11 Lies Hollywood Tells About Prison Life

1. The guys were actually very nice and gave me life advice. Something about having your freedom stripped away gives people a newfound love for wisdom and giving advice

2. Whistling in jail. You will get yelled at by other people, s**t travels through the pipes and sounds awful.

3. The sheer boredom....and everyone there actually pretty nice, but damn it was boring as hell.

4. I went to jail and didn't get raped. My cellmates were really chill and we all respected each other.

5. Most of them aren't hardened criminals. They simply made a mistake, or came from a bad situation, and are genuinely trying to assimilate back into society. Also, some of these dudes are hella smart. Trying to get a job as an ex-con is very difficult. If they never got involved with drugs or gangs they'd be major contributors.

6. Drugs are crazy easy to get. At least where i was.

7. There are no underground fight tournaments

8. I volunteered in our county jail when I was in high school. One thing they don't show in movies is that they smell like BO and piss.

9. Half the inmates are mentally ill - not only a few crazy ppl that the movies use to add color and character, but crazy ppl everywhere

10. Not me but my sister. The boredom, and for her the lack of cigarettes. The jail was smoke-free and you got a smoke break twice a day. A friend, the boredom and lack of decent reading material. Most inmates are illiterate and had no interests beyond what they knew, the ignorance was breathtakingly depressing. He said he had one intelligent conversation in three months. He was in the local jail fighting drug charges and managed to get house arrest and was very happy to come home and take a long hot shower with real soap.

11. No guns or cell phones. On TV whenever a cop goes to the jail when they are interviewing the suspect they have a gun and cell phone on their hip. Both items are turned in at the front gate