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Sometimes there appears to be some confusion---and a lot of anxiety---over lock downs in prison. Let me explain just what a lock down is, how it happens, and what is the usual result. I think my explanation will give comfort to some of the mothers, wives, and girlfriends who have loved ones in prison.
There are two types of lock downs-----institutional lockdowns and disciplinary lockdowns.
Institutional lockdowns----sometimes just confined to one unit of the prison-----is where every inmate is locked in his cell. Nobody can get out of course, and all the inmates are confined in there respective cells. Institutional lockdowns usually occur when their is a fight or a beat down and they try to find the weapon or the perpetrator. They will usually go from cell to cell and look at each inmate's knuckles to see if they are scraped which would be indicative that they had hit someone. They will also look for a weapon if one was used. When everything cools down and they either find the perpetrator or figure out they cannot find anyone, they let everyone out and prison life starts up again. These investigative lockdowns only last about a day at the most.
They also have institutional lockdowns around Xmas or New Year's where they lock everyone in their cell and go from cell to cell looking for homemade beer-----pruno or hooch as it is called. This type of lockdown only lasts about a couple of hours.
Sometimes there is a complete lockdown when there has been a heating failure or mechanical failure with the institution and really have nothing to do with the inmates. It is just that the people working on the problem are usually from a company from the outside and of course, they don't want to mingle with inmates. These types of lock downs can last up to a week.
If an inmate escapes from the facility, there is always as institutional lockdown, which last for several hours.
No there are no "dark areas" involved. Everything is just as it usually is, but the inmates cannot get out of their cells. If the lockdown is more than three or four days, they will come around and pick up and deliver mail. They will also pick up canteen lists and bring the canteen to you. They don't usually do laundry, as that requires inmate workers working in the laundry and everyone is locked up. Nothing is going on because everyone is locked up.
No phone calls or visits of course.
Then there is a disciplinary lockdown, when an inmate breaks a rule and is sent to solitary. No there are no "holes" here either. The poor guy in the dark in a 3 X 4 foot space makes for good television and movies, but it is not what happens in prison. In a disciplinary lockdown, the inmate is put in a special section of the prison. It might be called DU (disciplinary unit), RHU (restrictive housing unit) or SHU (segregated housing unit. This is a separate location in a different unit from the rest of the prisoners. There is only one man to a cell----hence the term "solitary"-----he has no privileges such as canteen or phone privileges. Visits are usually suspended or if there are visits, they are behind glass. No TV. No radio. Maybe a book to read. A 30 minute shower every three days and only if accompanied by a CO.
Disciplinary lock downs can last anywhere from 10 days to a couple of months, but 10 or 30 days seem to be the most common.
He is just in a single cell with no privileges.
In both types of lockdowns, the food is also brought to the inmates and usually shoved through a hole in the door known as a "bean hole."
From the inmate's standpoint, nothing happens in a lock down. He is just in his cell. It is a good time to sleep or write letters.
Hope that helps everyone to understand what a "lock down" is really like.
rewdiazepam
There are two types of lock downs-----institutional lockdowns and disciplinary lockdowns.
Institutional lockdowns----sometimes just confined to one unit of the prison-----is where every inmate is locked in his cell. Nobody can get out of course, and all the inmates are confined in there respective cells. Institutional lockdowns usually occur when their is a fight or a beat down and they try to find the weapon or the perpetrator. They will usually go from cell to cell and look at each inmate's knuckles to see if they are scraped which would be indicative that they had hit someone. They will also look for a weapon if one was used. When everything cools down and they either find the perpetrator or figure out they cannot find anyone, they let everyone out and prison life starts up again. These investigative lockdowns only last about a day at the most.
They also have institutional lockdowns around Xmas or New Year's where they lock everyone in their cell and go from cell to cell looking for homemade beer-----pruno or hooch as it is called. This type of lockdown only lasts about a couple of hours.
Sometimes there is a complete lockdown when there has been a heating failure or mechanical failure with the institution and really have nothing to do with the inmates. It is just that the people working on the problem are usually from a company from the outside and of course, they don't want to mingle with inmates. These types of lock downs can last up to a week.
If an inmate escapes from the facility, there is always as institutional lockdown, which last for several hours.
