Help me find this short story that I read in 8th grade 20 years ago. It's about a prisoner who finds the entrance to a tunnel in his jail cell and crawls all the way down... [more inside]
posted by yawper on Nov 1, 2009 - 4 answers

Prison party fashion...without the prison? [more inside]
posted by tejolote on Sep 29, 2009 - 24 answers

Dear AskMe, Should I be concerned about writing to someone in prison that knows about previous illegal activities I've participated in? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Aug 19, 2009 - 13 answers

Anyone recognize this short story about a journalist who wants to learn what it's like to be on Death Row? It's NOT by Roald Dahl. [more inside]
posted by web-goddess on Jul 19, 2009 - 6 answers

Is there a specific name for the little door-within-a-door often seen on prison cells that are used to pass food through?
posted by jontyjago on Jun 18, 2009 - 12 answers

Budget advice for people just released from a California state prison. [more inside]
posted by small_ruminant on May 26, 2009 - 7 answers

Prison gang reading lists and what's on them. Does anyone out there know a concise answer? [more inside]
posted by monkishies on May 14, 2009 - 17 answers

How do I send books or magazines to someone in jail? [more inside]
posted by electroboy on Apr 22, 2009 - 6 answers

How do I donate a bunch of books to a prison? Bonus for Washington state based resources. [more inside]
posted by Jawn on Apr 9, 2009 - 11 answers

NameThatBookFilter: Autobiography by a former criminal/hard timer that later became an author? [more inside]
posted by mrhaydel on Apr 2, 2009 - 16 answers

Help me identify an old record album featuring prison inmates translating bible stories into "jive." [more inside]
posted by werkzeuger on Mar 25, 2009 - 2 answers

A friend of mine was recently sent to Moriah Shock Correctional Facility in NY. I want to send him some mail. What should I send him along with the letter? With this kind of incarceration it doesn't seem like a book is appropriate since I'm not sure he'd have time to read.
posted by josher71 on Mar 24, 2009 - 7 answers

Can anyone point me to information on exercising with extremely limited resources? [more inside]
posted by malusmoriendumest on Mar 22, 2009 - 14 answers

Help me think of prison-themed presents for a Down by Law screening party. [more inside]
posted by lunalaguna on Feb 23, 2009 - 15 answers

Hypothetical child custody question about when the only living parent goes to jail. How hard is it for the convicted parent to regain custody of their child upon their release? [more inside]
posted by np312 on Feb 12, 2009 - 11 answers

I want to build a fake prison cell set that's mobile. What do I do? [more inside]
posted by history is a weapon on Dec 1, 2008 - 8 answers

What can someone expect when they go to jail for five days for a DUI? [more inside]
posted by nomad73 on Oct 28, 2008 - 10 answers

For a project on prisons, I want to film in an abandoned prison. Where can I find abandoned prisons in a short drive from New York City? Short drive means ideally within two hours to keep costs down, but if there's something great further away, let me know. [more inside]
posted by history is a weapon on Oct 11, 2008 - 9 answers

How can I find out if someone I used to know is in prison? [more inside]
posted by Sully on Oct 7, 2008 - 7 answers

What career paths are available for someone in their 60's who has spent much of his life in and out of prison? (the long, not too gory details inside) [more inside]
posted by verevi on Aug 21, 2008 - 11 answers

Any idea where to find a black-and-white horizontally-striped t-shirts reminiscent of old style prison outfits--like what Elvis had in Jailhouse Rock? I've found whole costumes (jumpers, etc.) but I just need t-shirts.
posted by sourwookie on Jun 19, 2008 - 8 answers

Why haven't (or to what extent have) prisons embraced video technology? [more inside]
posted by greytape on May 21, 2008 - 13 answers

Can you identify a short story I read in grade school? [more inside]
posted by timsteil on Apr 22, 2008 - 4 answers

How to find a company's Federal Tax ID # (in a hurry!) [more inside]
posted by lattiboy on Apr 15, 2008 - 6 answers

[Prison Filter] Do female prisoners get conjugal visits? [more inside]
posted by gnash on Feb 18, 2008 - 5 answers

What would a person have to do in order to get a one year jail sentence in the California penal system. [more inside]
posted by SECONDHANDSMOTE on Feb 15, 2008 - 18 answers

Help me find literature written about life in prisons, work camps, concentration camps etc. [more inside]
posted by Telf on Feb 7, 2008 - 39 answers

