DannyBoyinExile

Somebody recently asked me what advice I’d give to a young person who was just coming to prison for the first time. My first impulse would be to tell him to simply be himself, and not try to present himself as anything more or less than that. But on second thought, it makes far more sense to advise to BETTER himself, and become the person he could be, rather than settling for the person that he is, or has been.
We can all change. And we all WILL change, in one way or another – even people in the free world. Once some time passes by, and you live your life, you become a different person because of the things that you’ve experienced. You’re simply not the same person at different stages of your life – unless you’re an idiot!
Someone once said that “Shit Happens”. I don’t know precisely what that means, but it seems to be true. Good shit happens. And bad shit happens. And it’s up to you to deal with it, and steer clear of the obstacles that appear in your path, without losing your path altogether. Prison is definitely a tricky path, and one with many potentially different endings, and not very many HAPPY endings at all.
Back when I came in, we watched a video that some inmates put together, wherein they said that you could avoid most of the drama in prison by avoiding the ” Three G’s”: gangs, gays, and gambling. That is very true. If you get involved in any of those activities, you will add some drama to your life, in one way or another. So if you AVOID any of those activities, you can avoid the drama that comes with it. But they overlooked what I’ll call the “Two D’s”: drugs and debts.
Drugs are a serious problem in prison – which should be no surprise, because drugs are the reason most of us ended up in prison in the first place. Whether it was for possessing them, stealing things to buy them, or just the boneheaded things we decided to do when we were on them – drugs will do far more to KEEP you in prison than they will to help you get out, and for that reason alone I’d urge anyone to stay away from them.
Debts are also a serious problem, and could very well prove fatal. Drugs, of course, are the main reason most inmates go into debt, but it’s best to avoid ANY kind of debts in here. Even if you borrow, say, a bag of coffee until commissary day. Then you go to commissary, and discover that your girlfriend simply didn’t send you any money like she said she did. Now you owe this guy some money, and don’t have it. To make matters worse, HE may owe the money to someone else, who he borrowed or bought something from. Well, SOMEBODY just might get their ass kicked – and totally justifiably! (That’s without even mentioning the predatory inmates who are present in virtually any prison who loan people things and HOPE they don’t have the money to repay it!)
I couldn’t possibly list every mistake that new people make that would only get them yelled at, but experience and common sense will get you past those. If you just stay away from the Three G’s, and the Two D’s – and maybe even focus on your Three R’s (Reading, Writing, and ‘Rithmetic!) you can work on making your stay here as SHORT as possible, even if it won’t always be pleasant. I wouldn’t advise you to walk around with a smile on your face, because that would look… kinda funny. But keep your head up, and you should be able to deal with just about anything else. So says DannyBoy.