Slipky's Prison Megathread

Slipky · Mar 2, 2021

I'll just toss whatever I know about prison here. It's going to be a long guide, but it's definitely worth it. Since the GPCF resurged to activity, I felt this could be very helpful.
Credits go to Warren_Borbeck, Marvin_Redman, Jason_Gardner, and other roleplayers who contributed to this.

Yards and Prisons around San Andreas:

It's important to remember that the Green Palms Correctional Facility is not the only facility in San Andreas. Feel free to roleplay coming from, having spent time in, or going to one of these prisons. They all have different security levels and age requirements. A lot of gang members have spent time in the various youth facilities. The heavy hitters often end up in federal prisons. Each prison has its own culture and traits. Some yards are especially violent because of who's housed there. Others are relatively quiet and full to the brim with SNY. There should be a gang presence on almost every hard yard in San Andreas.

San Andreas Youth Authority (SAYA)
Johnson Youth Correctional Facility (JYCF)
Camp Andrew Scott (CAS)

County Jails
Los Santos County Jail (LSCJ)
Red County Jail (RCJ)
Flint County Jail (FCJ)
San Fierro County Jail (SFCJ)
High Desert Detention Facility (HDDF)
Whetstone County Jail (WCJ)

State Prisons
San Andreas Correctional Center (SACC)
San Andreas Correctional Institution (SACI)
Whetstone State Prison (WSP)
Oscar Lake Correctional Facility (OLCF) - Nortenos are there in big numbers.
Ironlake State Prison (ISP)
Cremenas Correctional Facility (CCF) - Mostly Sureno inmates.
Green Palms Correctional Facility (GPCF)
San Andreas Correctional Facility (SACF) - A pretty much equal mix, Blacks have the biggest numbers.
Octane Springs State Prison (OSSP) - Sureno dominance.
Swan Bay State Prison (SBSP) - Sureno dominance. A lot of white inmates, too. - Based off of Pelican Bay that is north of San Fierro in Easter Bay. It’s a level 3/4 facility with one special needs yard and a huge SHU.

Federal Prisons
United States Penitentiary, Jenkins (USP Jenkins) - Supermax Prison in Northern San Andreas. The heaviest shotcallers are here.
Federal Correctional Institution, Kalmbach (FCI Kalmbach)

For anyone wanting to go into specifics about spending time in SAYA / SADJJ, or more in-depth with convictions as a youth, here's a list of applicable youth facilities in regards to the prisons & jails listed above.

Juvenile Detention Centers
Los Santos Central Juvenile Hall (LSCJH)
Jeremy W. Bowles Juvenile Hall (JBJH)
Flint County Juvenile Facilities Complex (FCJFC)
San Fierro Juvenile Hall (SFJH)
High Desert Juvenile Detention Center (HDJDC)

San Andreas Division of Juvenile Justice
Johnson Youth Correctional Facility (JYCF)
Camp Andrew Scott (CAS)

Johnson Youth Correctional Facility has both dormitory and cell facilities.
Camp Andrew Scott is for low-risk youth inmates who go through a screening process, Camp Andrew Scott also hosts a Fire Crew program which youth inmates can volunteer for, work done under the program is usually support based on actual fire operations.

The Flint County Juvenile Facilities Complex is the largest county-level holding facility in terms of facility size, having both general population and special programming yards. The Flint County Juvenile Facilities Complex houses facilities for temporary non-criminal custody and a facility for holding Juvenile inmates waiting to be transferred to another jurisdiction or placement facility.

Prison Cars:

Inmates in California prisons segregate based on race. The white inmates, known as peckerwoods (or woods for short), and collectively as the woodpile, are one of the five major groups. Those groups are known by the slang term "car". The white inmates are the white car. What's unique for the white car is how under that umbrella they break into smaller cars based on what county they are from in the state. This is done for more organization and to better politic with people from your area. Although the white car moves as one entity and has a shotcalller on the yard, it means that if you are to be schooled, stabbed, or talked to — it's likely that it will be someone from your county who will do it. County cars even get to have representatives/shotcallers who handle them.

