#218 Do inmates watch Prisonbreak? (retro)

Prison Television: Do Inmates watch “Prisonbreak”?

Strange question, but I suppose one worth talking about today.

I’ll get to that in a moment, first I wanted to thank the emails for some of my past blogs, and I got quite a few from the last couple of days. If you haven’t read them, you might wanna jump back a few and do so. But some are pretty long. I mean, the one I wrote last night was about 9 pages.

And that is what I got quite a few emails about. There are a lot of people that have been a member (or ARE members) of some of these prison support sites, and often times when I write about them, I get a lot of “amens”. One person told me that she always felt it was odd how some members can get thousands and thousands of posts, but when you check out their actual posts, they are all simple one liners, maybe two liners. Anybody can do that, and if you do it long enough, you rack up something silly like 15,000 posts and people think you are something you are not: sincere.

So I got quite a few emails from people at Prison Talk Online who continue to read my posts…and here is something that site may not like; some of them actively support my blogs. In fact, the idea that I am giving away free prison encouragement certificates is strongly based on the kindness that people like them have given me.

And I can see both sides of it. I have no reserves saying what I believe, because I owe nothing to Prison Talk, and as I mentioned, have been lynched by moderators, members and even received a very profane letter from David Frisk, owner of PTO…

Check out the blog on that if you want to know what he emailed to me.

But I also see that some members understand that even as they read my blogs, they don’t want to “cause trouble” on PTO. Some are quite content to just sit there and read posts, but when they want somebody to REALLY talk about it, they will ask me to share what I can. I can live with that, because I know that despite moderators and some members at PTO, there are a lot of people who followed my posts and my writings. To them, my warmest thanks.

Now, let’s talk about prison television, or in particular, if inmates actually watch “Prisonbreak”.

This thought came to me because my brother recently bought season one of “Prisonbreak” on DVD, and I looked at the cover and thought about the recent success of the show. In fact, if you google the title, there are a lot of Prisonbreak forums out there, and a lot of fans.

And you know, I bet some of you with loved ones in prison actually watch that show because you want to try to get some idea of what your loved one is going through. Some of you think that some of those situations that happen on a television show is what your son, husband, boyfriend or pen pal might be going through…uh…no.

Let’s nip this in the bud…it’s TELEVISION.

“But some of those things could happen”.

I agree, because art imitates life. I am sure the writers of the show did a little research on what a prison might be like, but do not fall for the idea that every prison across the country is like that. That is called stereotyping.

But the question is asked, do inmates watch shows like “Prisonbreak”? My first answer would be no, because personally, I would not watch it. I am not criticizing it as a bad show, in fact I think it may be a nice one, but coming from a guy that lived through prison, I am far more comfortable writing about it to help others than watching a drama on television. Give me ESPN, Food Network, Animal Planet or Boomerang anytime.

(yeah that’s right, I LOVE cartoons!)

But in truth, many inmates may well watch it, because it comes closest to something they can currently identify with. It amazed me how a lot of inmates loved to watch “Cops” and similar shows when they had the chance. Many of them loved those reality shows, and I just could not understand why guys would watch things like that. But to a lot of guys, this was the only thing they could identify with, now being in prison. So yeah, I do think that inmates could (and would) watch shows like “Prisonbreak”.

But allow me to dig a little deeper here, to give you more intel on this.

To the novice of prison issues, there are a lot of variables left out, which often times are replaced by myths and stereotypes. If inmates do indeed watch Prisonbreak, how do they watch it? Do prison have televisions? How do inmates decide what to watch? When do inmates watch television? There are a lot of questions that often times are not answered, so we just “assume” that they watch television, and thus likely to watch “Prisonbreak”.

Let’s address that a bit.

The most obvious question is whether inmates actually DO watch television. The answer to that is…yes and no. Depending on the prison, and many times the custody level, inmates may or may not be able to actually watch television. In theory, the higher the custody level, the lesser a chance that an inmate might be able to have television privileges, with some exceptions. The reasons are kinda obvious and strongly based on security.

A prison filled with very violent inmates may not have televisions available because many times those guys will destroy it and abuse the privilege. That may not be every prison in high security levels, but it likely is a lot. I am reminded of when I first fell, and was in county jail. I spend about 9 days in a communal cell before being moved to a single cell for like 17 months. Anyway, that communal cell USED to have a television in it, as in many other cells in the county jail. But I was told that they recently removed them because some inmates got stupid and damaged them. The Sheriff figured that if inmates don’t know how to appreciate what they are given, then take it away.

