted everywhere. Elevator shows up and takes me downstairs. It weirded me out a lot. I really expected to have someone with me all or most of the time but instead I didn't see anyone but the inmate I was interviewing pretty much from the time I came in to the time I left.