Some counties send so many prisoners upstate that a big county somehow splits in more than one car (Los Angeles). Other counties may unite with one or more next to them based on history (Inland Empire). Other smaller counties just join up with a bigger county car close to them since they lack numbers to have their own. Even though there are solidified cars, this can fluctuate based on numbers on the yard. If there aren't enough numbers for a car, some of the lacking ones in the same geographic region might roll as one.

About putting in work while incarcerated:

There seems to be a misconception that every time someone is given a mission to go on and there's somebody that needs to be removed from the yard is that they need to die. This isn't the case. You don't need to kill people to remove them from the yard. Too many people have been stabbing dudes down till they're dead when in reality murders are considerably rarer compared to just violent assaults. Take this into consideration when you're on a mission.

You don't need to kill the target, you can just cut them up with superficial wounds that bleed a lot but won't kill them and then beat them up. If they've got any sense of role-play fear or the idea of roleplay in general they will more than likely be very scared about getting attacked again and roll-up. Not to mention if an officer sees someone cut up and hurt, they'll more than likely roll them up themselves. You do not need to ruin your character's development and let them catch a 25 to life sentence for murdering someone in prison. Killing them isn't the only way and in reality murders in prison are rare. You will get the exact same rep and cred from slashing someone, beating them up, and then making them call a CO to roll up as you would with murdering people. The only difference is your character isn't spending the rest of his life in prison.

Killing the inmates who mess up and roleplaying a real judicial system are two concepts that don't work together. If we roleplay people should be sentenced to life for these murders, then the standard in our in-game prison culture wouldn't be to murder people who mess up rules, snitch, don't follow politics, and so on. I think just stabbing them without killing them would bring better role play. For your own character (you don't need to be forced to RP a life sentence), for the correctional officers (they can role play with the victim, transfer the victim to SNY, gather intel from the victim), and for the overall atmosphere (makes murder a special occurrence when it happens rarer).

Weights in Prison:

CDCR has a ban on weights. So inmates have to improvise in their workouts. Aside from that, lockdowns can last a long time, so inmates can be confined to their cells for long periods of time. In order to gain proper muscle mass and grow big, you need to exercise with weight (and eat what's needed). A popular scheme is utilizing your workout partner's or cellmate's weight - lifting them, doing squats while they sit on your shoulders, doing push ups while they apply weight or sit on your back, etc.

Another thing inmates do is, they come up with weight bags. Usually layers of trash bags or layers of clothing, filled up with things that make it heavy. I've heard of inmates shoving the heaviest property they have in there, but the more popular choice is filling a big bag with water. Water can be really heavy in bigger quantities.

Racial Segregation:

CDCR (and now SADOC) acknowledge racial segregation on yards. They put classification stickers above the cell doors of inmates. It's for ease, so they don't have to memorize who is where. Furthermore, if an inmate covers his cell door, they similarly don't have to go by memory on what race the occupants are / who they are. It serves an extra function when tensions are high. If the whites and blacks are on sight, for example, they don't want to pop their cell doors at the same time in case they fight. Same deal for North and Southsider Hispanics. I'm fairly sure they label / color-code the buttons on the control panel for cell doors, too, for the same reasons.
WHT is whites.
S/M and N/M are South and North Hispanics.
Blacks can go by BLOOD, CRIP, BLK, or similar.

Lighting fire in the cell:

More will be added as I see fit.

Slipky · Mar 2, 2021

CO Tips:

This might be a good place to bring up what inmates consider 'good' CO behaviour to be. This doesn't mean a lenient CO or a CO who doesn't do his job. A 'good' CO is one who gives inmates a reasonable level of respect in order to get it back, broadly speaking. There's a number of little habits that are part of this. A lot of them are actually behaviours that inmates themselves exhibit.
Examples:

Not looking into inmates' cells without announcing yourself and having your presence acknowledged. Exceptions can be made in emergencies or if you suspect something's going down. Otherwise respecting an inmate's privacy and personal space.
Tossing a cell and leaving the inmates' belongings strewn around, or outright destroyed, is an example of disrespectful behaviour. Officers can be stabbed if they have a history of doing things like that, or do it to the wrong person.
Learning the names of the inmates on your block and using them. Calling someone 'inmate' can be disrespectful if you ought to know their name. Some officers use inmates' nicknames too but that's more common among crooked cops or gang cops (gooners).
Respecting an inmate's image. Calling out an inmate out into a situation where their only options are to take flight on you (the officer) or back down and damage their image is considered highly disrespectful and 'stirring the pot'.
Respecting inmate self-segregation. Stirring up racial tensions and inciting fights, or even riots, is one of the main reasons for officers getting themselves stabbed. STGs are known to put out hits on officers who do this.

