[JonnieCache]

If you want to know what life in a UK prison is actually like, read this ebook, HMP - A Survival Guide http://issuu.com/prisonism/docs/hmp_a_survival_guide

It's a down to earth practical guide aimed at someone who hasn't been to prison before. The ToC features such chapters as Sharing A Cell, Violence, Getting Stuff Done (Complaints and Applications and so on. Smoking teabags, making toast using the radiator, cooking noodles in the kettle, making rope out of sheets to pass things between cells, flash-distilling vodka using ice cubes and a live 240v mains cable, it's all in there.

I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever wondered what prison really involves, day to day, from a prisoners point of view. Or anyone really. It's a fascinating document, very much DIY, reads a bit like a txtfile from back in the day.

[onetimeonly]

I wish I'd read this before going inside. It's very detailed, insightful and in some places poignant.

[jacquesm]

I've posted it as an article. If you don't mind my asking, and feel free to ignore, what were you in jail for?

[onetimeonly]

Sorry didn't see this comment for a while.

I ran a black-hat collective between the ages of 13 and about 17. That led to getting lots of offers to hack for money, and through discussion with the people making those offers, eventually to getting interested in document security. I developed a way to replicate the UK driving license with all security features using commodity hardware. It fooled police officers and every official that ever looked at it. I sold the licenses to fund my desire to improve the design and manufacture. People used them for, among other things, fraud. 'conspiracy to defraud' was the crime.