Out of Prison

Repli wrote:

Fair play to ya.. don't mind the ppl in the pub you were probably just being a bit paranoid.. and stay outta trouble!

That's the plan. Everybody is saying I'm paranoid but I have got some smart arse comments but that's probably to be expected. Got out of the habit of computers and the net while away but things are getting back to normal.

Anybody who thinks prison is a holiday camp is wrong - it's unnatural been locked at least 16 hours a day and being told what you can do, where you can go and when you can do it, having to piss in a pot at night, being away from your family and friends, not knowing who's out to cause trouble and whatever.

I will post back with some more answers on the questions later. Some things I'll keep to myself but other things nmight be useful for anybody else in a similar situation.

bohsboy - Don't know if I came across you in the Joy. As you might guess I'm using a middle name on this site and am happy with that. didn't get sent to the midlnads though.

Have to say that most of the guards were OK - once you didn't give any trouble they seemed fair enough - a few liked to show who was boss though.

Can you go to prison yourself are you always taken directly from court?
Taken directly from court

Do you normally get a cell on your own or how many people do you have to share with?
I got a cell on my own which suited me. There were other cells with 2 people. The cell itself was pretty small with a bed, a table, some shelves. The cell door was solid (no bars like they have on the films with all the prisoners looking out) but with a little flap they opened on the outside to check on you. There was a window at the other end with bars on it and the walls were very thick. Although the cell was painted I often thought that the cell was probably not that much different from what it might have been like 100 years ago. Sometimes I used to wonder who might have been locked up in here before me.

Is it likely that you have to slop out – that seems pretty bad and I would hate that?
Well you do in Mountjoy. There is no in cell toilet or running water and you get a piss pot which you have to use if you need to take a leak or worse overnight. The fact that you have to live like this seems pretty disgusting these days but that’s the way it is. I hated the smell and can still sense it to this day. At least though it was my own – much worse if you were sharing a cell with someone else. Going to empty all this was the first job in the morning and it was just terrible. There have been times when this got thrown at other prisoners and the guards which is really gross. I think this was one of the most humiliating things of my time in prison.


Are you allowed a TV and radio?

Yes as long as you behave. I know some people give out about this but you have to imagine being locked up in a cell on your own for 16 hours or more a day. You need something to distract you and make time pass. It is a good idea for everybody as it keeps the prisoners a bit happier and the job for the screws is easier as you have something in your cell to keep you occupied. As I said they can take away the TV and your other stuff if you get into trouble so there is an incentive to stay out of trouble.


How bad is it with regard to people trying to touch you up or whatever or is that exaggerated on TV – certainly hope it is?
This is what everybody gets most scared of about going to prison. All I can say is that I didn’t see any of it and nobody ever threatened me or anything like that. Maybe I was just lucky but I think it is totally exaggerated in films. I suppose though that being in a cell on your own makes any of that far less likely to happen.


Are you allowed have money to buy things like cigarettes or do you get an allowance?Y
You have an account where your family or friends can leave in money for you. You also get an allowance of €2 per day for your work that goes to your account. Most of this can be spent in the shop on things like cigarettes, tobacco, sweets, crisps, drinks, personal hygiene stuff as well. I was lucky in that I was able to get money put in from outside so I was able to more or less get what I needed.

Cigarettes and tobacco are really important in prison. Nearly everybody smokes and there are lads looking out for extra. For somebody coming in you are always asked for smokes as most only buy tobacco to roll their own as it is much cheaper.

I can’t imagine what would happen if they banned smoking in prisons. I think the place would be more tense and there would be more trouble. I smoked more when I was in prison than I normally would and got into the rollies as well – haven’t had one of those since I’ve been out..

Do you have to wear prison clothes or can you bring in your own?

When you go in you do get prison clothes – just jeans, shirt and jumper. It sort of makes sense as I came in in a suit from court and wanted to get out of that as soon as I could. Once you can get 3 sets of clean clothes in you are normally able to wear those. There are rules to make sure that your clothes don’t look like the guards but mostly people were jeans and t Shirts or tops. You can also get made to wear prison clothes if you are causing trouble - it is another privilege they can take away.


How often do you get a chance to shower and wash properly and do you do this on your own?
You normally only get to shower once a week. If you go the gym you can get a shower after that or if you are working in one of the workshops you sometimes get a shower. There is not much privacy in the showers but it is supervised so there isn’t as much trouble as you think there might be.