Modern-day LEO culture lends itself towards a cohesive and protective community and this extends to correctional officers too. The CO version of 'The Thin Blue Line' is often referred to as the 'Thin Silver Line' and it mirrors the culture of the police/deputy versions. COs, regardless of their personal relationships, look out for one another to an extent that goes beyond family bonds. They feel personally offended whenever a fellow officer is hurt and it extends towards physical violence.

A good example of this is as follows: A rookie correctional officer is attacked whilst on duty for seemingly no reason. All COs on duty, regardless of if they like the rookie officer or not, will RUSH to the scene (within reason) just to help the officer in trouble. In most cases, inmates have been beaten (within reason) and attacked out of turn due to the fact that they've harmed a fellow officer.

Rookie Officer Doe is attacked and seriously injured by an inmate for seemingly no reason. Officers Smith, Jones and Roberts rush to the scene. They see the officer down and they see the inmate responsible for the attack. They'd bring the offending inmate to the ground and they'd do so aggressively and violently. They wouldn't kill the offending inmate but they'd definitely take out their frustration on the inmate responsible. They'd kick him during restraining and give him a few love taps and treat them like shit because 'how dare you hurt one of us?'.

It's a lot like how convicts act in prison politics. If one of their own is harmed they will get revenge. The COs on duty are a lot like that. If an inmate attacks an officer you can be sure that the inmate is going to be treated very harshly (within reason).

It's been said various times in various forms but I'll put it here again: Cops generally don't snitch on one another to Supervisors / Command. Why? The idea is they're working hard, dangerous jobs and are already subject to intense scrutiny and even hate based on their line of work. (something that's become more culturally relevant with the rise of Black Lives Matter, but pre-dates it: see Rodney King.) The general idea is that the only people they can truly depend on to understand what they do and why they do it is other cops. They're supposed to put their lives on the line for one another because they recognise they're doing a hard job without thanks and have to have each others backs. Snitching to a Sergeant, Lieutenant, etc. for something minor or something they didn't need to do it for is a betrayal of their core values. No one would want to put their life in the hands of someone who would do something like that. Every LEO force in America, be it police, sheriffs, corrections, tribal police, military police would alienate a person like that. If a cop does something wrong, the attitude is you're supposed to cover for them and then help them if need be. It could be by teaching them or by talking to them, or even by giving them shit on an unofficial level.

Things a CO might realistically snitch on someone for:
- A CO is putting the lives of other COs or inmates in danger.
- A CO is compromising the integrity of the Department (i.e. being corrupt)
- A CO needs intervention for a serious issue they have (drug or drink abuse), and the efforts of you and your colleagues haven't worked. Even then, it'd probably only be if they were putting lives in danger.

Things you wouldn't snitch for, probably:
- Being called a punk/bitch/faggot/whatever
- A CO being rough with an inmate
- A CO who does drugs / other minor illegal stuff in their free time
- A CO doing something without the proper qualification (especially in a dangerous/urgent situation)

SHU is a whole different ballgame to General Population. It's what is called level 5 housing, or Supermax. The worst of the worst live in the SHU unit. Murderers, psychos, etc. A lot of these guys are involved in prison gangs such as the NLR or KUMI. The most senior guys are validated or suspected members of STG-1s: the category of prison gangs considered most dangerous by the Department. Aryan Brotherhood, Mexican Mafia, NLR, and Black Guerilla Family guys are all housed in the SHU, both in-game and in real life.

Inmates in the SHU typically follow a stricter program than those in GP. That means mandatory roll calls, group workouts every day, and sometimes, attacking any cop that gives them the opportunity to do so. I know a few COs have found this out the hard way: if you break protocol, some SHU inmates CAN and WILL attack you for it. The rationale is they want the best and brightest working the unit, not lazy or bad guys who could mess up and cause unnecessary trouble. All the things I've described happen IG. Your character would know about most of this if they'd spent any time at all in the SHU unit, either working or visiting. You should RP accordingly in there: you're dealing with the worst of the worst who are looking for a window to kill you.