Has anyone ever escaped from jail or prison using this novel method, either in fiction or in real life? [more inside]
posted by Tube on Jan 30, 2008 - 6 answers

can a paranoid schizophrenic be put in prison for having an attack in a bank and tearing up the place? No one was injured, but I did destroy many tables, chairs and television sets before I was detained. I was having both auditory and visual hallucinations.
posted by DillonArt on Jan 23, 2008 - 24 answers

According to these pages on the U.S. Bureau of Justice site, imprisonment for public order offenses suddenly fell by a third in 2002. Why?
posted by painquale on Jan 12, 2008 - 11 answers

I have heard that prisoners will use a trick involving sticking a bit of metal in electrical outlets to get a spark in a rather Macgyver-esque process of lighting a cigarette. Is this more urban legend than reality. [more inside]
posted by gbinal on Dec 26, 2007 - 14 answers

Would getting a person to exercise before stabbing them cause them to die faster? [more inside]
posted by Bookhouse on Dec 16, 2007 - 23 answers

I'm looking for the title and/or author of a story I read years ago. It was about, or had in it, a description of a terrible kind of prison, a vast multilayered cylinder carved inside a mountain, that would rotate slowly around its course from the efforts of the prisoners inside. The only way to free those inside was, according to the story, to keep adding new prisoners to the vacated cells to keep pulling the thing along. [more inside]
posted by aeschenkarnos on Dec 11, 2007 - 14 answers

Approximately how many people are in prison and/or dead (or not) because of the drug war? [more inside]
posted by Riki tiki on Oct 29, 2007 - 5 answers

what fun, performance-related activities would you teach in a high-security prison? [more inside]
posted by twistofrhyme on Oct 22, 2007 - 12 answers

Where can I find people who have some relationship to convict-leasing in the southern United States? Are there historical societies (African American or otherwise) that can direct me to older people who can talk about what it was like? Where else can I look? [more inside]
posted by history is a weapon on Sep 18, 2007 - 4 answers

How much money could be saved if California executed all the prisoners on death row tomorrow? What about the country? [more inside]
posted by sipher on Jul 18, 2007 - 13 answers

Has anyone ever done time in prison for harassing a whale? [more inside]
posted by jason's_planet on Jul 10, 2007 - 10 answers

I'm looking for additional information about the author Jack Black [more inside]
posted by The Castle on May 30, 2007 - 4 answers

Many years ago I witnessed a murder and was the victim of attempted murder. The murderer was caught, and sentenced to 40 years-to-life. His first parole hearing is scheduled for 2008. I need to know what to expect. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on May 2, 2007 - 13 answers

Does anyone know the title of old Italian film - Partly set in a Venetian Jail? [more inside]
posted by Dub on Feb 8, 2007 - 7 answers

How to make life in a fish bowl tolerable [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Jan 20, 2007 - 33 answers

Do private prisons like the one depicted in the movie Oldboy actually exist? [more inside]
posted by Ndwright on Nov 26, 2006 - 12 answers

I have a friend who has served time for several DUI's, and is currently on parole. He is worried about failing a drug test, and being sent back to the slammer to complete his sentence. Are there any MeFis out there that have been on parole, failed a test for marijuana, and not been sent back to jail? [more inside]
posted by lester on Jul 7, 2006 - 11 answers

Is there a specific socio-/psychological term for women who do this? Does it ever happen with the genders reversed?
posted by kittyprecious on Jun 28, 2006 - 7 answers

This music video [YouTube link] is...um...hard to describe. It's also entirely in Japanese, and my wife, friends and I have all been wondering for more than two years just who these people are, and just what, exactly, they're singing about. [more inside]
posted by davejay on Apr 14, 2006 - 14 answers

I remember hearing once that someone in the audience at Johhny Cash's Folsom Prison performance - as a prisoner - was inspired by it to go on to a successful career as a singer/songwriter. Is this apocryphal? If not, who was it? Someone mentioned to me Waylon Jennings, but I don't think it's him. Google is inconclusive.
posted by oxala on Jan 22, 2006 - 17 answers

Just saw Walk the Line, which opens with Johnny Cash's performance at Folsom Prison, and I was wondering: what other bands (of any genre) have also played prisons and for what reason? I guess mental institutions count, but only if they're for the criminally insane ;-)
posted by ibeji on Nov 19, 2005 - 22 answers

I'm looking for a slang word/phrase used to describe a false bar in a prison cell. The idea is that when a prison was built/expanded by inmate labor, workers would loosen one bar before it'd set too solidly in cement to make a potential escape hatch. What would inmates call this? [more inside]
posted by soviet sleepover on Oct 18, 2005 - 6 answers

Name 5 US Celebrities to have gone to jail that aren't boxers or rap stars. [more inside]
posted by BigCalm on Jun 14, 2005 - 51 answers