I have to say, I think going to prison would be the most terrifying experience imaginable.
Being locked up with murderers, rapists, and all kinds of other violent offenders has to do so much damage to a person’s psyche. Let’s hope that all of us (or at least most of us) never have to go through that.
AskReddit users shared their stories from when they did time.
1. Can’t forget it.
“The words “I shot that bitch in the stomach and I hope they both die” were used in reference to a 15 year old pregnant girl.
I won’t ever be able to forget that one.”
2. A simple farm boy.
“When I was in the outbox the day before I was released I was hanging out with a bunch of guys just killing time.
One of them was part of a killing gang. They kidnapped and killed a bunch of people for body parts. And cut them off while the people were alive. It was a pretty gruesome case.
Anyways, he was really quiet and rather stupid. Just a simple farm boy type.”
3. Seemed nice enough…
“English guy here, I spent 4 and a half months in prison in 2018. There was a guy who was really nice, seemed like a genuine guy.
That was until I found out her strangled his drunk wife to death and left her there whilst he went to work the next morning.”
4. The Aurora movie theater shooter.
“Before I got my prison sentence in 2013 I was in Arapahoe County jail with James Holmes. Was pretty crazy cuz they’d put the whole facility on lockdown to move him, Even though he was in segregation.”
5. Not an inmate.
“There was a correctional officer at least 6’5 and well built and he would always come in pissed off. So one morning we are waiting in line for breakfast and he thought he heard this older man call him a bitch. He followed the man back to his cell and started teeing off on him.
The man didn’t even try fighting back and when he fell the first time he split his head open on the steel bunk. The inmate was so out of it he started asking were his car keys and wallet went while he was on the ground bleeding. The C.O. hears the man and for some reason turns around and goes back and hits him a few more times and says “who’s the bitch now…”.
I’ll never forget thinking ‘damn this is somebodies father’.”
6. OH MY GOD.
“One of the women on my wing cut up her lover and put his body parts in an empty TV box, then put the box on his mother’s door step.”
7. This is brutal.
“I was in and out juvy from 15-18 till I went to county jail, the worst people I came into contact was a boy 15 who shot his step mother, slit her throat, beat her head in with a blunt object, wrapped her in sheets for the fathers roommate to find her then he shot him. Happened in McMinnville Oregon. Other than that a lot of people raping siblings, and making threats to shoot up the high schools in the area. That’s Yamhill County for you.
8. Women’s prison.
“I was locked up with Jodi Arias, so that was bizarre.
There was also a woman who murdered her baby and kept it in the freezer. We called her Maytag.”
9. No remorse.
“This rich kid stabbed his friend in the chest, killing him, but he was on Xanax and weed at the time and doesn’t remember anything of it other than his friend on the floor dying, the mad thing is this guy (18 years old) actually got off with the murder and found not guilty although was sent down for just under 2 years for possession of a knife. His parents were quite wealthy and it was a big case in the UK. Basically his barristers were the best money could buy and he said that’s how he got off.
He didnt have any remorse for his actions. Which was made to think made him a pretty fucked up person. It’s a funny one though because he actually seemed a nice guy until he would talk about the killing and just didnt care what he had done. Nobody else in the prison had ever killed anyone to my knowledge, as it was a lower cat prison – but he was only their for possession of an knife.”
10. All kinds of psychos.
“I was incarcerated with over 280 people doing life without parole. There were all kinds- Stabbed the neighbor lady 150+ times, shot a bully in the head in the school parking lot, beat a dude with a hammer, etc.
There were two that stuck with me though- one where he looked me right in the eye and told me about shooting a guy with a shotgun to the chest (creeped me the f out), weirdo that kidnapped and killed some girl in his basement was another. John Wayne Gacy actually designed the miniature golf course there.”
11. 99 to life.
“Was in prison for 27 months. Unfortunately, your child rapists and kiddie porn guys were mixed in to gen pop, so you would get all kinds like that everywhere. The worst one I heard of was when I was in military prison. Details are foggy because this was 13 years ago, but I remember there being a guy who got 99 years for murder.
He had killed a guy, then killed the guys wife because she was home and would have been a witness, but not before raping her first. The whole facility got locked down every time they moved this guy, because they didnt even want the other inmates to see what he looked like.