Working a SHU module has advantages and disadvantages from the perspective of an officer. On the one hand, rowdy troublemaking is almost never something you have to deal with. The guys who live here regulate their own and want to live in a peaceful environment. You also don't have to monitor behavior constantly like if you're working a general population day-room because the guys in the SHU only get one hour outside of their cell per day. On the other hand, when something goes wrong here, it really goes wrong. Incredibly serious staff assaults and stabbings happen here. You may only have to be watching the inmates closely for an hour per day but during that hour you really need to be eagle-eyed.

Probationary COs are hazed, roasted, and all-around treated like second-class citizens by their superiors. This isn’t a personal bullying thing it’s part of the training. If you can’t handle shit from your TO or sergeant then you can’t handle yourself in front of convicts. It’s supposed to be your right of passage. You keep your head down, don’t rat on fellow officers, get hazed and picked on by your superiors, and eventually, you pass your probation and you’re treated as one of the team. You need to earn your place amongst the COs working the prison. Just because you passed graduation doesn’t mean you’re one of us.

The same goes for officers who have proven themselves incompetent or useless time and time again. If your fellow officers can’t trust you to cover them or work with them when needed they won’t want to work with you or associate with you so they give you the cold shoulder.

There’s a huge social dynamic amongst COs that work in a prison and you need to find your place among that through IC means. This isn’t to say that if you’ve got a bad reputation you can’t fix it. It’s all dependent on your character, how they work and how they carry themselves. No matter how much of a fuck up your character is still a CO and others will treat you with the same mutual respect in some regards. Just because your character is a fuck up doesn’t mean other COs won’t rush to help you if you’re in trouble. Unless you do something incredibly bad or are completely and utterly irredeemable others will still have respect for you because you’re a CO.

K-Party/Debrief Party/14-Party - A party thrown for correctional officers after killing an inmate on duty, typically with a Mini 14 rifle. K-Party stands for kill party, Debrief Party is another name for it referring to the debriefing officers do after a shooting, and 14 party or sometimes 22 Party refers to either the Ruger Mini 14 (rifle used by tower gunners) or the calibre of bullet used by those rifles .22 milimetre.
NOTE: These aren’t recognised by the department officially on any level and if questioned on whether they happen most would say they don’t. They tend to be private CO/cop only events at LEO friendly bars and only include the close friends and officers/supervisors in their watch. The highest rank you’ll see at these functions are maybe lieutenants. The tradition is dated and they don’t happen as often anymore due to the PC nature of everything but I’m sure they still do happen.

Six Month Club - If you’re a member of the six month club it means you’ve been suspended twice in a time span of six months or less.

There's a bit of rivalry between law enforcement Departments in state. Precinct vs Precinct if you're in SD / PD, facility vs facility if you work in Corrections. It's usually good natured banter to have a laugh about and nothing too serious. Similarly, Corrections more broadly have rivalries with Deputies and PD departments.

Its usually good fun and all about bantering between agencies. There sually isn't genuine ill-will or malice: you're all cops after all. The rivalries are also showcased through things like charity boxing matches like Battle of the Badges. Cops from different agencies fight each other in 4 round, amateur-rules matches with the money being raised going to charities. It's good PR and good funand winning is a big source of pride.

Zodiac · Mar 3, 2021

Reservation saved for next Guide of The Year award.

TheRealDoberman · Mar 4, 2021

Epic!

.stephen · Mar 4, 2021

mark · Mar 4, 2021

where twin towers correctional facility

Slipky · Mar 4, 2021

Zayats said:
where twin towers correctional facility

LS county jail = Twin Towers.

Angel_Dust · Mar 5, 2021

Zodiac said:
Reservation saved for next Guide of The Year award.

Surfer's hair will grow back when the news reach him!

2SHORT · Mar 6, 2021

/me bows.
Great guide, much love for the support to the playerbase

Slipky · Apr 5, 2021

Tips regarding CO RP were added right here on the second post: