Have you ever known anyone who has served time in prison? If so, how did they describe the experience?

I've known 3 people, my uncle spent time in prison twice, i'm not close to him, so never asked about the experience.

And my (ex)stepdad who is now serving time.

A good friend who served over a year.. We would write..she didn't like the experience.

Oh yeah. Their experiences vary. I've heard some crazy stories.

We knew a couple of guys who were in prison, and the experiences I can't recall the exact details but to sum it up it was hell. I've also read letters from other men in there who summed it up as the guards were always beating the inmates, would drag them into rooms where nobody could hear them scream, some of the inmates couldn't take it so they hanged themselves, and most of the men there cried themselves to sleep every night. Why then so many people choose to throw their lives away for a quick 'fix' to make fast money instead of actually getting a legitimate job is beyond me.

I don't know anyone who's done time. I've seen the inside of a couple of county jails for jobs I was doing (not jobs I did ) Not fun places.

My boyfriends brother is currently serving a year sentence for marijuana possession.

My son's uncle (on his dad's side) was there for almost two years. He grew a long beard so that he wouldn't be recognized by anyone who "knew him when". Yet, very funny, he did get recognized once already. He's been out about three years.

He ended up not wanting anyone to visit him. Initially, he had sent us the paper work so that we could become approved visitors. Something that was interesting is that because I have metal in my neck (from neck surgery years ago) I would have had to go to my surgeon's office and get some certain papers filled out. As much as I thought it would have been cool to do a prison visit (not cuz I missed him, but cuz I'm nosey and curious) I would have never gone to the office to ask for them to fill out something.

Another interesting fact is that calls from prison are crazy expensive. I can't recall now how expensive, as after the first couple, we had to say, "not again." But they were really steep and I wish I could recall well enough to estimate.

I know a few. When they talk about the experience it's usually vague and non detailed, and I don't bother to ask them to elaborate.