As far as the actual prison experience itself, it wasn't so bad. It could have been a LOT worse, but the prison system is so bureaucratic these days it has like 15 different classifications and you sit in receiving in the "main prison" so to speak until they work out which prison you should go to.
Being a non-gang-involved first-timer, I got placed on the lowest security rung. I got sent to what they call a PC (protective custody) camp which was a MinSec to serve my sentence. The food was better than almost any other institution I've been in (and I've been in several as a juvenile).
There were no gangs there so the camp was mostly white. I'll let you draw your own sociological conclusions on that fact.
It was easy doing time there. Probably too easy since I'm not really that afraid to go back. I would be to go to a MaxSec institution though. The stories I've heard are crazy, but you have to be something special to get maximum security.
Really, after 14 months, I met some really cool people, dealt with a lot of not so cool people, and had to pretend to tolerate some really uncool people.
It's loud all the time. You live in a space which has twice as many people as it was actually designed for (the prison was made to hold 600 inmates but had over 1100 at all times). You are in a 20 man dorm sleeping with 19 other various types of people, and this camp held about 60% sex offenders. It was a little creepy, but most of the guys I foud out were sex offenders were not you typical creep, in fact they seemed eerily normal. Some were real fucking creeps like this guy they called Catfish. Ugh... And this guy named Leisure who looked like he came right out of wrong turn 7.
You run into some interesting characters in there and the idiocy is overconcentrated. People there are mostly tweakers, creeps, drunks, junkies, and the likes. No gangbangers, inter-city hoodlums who are always trying to get over on whitey, etc. It's sweet to be white in that place.
Now I want to point out that even if you are a very open minded person, which I like to think of my self as, prison is a place that will make you intensely racist even if this view only stays with you while you are in prison. Everyone in prison is racist and the blacks are the worst about it. They have a fuck-whitey complex and they all hate white people for getting them locked up (even the ones with a sense of agency). People clique up and stick to their skin. It can be very safely assumed that if a black man tries to bargain with a white man, he's really getting robbed even though it might seem like an okay deal on the surface. IN fact, he's probably not even going to pay you back and "Well do something about it then, bitch! Beat my ass then, bitch ass honky!" if you don't like it. I hate to sound this way, but the shit they say about race in prison is 100% true, in fact probably under stated.
All that said, I learned how to speak a pretty good deal of Spanish. My first cell mate was Mexican and looked like a Mexican version of Mario. We were like Mario and Luigi, cos I'm a skinny little black haired Italian guy and he's a short fat Mexican with the stereotypical beefy mustache. Mexicans will get along well with anyone except blacks. Everyone in prison hates blacks, including other blacks. Explain that one.
Honestly all told, it was really mostly just lonely. I spent much of my time reading books on psychology, physics and electronics theory. After I got out, I really didn't even feel like I was locked up. The experience fades almost immediately when you walk out of the door. Kind of like something I think most of us are familiar with
I'm not saying it was a good experience. I got in a couple small fights, but nothing crazy. I got a black eye and I put another guy in a chokehold and dragged him around the room until he finally got a hold of my leg and dropped me then people broke us up. They don't want idiots making th block hot and getting the COs involved so they tend to try to break up fights when they get too conspicuous or tell you to take it to the shower or the bathroom where it's harder to see. There were more fights per unit time in county (also more blacks, and they were the ones fighting. Imagine that.)
So yeah, that was my little 14 month journey. There's not a lot else to tell.
TL;DR
I got locked up, sat around a bunch, hurried up and waited, got bullied by black people, learned spanish and made friends with Mexicans, then got out and pretty much forgot about it like it was only a dream.
