If you read through this thread you will hear different sides from the people who have posted and have actually been incarcerated and all of them are right. In the federal system the prisons are set up by security levels. The highest level prisons in the feds are the USPs (united states penitentiary) and some of the USPs (maximum security) are used for housing the baddest of the bad and it usually takes violence on your record or violence while your locked up to get here. The modern day Alcatraz is the Supermax in Florence, Colorado and that's were they house people like the unibomber, the guy from the Oklahoma bombing, Mafia, Terrorists, etc. I was down with a few guys that had transfered from the FPC (Federal Prison Camp)that is located next to the Supermax and the inmates in the camp do all the work to feed and take care of both the FPC and the USP (Supermax). Certain blocks of the Supermax are made up of cells that are designed to incarcerate the inmates with out need for human contact. The cells are designed where the shower unit is rolled up to the cell and locked in place and then the prisoners door opens and they can enter the shower unit take a shower and then go back in there cell. When it's rec time another unit containing a exercise bike and a pull up bar is slid in front of the cell locked to the cell and then the door is opened and they can exercise for their 30 minutes and then return to their cell. All mail sent to the inmates is open and scanned in and shown on the TV in their cell. At just a little bit lower on the security scale is USP Marion where Jon Gotti had a lengthy stay, Carlos Lehder (George Jungs partner on the movie Blow who owned the island off Panama
Blow, George Jung, Pablo Escobar, The Story Behind the Movie "Blow" ), along with many many more of the worlds greatest convicts. After the USPs on the list come the FCIs (Federal Correctional Institution) which are also broken up into several security levels from low, medium, and high. After the FCI lows come the minimum security facilities known as camps known as FPCs (Federal Prison Camps). The camps are the lowest of the low and have more freedoms. Most don't have a fence around them and to be an inmate their you can't usually have violence on your record. Camps are where you go if you are close to getting out or receive a short sentence. A lot of those people who receive short sentences received them because they snitched or committed a small time crime. As your sentence moves along your level drops and you are transfered to a lower security level prison. If you have no violence on your record you eventually make it to a camp. I never had to spend time in a USP because I had no violence on my record. When in the FCIs it's all about respect and staying away from the gangs, owing money, and the COs (correctional officers). When you first enter you keep to yourself slowly judging who are the right people to start hanging with and once you establish some friends you'll blend right in. If you are the type of person who talks loud, acts up, is annoying you are going to get smashed. If you have no discipline and you start running up gambling debts you can't pay your going to get smashed. If you walk around like your a bad ass your getting smashed. If you let people disrespect you then your in for a rough time. If your a snitch and you get sent to an FCI or USP and you get found out your in for a rough ride. Camps are full of snitches and the people who haven't snitched are nearing their release so it's not worth receiving more time for beating a snitch down. You usually have to have less than 10 years left to be at a camp and the majority of the population will have less than 5 years. At FCIs and USPs you will be with people who have life sentences or longer (yes longer meaning people who have for example "life plus 30 years") and in the feds life is life. Judges will give people life plus how many ever years so that in case while incarcerated an inmate can get an appeal and get one of his charges dropped he will still have to do the other time and either way they will have to spend their life locked up. So what does a person have to lose when sentenced to 20, 40, life plus? They will beat down or kill anyone that disrespects them whether it's another inmate or a correctional officer. In camps since people have shorter time left it's a lot less likely that you'll get stuck or given a bath with a bowl full of boiling baby oil fresh out of the microwave, but fights and beat downs still happen all the time. Unless you go to one of the max USPs where you will be locked down 23 1/2 hours a day and 30 minutes of rec time then county time will most likely be some of the worse time you'll serve. At least where I'm from the county jails have the worst food, commissary, facilities, etc. Now there was much more violence in the prison than in the county but that violence helps keep order. Most people who have spent time in USPs, FCIs, and FPCs prefer the FCIs or USPs over the camps because there is more order and the population is made up of much more cunning, intelligent, disciplined individuals. It goes like this people who have large sentences committed larger crimes and getting to the level they did usually meant they had avoided LE, along with being apart of a operation that pulled in large amounts of money. With the feds the higher the security level usually the higher level of intelligence and wealth of the prison population. I've never been around so many millionaires and intelligent people per capita till entering the federal prison system. You'll be side by side with killers, mafia, top level gang and cartel members, big time growers, smugglers, dealers, embezzlers, and people charged for tax evasion ect. If you are a good listener you can learn more than you could ever imagine.
