Hi Lisa,
The following information is NOT from personal experience, but from a friend of a friend of a friend o fmine.
However, it is genuine, and might help answer your question. Okay, the scenario generally goes, something like this:
Person commits a crime, and gets caught.
Criminal gets interviewed by police
Criminal either admits guilt or pleads innocence.
More investigation is undertaken by police, to back-up their case against the criminal.
For the sake of argument, criminal pleads guilty, and let's say that they are a first-time offender. Criminal will probably be given Bail, until police complete their investigation.
(Up to this point, the duration of events can be a month or two, to upwards of a year.
)
Criminal is (eventually) called to court. Criminal pleads guilty.
Court usually adjourns for a couple of months, to wait for completion of police report and/or a psychiatric report (if they think you've got a few marbles loose, or think that you may have extenuating circumstances as for why you committed the crime.
Court recovenes, reads the reports and sentences you. For the sake of argument, court gives you 12 months in prison, for whatever reason. You get taken by the police straight-away. No chance to make arrangements to sort out anything. No chance to say goodbye to family or friends. You get taken to the prison cell, at the court, until the prison transporter comes to take you (and maybe a few others) away to the relevant prison, where you start your sentence immediately.
If the criminal, in this example, has a rented house, but is unemployed, then normally, they will usually upon arrival at prison, have to fill-in various forms notifying the local council that they are in prison for X months/years, and the council normally pays the rent and council tax on the property until you are released. If you have a job, you will probably be sacked, unless you have a very forgiving boss, in which case they may keep your position open, but unpaid (obviously) until you return.
If you have a mortgage, you would need to notify your mortgage advisor, and inform them of what has happened. Alternative arrangements would need to be made between the mortgage holder and the mortgage company to either defer payments, or arrange for payments to be made, on your behalf.
The applies with any debts or other payments you have: you would have to contact the various companies, whilst in prison, and notify them of what has happened, or get someone to do this on your behalf (acting by proxy).
Trust me, when I say that prison is not fun or easy!
Having been a "visitor" to see someone I know serving in a prison, I can assure everyone that the cells aren't cosy, nor pleasant. Most prisoners (short-term offenders of less than 12 months) do not have X-Boxes or TV's in their cells, and you are usually only allowed to have a maximum of five books or magazines/comics of your own, in your cell at any one time. (Books can be sent in or out of the prison, but these will be vetted by the prison staff for content and suitability, so even some magazines will be restricted or banned, and this can include stuff like FHM or Maxim being banned, depending on the content of a particular issue.)
The average day in prison consists of:
7:45am - woken up by prison guards (and a head-count is taken)
8:00am - breakfast (cereal or maybe bacon and eggs), eaten in cells
8:45am - prisoners who get lessons/education classes get to go to these, everyone else is locked-up until later in the morning.
9:00am - lessons start
10:30am - 15 minute "recess" in exercise yard for everyone not in lessons.
11:45am - everyone returns to cells, who is not already there. (Head-count taken)
Noon - lunch, again eaten in cells.
1:00pm - activitys take place, which might be a visit to the prison library, or simply being able to visit other prisoners on your cell/wing. (Cells are normally unlocked for the afternoon, so that inmates can move about inside their own wing. Prisoners may be allowed to make phone calls home, using old-style BT phonecards, with all phone calls monitored.)
4:00pm - back in cells, locked up, and headcount taken
4:15pm - afternoon "recess" for 30-minutes taken outside in exercise yard (or some prisoners may be allowed to go to a prison gym)
4:45pm - prisoners all locked-up again in cells.
5:00pm - teatime, eaten in cells. (Headcount taken)
6:00pm - prisoners are free to go see a film (pre-vetted by the prison officers) in a specific room (with prisoners sitting on the floor, or those plastic orange chairs you may have had at school). Otherwise, you stay in your cell.
7:45pm- prisoners return to cells, and headcount in taken
8:00pm - locked-up for the night, until 7:45am next morning!
That's the average day, for a low-risk, first-time prisoner! Only the prisoners serving long-sentences have access to games consoles, and these are usually limited to a couple of hours a day. (All consoles have a device fitted by the prison staff to them, to restrict when they can be used, and for how long! They can also be revoked at any time, and will not be returned to a prisoner, until he or she completes their sentence.)
And, despite what the Tabloids would have you think, most prisoners do NOT have access to their own TV's. The reality, is that a prisoner who has been on "good behaviour" can accrue the right to "hire" a TV, with money being paid from any work they may do whilst in prison. (Usually about £2 a week to rent the set.) However, any work you may undertake (cleaning a prison wing, the showers and toilers, laundry, helping the prison officers, Samaritans Duty, working in the library or prison church perhaps) is paid at a rate of maybe a few pennies per day! It gives a whole new meaning to cheap labour!
So, there you have it! I hope it has proved informative for some of you. Every prison has its own sets of criteria about how it operates, who gets to use TV's, radios or consoles, so not everywhere is the same, but the information I've posted above, was the experience of the person I knew.
Pooch
(NOT a convict, honest Guv'nor!)
being grilled.
Monolith DF subwoofer. B&W VM1 speakers x5.
Re: Anyone been to prison 
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