The other fucked up one was at the same facility. So in the army there’s a thing called turtlefucking, where you hit someone’s kevlar helmet with your kevlar helmet. It makes a loud THONK sound, but doesnt really hurt. People didnt hit super hard, just hard enough to make the noise happen. This guy turtlefucked a girl when she wasnt wearing a kevlar helmet. She ended up dying while the guy was still awaiting his trial, and he went full on cuckoo bananas.”
12. KKK member.
“I had a cellie in prison who was a KKK “white boy.” He was a mad man. He was always pissed off and would say the craziest stuff like “Did you hear that? The “white” rhino is going extinct. Fucking jews.”
I was watching the movie about black pilots in WWII and he sat down indignant and rolled his eyes and guffawed… “Black Pilots!?! C’mon.” I said “You really think there are no black pilots?” He said “Hell no, have you ever seen a black pilot?” It was like this every day until my move finally got approved.”
13. From an officer’s perspective.
“I wasn’t an inmate, I was an officer so my opinion might be disqualified. But at a facility I worked at we were a level 5 which is maximum security. Lots of people who had life without parole and just a bunch of different things happened. One guy was on a documentary because he traveled across several states and killed around 5 people total. He was pissed cause the documentary blamed him but he always tried to say his father hitting him as a child made him kill these people.
Then there’s the old guy who raped his young grandchildren and was furious that he was sent to prison cause they were HIS grandkids so he could do whatever he wanted. He had also raped his children when they were growing up.
Lots of sick things in a max security prison and those would be nothing when compared to a federal supermax.”
14. Sounds like a nightmare.
“Ahh.. theres different degrees to evil.. one of the smallest black guys in there was SO loud and would not stop talking. He eventually freaked out and cut his body up with a razor blade to get medical attention for a different scene.. another guy was young, got beat by a 70 yr. Old in dominoes. The young guy just straight punched the old man in the forehead, I was reading Marley and me, and it just sounded like someone hit a watermelon super hard. I looked up, old man was knocked out on the floor, when he came to, these other 18 yr old kids were cracking up laughing and the old man was sooo confused and kept asking why are you laughing?
A white guy who was small and young was the jack russell terrier of the pod, and he was the worst. He would just constantly steal and for some reason nobody did anything about it. Guy named nick looked just like mike Tyson and would fight white ppl who would work out bc they were doing it wrong..he would also stare at you while you were taking a shit.
There was one corrections officer who assaulted me in a bathroom during work duty bc I didnt know if a roll of toilet paper should be changed out.. there was like a 1/3 left. It was my first day, he thought I was fucking with him. After he hit me and was done, I said Sooooo, does it need to be changed i still dont know. He figured out I was serious and apologized. One CO always snuck me coffee and let me watch football on tv bc I was nice and worked hard.”
15. In the Bronx.
“Was in Spofford Juvenile detention center when I was 13 (not a good age to be there at 4’9 100 lbs) and I was one of two Caucasian’s in the entire place so I mostly kept to myself. I did befriend a kid named Chris Whitehead who showed up with a freshly healed scar about 15-20 inches long in the shape of a C on the side of his head. He didn’t talk much but he ended up telling me how it happened when I finally got the nerve to ask him.
Told me his older brother jumped him into the Crips and since he cried during he took a hot knife and burned it into his head for the disrespect. Then he had his little brother, the same age as me by the way, shoot the first person to cross the street in their neighborhood, who ended up being a young pregnant girl. How he only ended up at Spofford is beyond me but it was disgusting to see such a nice kid end up there because of his older piece of shit brother.
I remember when he went to court he was sure he’d be transferred so he pissed all over his jump suit and stuffed it in the radiator causing all of us in the semi violent block to be moved upstairs with the actual violent criminals (I think the kid I’m referring to was only on mine because of his age). The staff members there gave everyone there permission to beat the living shit out of him when he came back but he never did because he got transferred thankfully because his brother ended up there too and was fully on board with the beat down his brother was going to receive.
Really glad they shut down that place because they were running drugs and a prostitution ring on the female side and the treatment of the kids there was disgusting to say the least.”
Yikes. Prison is no place for this guy, I can tell you that much.
Have you ever spent any time behind bars or maybe a friend or family member did some time?
If so, tell us what it was like in the comments. We’d love to hear about your experiences!
