The "hole" can be called several other names. I have seen it called the Segregation Unit (SU), Restrictive Housing Unit (RHU) or Disciplinary Unit (DU).

I think it differs slightly from prison to prison, but I will tell you what it was like when I was at the medium security prison. They put you in a single cell (7' x 9') with nothing but a sink, a toilet, and a thin plastic mattress--no pillow and only a thin sheet. It is much like solitary confinement. There is no electricity running into the cell, so there is not much light at night. No TV, no canteen, no visitation, shower once a week, no exercise.

No A/C in the summer and very little heat in the winter.

But they cannot refuse your mail privileges, at least they are not supposed to.

So basically, an inmate is just surrounded with four concrete walls in a very small space. They bring your food to you and they push it through a slot in the door called a "bean hole."

If a person wants to rest it is a good place, but it gets old fast. No contact with anyone at all, so it does get lonely. I was in there for 102 days when I refused to take their sex offender program, and I lost a lot of weight when they finally gave up and released me back into the general population.

I think it probably differs from prison to prison, but it is not as gruesome as you see on TV.

They did not suspend my mail privileges, but I am not sure they do that in every state.

Hope that helps to explain what the "hole" is.

rewdiazepam

Did you eventually take the SO program, rew? If not, how did you get out?

Thanks Rew for the explanation. I am hoping to find out more from him in the next few days.

Honestwitness,

No, I did not take the sex offender treatment program even though it was court ordered and the DOC told me I had to take it. I told them "no thanks."

I would have gotten kicked out of that program anyway, as one of the requirements of the program is that a person admits his guilt. I was not guilty, so I was not interested. I wasn't about to lie and say I was guilty---never have, never will.

They threatened me with a program failure and a loss of up to a year's good time credits if I did not take the program, but I told them no.

Finally they just locked me up in DU. After 102 days, they needed the DU cell for someone else, so they gave up and released me. Luckily, they never tried to take my good time credits from me and never even gave me a misconduct.

I guess they figured I was never going to take the program no matter what, so they just put me back in general population. Even though it was court ordered, it never came up again.

rewdiazepam

Rew, that's amazing! How long were you in?

...in prison, that is.

my hub was in segregation unit in a jail , we both agreed we didnt want him in gen population . was worried the inmates may end up hurting him . even though my hub is a big guy . hes a soft hearte humble man . anyways he was in se g 4and half months . there . . it was ok he said he made it thru thanks to JESUS . but he also said the letters i wrote every other day and when i was able to visit him once week really helped him get thru it all /. you still can have about an hr a day out with the others in seg unit . but you are seperated from gen population . theres no tv or any thing but books you can send him or use what they have there . , had to mail my hub bible to him and then they was able to get a bible study prayer group going . he was bale to reach out to ohters , and even gave his food away and had me buy other inmates accessories there , he stayed away from the trouble and then he was able to use that good time to get out in 4 1/2 months time instead of 6 months ., if you can write your hub as much as possible . . can talk to him on phone etc . check jpay see about the web cam visits also . if you cant visit him personally . when i went to visit my hub he was behind glass , now they changed it , so that whom ever is in there now , has to see the person on tv only .. they said they had to do it so . that no contraband could get in // so stupid . .but anyways that what they said .

so def check out jpay . see if you can do that sometime. i keep praying for your situation GBU . stay strong for the both of you no matter what stress we all go thru , im under a verge of nervous break down and trying to stay sane myself . its not all about my hub on this stupid registry , its about my son not doing god in school too , so we all got trials to go thru . keep strong . pray for one another , we all need it !!

Thanks hurting.

