From: ghost_of_morphy@killfile.com   
      
   The alt.prisons FAQ  (Version 1.02)   
   By Morphy's ghost   
      
      
   Once again, your suggestions, criticisms, and especially contributions   
   are wanted and valued.  Please take the time to make the FAQ a more   
   valuable source of information.   
      
   I. Introduciton   
   II. Posting Suggestions   
   III. Frequently Asked Questions   
   IV. Definitions   
   V. Contributors   
      
   I. Introduction   
      
   Welcome to alt.prisons, a newsgroup where we discuss all sorts of   
   issues pertaining to incarceration.  If you have an interest in   
   learning about life in prison, conditions there, rules and procedures   
   of institutions, or the workings of a corrctional institution, this is   
   the right place to ask those questions.  Similarly, if you have facts   
   or news articles pertaining to correctional facilities, inmates, or   
   staff, feel free to share them with us.  Finally, if  you have ideas   
   on what should be corrected or changed or eliminated in the prison   
   system, do share your opinions with us.   
      
   Please note that alt.prison is NOT a moderated newsgroup.  We receive   
   posts from all sorts of people with all kinds of opinions., from  law   
   and order types who will answer any post with comments on how all   
   criminals should do long, hard time or be executed to ex cons, convict   
   families and friends, and assorted liberals who think that all   
   criminals should be set free,that prisons should be abolished, and   
   that most, if not all, people who work in the criminal justice system   
   are the real criminals in society.  Similarly, our posters range from   
   knowledgeable people who either have worked in a correctional system   
   or have been incarcerated in one to people whose extent of knowledge   
   on a given subject is founded on something their friend's cousin once   
   said about being locked up or a documentary they once saw on TV.   
   Using common sense and evalutating the source of  the posters   
   information will help you separate the wheat from the chaff, and we   
   have plenty of well-informed and helpful regulars who will be happy to   
   participate in meaningful discussions.   
      
   II. Posting Suggestions   
      
   A. What should I know before I post?   
      
   Before you post, we suggest that you get to know us a little bit by   
   LOOKING, LISTENING and LURKING.  By this, we mean that we first   
   suggest that you look at the message headers to see what topics we   
   discuss here and which of those might interest you.  Then we suggest   
   that you listen by exploring what is said in those topics.  Finally,   
   we suggest that you lurk in the newsgroup for a while and watch as   
   some of these discussions unfold.  By following these three L's you   
   will be up to speed with the rest of us on the issues we are currently   
   discussing.   
      
   B. What can I post here?   
      
   Any posts that contain views, opinions, facts, or criticism of a   
   correctional system are wanted and welcome as long as they are   
   factually accurate.  However, we have a quite diverse audience here,   
   and you must therefore realize that there will be some that will   
   question what you say.  Therefore, we suggest that you be prepared to   
   back up the things that you say.  For example, if you post a statement   
   saying that housing an inmate costs this state so many dollars a day,   
   I'm sure that someone would want to know where that fact came from.   
   If you post a news article, it would be nice to know who the author   
   was and where (if anywhere) it was previously published.  If you make   
   a statement saying that inmates in a certain faciity are routinely   
   treated in such and such a way, it'd be nice to know the authority   
   that you have for making that statement.   
      
   C. What about off topic posts?   
      
   Many people make posts that are not strictly about incarceration and   
   institutions, because they would like feedback from the other people   
   here or because they feel that we ought to know about what they are   
   posting.  It would be polite to preface the header message with the   
   initials "OT" to let others know that this post is off topic.   
      
   D. What can't I post here?   
      
   Advertisments, spam, and scams have no place in alt.prison.  If you   
   crosspost to this newsgroup, we do hope that your crossposting will   
   relevant to our interests here at alt.prison.   
      
   E. Is it safe to post here?   
      
   We have a very diverse audience that ranges from law enforcement   
   officials to convicted felons.  I would not want all of the people who   
   visit this newsgroup to know personal information about me or to have   
   access to my e-mail address.  I would suggest that you not post   
   anything about yourself that you would not want publicly available.   
      
   III.  Frequently Asked Questions.   
   	   
   A. Is prison a safe environment?   
      
   It depends on what you mean by a safe environment.  Every institution   
   has rules and regulations that it enforces tto try and make the   
   environment as safe as possible.  On the other hand, every institution   
   has inmates who will prey upon other inmates if given the chance.   
   Therefore, the professionalism, integrity, and dedication of the staff   
   of a particular institution goes a long way towards determining how   
   safe a particular institution is, as does the rules and conditions   
   under which the inmates are housed..   
      
   B. I have a friend who was just incarcerated.  How do I get him   
   stamps, money, food, etc.?   
      
   Different institutions have widely varying rules on this.  The one   
   that I work at, for example,  does not allow the inmate to have access   
   to money at all, whereas stamps and snack food are items that can be   
   ordered from the canteen if the inmate has had someone deposit money   
   in his account.  I know of other institutions that will permit some or   
   all of these items to be mailed to the inmate or given to him during   
   visitation.  Call the institution and ask them what their rules are   
   about this.   
      
   C. Why do correctional officers work unarmed?  Isn't that dangerous?   
      
   It would be more dangerous for them to have a weapon.  If I'm   
   remembering correctly, something like one out of four officers who are   
   victims of shootings gets shot with his own weapon.  In prison, where   
   an officer is literally surrounded by inmates, carrying a weapon is a   
   very bad idea indeed.  This is not to say that correctional officers   
   will never carry a weapon.  Perimeter towers are normally manned by   
   armed officers, officers that transport inmates are normally armed,   
   and officers searching for excapees are again normally armed.   
      
   IV.  Definitions   
      
   A. Kite: A note that a prisoner tries with varying degrees of success   
   to get from his   
   confined position to anyone else.   (Contributed by Stewart Connor.)   
   B. The Hole: A common punishment in institutions for rule violations   
   is that of isolating the prisoner from others by confining him to a   
   solitary cell under stricter rules of confinement.  Being held in this   
   manner is referred to as being put in the "hole."   
   C. Supermax:  An institution (or part of an institution) designed   
   specifically to hold the most dangerous of inmates in solitary   
   confinement with a minimum danger to staff and other inmates.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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