How much violence and bullying actually goes on and do the prison officers try to get involved?
Well it is a prison and it does go on. I always felt threatened that something was going to kick off. While there was some viscous stuff going on you could keep out of the way of the most serious stuff by not getting too involved with anybody and not pissing the other prisoners off. That said there was always a bit of agro going on between various people and it was hard enough to stay out of – probably because most people were in there for reacting badly in various situations. The main thing was just to keep your head down and not piss off anybody and while it was never easy in there it was just about doable.

As I said there were some prisoners who had a reputation of just lashing out over the simplest things and you needed to avoid these. People get into arguments over the tiniest things – probably a result of being locked up for most of the day.

In fairness if things are kicking off the guards do try and put a stop to it but they aren’t everywhere and if people want to kick off they will find a time to do it. If the guards hear about someone making a weapon or having something they shouldn’t they will search cells to try and remove the danger. For the first days I was always thinking that something serious was going to happen but as my time went buy I got calmer and settled down but was never off my guard.

Is the food alright?

The food actually isn’t bad. There are choices at the main meal and the menus do change – it’s like canteen food but it is alright. One thing I imagined about prison was that you would be eating at these long tables with benches but that doesn’t happen. You get your breakfast, dinner or tea and go back to your cell and are locked up while you eat it. The guards get their meals at this time too. The only thing is that you get tea at about 5 o’clock and you don’t get another meal until the morning although you do get something small before you get locked up for the night. It means you can get a bit hungry during the night.


How often can you get visitors and do you see them one to one or are there glass dividers or whatever?
Visits were once a week for 30 minutes but you could apply for a second visit. People on remand were entitled to more visits. I had mixed feelings about the visits – I looked forward to seeing familiar faces but hated the way they would pass so quickly with your visitor going back to their normal life while I just had to go back to my cell. I hated my family seeing me in the situation I was in and felt bad for them having to come along but it meant so much to me for the short time that they were there. You have to give a list of your visitors when you go in. Two of mine didn’t come and visit which was tough but I understood why they decided not to.

Most people were able to have visits just across the table. Some prisoners though weren’t allowed these as they had been caught trying to get drugs in before. There are camera watching the visits and trying to stop drugs getting in but it doesn’t really work.

I found keeping in contact with my family and friends really important when you are locked up and things are quite boring. You were allowed one 6 minute phone call each day. There is always a huge demand for the phones and you never really get to have a private conversation as everybody is trying to get their phone calls in. You are also allowed to write and get letters but all these are checked by the guards.

The Daily Routine

The routine is pretty similar day in day out. Cells are unlocked at about 8.15 and the first thing you do is empty your piss pot in the communal toilets on the wing. You have a chance to wash and shave and then go and get breakfast. As I said, there is no central eating area so you are back in your cell to eat breakfast and are locked up again. By 9.15 things start to move and you are unlocked for work, education, exercise or visits. You go back to your cell at 12.30 with your dinner and are locked up until 2.00 and then go back to work. At 4.30 you get tea and are locked up again. From about 5.15 you are unlocked for 2 hours for recreation and then you are locked up for the night at 7.30.

I really felt that I had lost control in my life as you don’t have the chance to make the normal decisions you would each day. I was told when I could eat, when I had to do work and when I was to be locked up. If you were going off the wing, you would have somebody escorting you, unlocking the gates and passing you over to somebody else. You couldn’t just decide to go for a walk or get something to eat – you just didn’t have those choices.

I also found it really boring. Being locked up for 16 hours a day or more sometimes gave me plenty of time to think and while during the first few weeks I was happy enough for 7.30 to come to be locked up for the night and away from all the **** that goes on, as time went by I found this more difficult.

NUTLEY BOY wrote:

Shane, I wish you the very best of luck for your future and really hope that things go well.

One question please. When inside did you receive any ACTIVE training or rehabilitation as distinct from having things available to you on a PASSIVE basis ?

Put another way, do you feel that the regime did anything helpful to you during your time in prison ?

Because i wasn't in there for too long I didn't get really into anything to much. There are courses and that and I did go to some classes - more to pass the time than anything else. You don't have to do classes but you are encouraged too - some people get their Junior Certs/Leaving Certs in there and then go on to get degrees and that but as I say I wasn't really there for long enough to do that.