Yes, I have a JPay account to put money on his account. Haven't been able to use any of the other features of it yet. It's so stupid that they can't have a touch visit in you are in segregation or have a time slot for those in segregation. That was one thing I was really looking forward to, being able to touch him and visit for hours with him. So he has to decide to risk his life in gen population and get touch visits or stay segregated and be removed from his loved ones. I hate this whole system! I just want to scream.

i know what you are saying thought , i hate how this system works too .:(yah we had to go thru that . no touch , had to put hands on glass to pray etc . , very stupid , but to be safe and able to get home safe is better than hurt or tormented or worst them vigilante . how long will he have to be in that seg area? i mean if he can stay to himself . but dont let anyone bully him around and stay out of trouble , you know when they paly poker gamble or something . h stay away from it etc ,and not let them know what hes been chaged with . gen population may work for him . but if hes scared and wants and feels he can handle seg and feel safer that way . then its his choice . and a big sacrafice you both have to deal with . how long will he be in segregration ? im praying thought for you both . if you are visiting him u can have 45 min with him . i think in jail it was that way . but prison may be diff . and you may get to see him like touch visit etc. i heard prison was different .. check out the rules .there.

in jail they dont give touch visits . once in prison the rules change , he told me he would of goten to see me and touch me then , but 8 yrs prison no ty , GOD knew we all couldnt handled it . so we took plea of 18 yrs probation . and 6mths jail time . which came out 4and half months due to good behavoir . you have toserve 85 percent of it for sex offnders , but reast only serve 50 percent . thats not fair either .

Honestwitness,

I was in prison for eight years.

rewdiazepam

I wish it was only 8 yrs for him, but the DA said he was dangerous and wouldn't offer anything lower than 20 yrs. it was no plea deal since the max was 30 yrs.
he can opt to go to gen pop, but he will be a target. Appartantly he has the "look" if a SO. He looks like he is always angry and ready to go off on someone, but is the nicest person you will ever know. He is in constant fear, he had several look out for him at reception, which kept those who wanted to hurt him away.

He will have to make the decision to be either segregated or gen population. His decision will determine how long he will be in seg. If nothing else, I hope that when he gets classified as a level 3 in about a month, it may be better, especially if he can be moved to the prison closer to home because they don't like problem inmates.

ThoughtAsWeak and HurtingFamily,

It sounds as if your husbands are at a medium security prison. After he has been there for a few years, he will probably have worked his time down and his security points will have decreased, so he will be eligible for a lower security facility.

Medium security prisons are where SOs get into trouble and physically hurt. Once your husband gets to a lower security, he can move to general population without worry of being harmed.

Inmates at lower security are close to going home and at the tail end of their sentence. The last thing on their mind is beating someone up and getting a misconduct, which would delay their release.

When I entered the prison system, I had a 20 year sentence so I was assigned to a medium security prison. But once I had worked that 20 years down to 15 years, I was shipped to a minimum security facility where I served the remainder of my sentence.

rewdiazepam

Rew,

This is another reason why I hope and pray that he gets moved to the closer facility. This one is the prison for non trouble makers, the prison that you would want to go to to serve your time. If you do cause problems, they will ship you out to prisons like the one he is currently at. Why he would be sent there is unbelievable. He has had no write ups at all at county or at reception. He doesn't make waves, yet he is treated like he is a sever threat to society (like Garrido).

I appreciate all of your input and I do want him safe. Just a question, how long does it take to work down your points?

In my state when I was in prison, the security level an inmate was assigned was determined only by the lenght of his sentence.

Anyone with over 15 years on his sentence was assigned to a medium security prison, while those with sentences less than 15 years were assigned to a minimum security facility. That is the reason I was able to go to a lower security from a medium after I had knocked off 5 years of my original 20 years sentence. It took me over two years to knock off the five years.

Now many states have abandoned assigning a security level based on the length of the sentence to a points system. The points system uses criteria such as the age of the inmate, whether the cime was violent or non-violent in natrue, the length of the sentence, if the offender is a first time offender or a repeat offender, and other criteria. They take all these factors and assign the inmate a number of security points, which determines the level of security placement.

If you will remind me what state your husband is in and the length of his sentence, I will try to find out more information for that particular state.

rewdiazepam