No there are no "dark areas" involved. Everything is just as it usually is, but the inmates cannot get out of their cells. If the lockdown is more than three or four days, they will come around and pick up and deliver mail. They will also pick up canteen lists and bring the canteen to you. They don't usually do laundry, as that requires inmate workers working in the laundry and everyone is locked up. Nothing is going on because everyone is locked up.
No phone calls or visits of course.
Then there is a disciplinary lockdown, when an inmate breaks a rule and is sent to solitary. No there are no "holes" here either. The poor guy in the dark in a 3 X 4 foot space makes for good television and movies, but it is not what happens in prison. In a disciplinary lockdown, the inmate is put in a special section of the prison. It might be called DU (disciplinary unit), RHU (restrictive housing unit) or SHU (segregated housing unit. This is a separate location in a different unit from the rest of the prisoners. There is only one man to a cell----hence the term "solitary"-----he has no privileges such as canteen or phone privileges. Visits are usually suspended or if there are visits, they are behind glass. No TV. No radio. Maybe a book to read. A 30 minute shower every three days and only if accompanied by a CO.
Disciplinary lock downs can last anywhere from 10 days to a couple of months, but 10 or 30 days seem to be the most common.
He is just in a single cell with no privileges.
In both types of lockdowns, the food is also brought to the inmates and usually shoved through a hole in the door known as a "bean hole."
From the inmate's standpoint, nothing happens in a lock down. He is just in his cell. It is a good time to sleep or write letters.
Hope that helps everyone to understand what a "lock down" is really like.
rewdiazepam
Nothing could be further from the truth. That does happen in a medium security prison, but it is not particularly common. We had about one stabbing a month at a medium prison I was at and there were almost a thousand inmates housed there, so it is not something that happens often.
Also the idea that there is some kind of "cruel warden" or COs that physically abuse inmates is just not true. COs, for the most part, just don't care. They are just doing there job so they can go home. They don't like inmates, but they don't dislike them so much that they would attempt to physically harass them. COs are just glorified babysitters.
There are two principal reasons for this----1) if the DOC hates anything, it is civil lawsuits. The last thing they want is for one of their officers to manhandle an inmate, and 2) most COs would be no match for a lot of the inmates and would get beat down. Many COs do not want to mix it up with inmates.
Of course, there are a few exceptions, but they are rare.
All the violence that goes on in prison is inmate to inmate violence, not from the prison staff. The staff might be mouthy and emotionally cruel, but that is all, and even that does not happen often. The truth is that they just don't care enough to do something like that.
So maybe some of you can relax a little now. In all my years I never once-----not once----saw a CO touch an inmate unless he was trying to break up a fight.
Hope this helps.
rewdiazepam
My fiance has been at Shock three weeks and I have had three five minute phone calls. We get one phone every two weeks once he's in a platoon, so I'll hear from him even less.
I appreciate that you are trying to help us not worry, Rew. It's very difficult to not worry when there is violence and very little contact.
I did read your post and it troubled me. I just have not had time to reply to it.
Yes, there are exceptions. These DIs are assaulting inmates---assaulting and nothing more---- and I just cannot believe that is according to New York State DOC protocol. I think they must be taking it on themselves to dole out that kind of physical abuse.
They young men in the Shock Program cannot afford to say anything as they would be kicked out of the program, which is something none of them wants. This is such a deplorable situation, as they know even the family cannot complain.
But in a normal prison, even in a medium security facility, that rarely ever happens. I never saw it and never even heard of it in all the eight years I was in and I know if it happened I would have known. Of course, I was in Oklahoma, but the DOCs all across the country are scared to death of civil law suits, so I still stand by my assertion that it is rare in a normal prison setting.
If it ever did happen in a normal prison setting, it would be when the inmate was in an isolated position such as in solitary lock up, but I never heard of anything like that either.
BTW, Angela, did your husband by any chance sign a paper when he entered the Shock Program absolving them of any lawsuits for things like assaulting inmates?
rewdiazepam
Here's an ironic fact- the facility that houses the Shock program is a minimum. The inmates there are all non-violent first offenders who go through intensive screening before being accepted into the program. Then they get there and deal with the worst COs in the system. Go figure.