I agree with that, and such is similar situations in prison. But many times the higher security prisons like maximum security prisons may limit that. But even if they had television, it would be different from what you are used to.

When I was at Pasquotank Correctional, it was medium security at the time (I have since heard that they went to close custody on the main camp, as opposed to close and medium). Each dorm room had about 40 inmates, two to a cell. But each dorm had a big television, mounted high on the wall, and caged on three sides. No inmates were allowed to touch it, not even to change the channel. We had to call an officer, who had to go get the remote from the central office, return and then change the channel.

Now, it is worth noting that some prisons actually allow inmates to BUY their own televisions…I don’t know how that will work once the US goes digital February 17, because unless those inmate-bought televisions have a converter, it may not work. But in the state of NC, inmates are not allowed to purchase televisions. The only 3 things outside of canteen that we were allowed to purchase is Converse shoes (one pre-approved design), A watch ($15 and not worth the price) and an RCA Radio ($12 and DEFINIATELY not worth the price). Nothing else like televisions, microwaves, or game consoles were allowed at all.

This also raises the question again about the show “Prisonbreak”, or any show for that matter. How do you decide which programs to watch? I mean, if you think about it, many prisons have a day room where most inmates in a dorm might congregate to play cards, write letters, eat canteen and stuff like that, including watching television. How do you decide what to watch if 15 inmates want to watch 3 different shows?

There are a few ways this is done, depending on the prison. In some prisons, there are designated inmates who actually make the schedule for the upcoming week for the dorm. These guys get together, check out the upcoming schedule via the local newspaper, and try to decide what to watch for the upcoming week. Their “job” is to make sure that the inmates get to watch what they would like to watch, so when those programs come on, the officer can look at the schedule and know exactly what station that television is supposed to be on.

In this case, those guys would have to ask to see if anybody was interested in watching “Prisonbreak” on it’s appointed day. If say 10 guys in the dorm wanted to see it, then they could write in on that time slot that on that particular day, the television would be set on the channel that Prisonbreak comes on. Now, what if for example there was a local basketball game coming on at the same time? If 15 guys wanted to watch the basketball game, and 15 wanted to watch “Prisonbreak” what happens?

In many prisons there is a general code that dictates that sports overrules all other shows. If such a situation happens, then the basketball game would have more importance than the television show, and thus the schedule would indicate that. This happens a lot more than you know. Once the entire schedule is filled out, the inmate in charge (or inmates since it does require a couple of guys), takes the sheet to the officer and he takes it to the central office. That paper is the guideline for what inmates in that dorm will watch over the course of the week, and it is then the officer’s job to make sure that the television is on that channel when those programs come on, since inmates are not allowed to touch the television (and in many cases, could not touch it if they tried).

Now, other prisons work a little differently, in that some have two day rooms. I have been on a couple of camps where the dorm might have 40-60 inmates and have two different day rooms. In such instances, one dayroom is almost totally dedicated for sports, while the other is for other programs. This makes it easier for inmates to watch what they want, and in this case, inmates can watch “Prisonbreak” on one side, while other inmates are watching the basketball game. I remember once there was a controversy involving the sports side, because there was a big college basketball game coming on, but some of the guys also wanted to watch wrestling. The argument was that wrestling should NOT be watched on the sports side because wrestling is not a sport…it is entertainment.

A third way that inmates can watch television programs is in prison with adjoining dorms. Some prisons have dorms that actually connect to one another. Think of it as a semi-circle, and cut it into 5 equal parts. Each part represents a dorm. Each of those dorms have a connecting door to the one beside it, and so on to the end. With that in mind, you can see that the first and fifth dorms would be like end pieces, but the ones in between would have connecting doors on both sides.

Some prisons are set up this way, to allow inmates to actually move from one dorm to another during available hours. What this also means is that each dorm has one television, and thus you may be able to watch up to 5 different shows, depending on what that dorm is watching. In cases like this, it would be a lot easier for inmates to watch “Prisonbreak” than many other prison, because you have more selections. But that is not guaranteed, because if you are the only person in all the dorms interested in that show, it is possible you may find a television in those 5 dorms with guys watching that show.

So, do guys watch “Prisonbreak”? Well, maybe, it all depends on the actual rules and policies of the prison they are in. Hope that helps. Email me at derf4000 (at) embarqmail (dot) com if you have any other questions about prison or about my books.