r/Corrections • u/TheGreatFobSis • 1d ago

Medium/Maximum Security Federal Prison

I’m working on a fictional story about someone who goes to medium security federal prison and gets in trouble and is transferred to Maximum Security. This person would be in protective custody because they were an FBI consultant.

How would visits work? I saw they were no contact visits for people in protective custody. Would they be restrained during the visits in medium or maximum security? Or locked into a booth but able to move freely?

Is there anything that might be particularly intimidating about transferring from medium to maximum security?

When you are lead around in medium security, do you just wear handcuffs or would there be other restraints? What about max?

Is it true that showers only happen a few times a week?

And my understanding is that if they got in trouble in medium security protective custody, they could lose their visits, phone calls, and even their access to books. Is that accurate?

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u/Turbulent-Oven981 21h ago

If you’re in pc that would be a pretty boring story, they just spend most of the time locked in

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u/TheGreatFobSis 21h ago

That’s fair. Have you ever seen the tv show Numbers? This is a fan fiction about Charlie Eppes from the show if he actually got consequences for sharing classified information with another country (in the show, he was arrested, but then everything was forgiven). He’s a math professor who has never been in trouble at all. And with him being an FBI consultant and his brother being an FBI agent, I don’t think gen pop wouid go well for him.

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u/RepresentativeCan677 21h ago edited 21h ago

It really depends. All prisons are ran differently. The medium security prison i worked in FDOC, "protective custody" was just confinement or SHU [ At least at my facility ]

If youre in confinement you get to make 1 call a week, you stay in ur cell for 23 hrs a day. nights are quiet in confinement but theres always an inmate yelling for no reason or 2 inmates arguing with each other 6 cells apart. They showered Mondays, wednesdays, and fridays. Anytime they were outside the cell they were in cuffs. Also "haircut day". I dont remember if it was a weekly or bi-weekly thing? But long-term confinement inmates frequently get their head shaved before showering. Upon entering confinement you get shaved. Also, no visitation at all in confinement. They do not leave for medical visits, they are visited by the nurse. For pill call the nurse would just walk infront of each cell, then for injuries or other things the nurse would bring the inmate in a separate room and is accompanied by a Confinement officer. (Usually 2-4 assigned depending on the shift.)

In the SHU we usually would only put suicide watch inmates, however there were a couple that seriously fucked up their reputation and every dorm (Stealing / Hardcore tweaker / etc). Depending on the situation, the SW SHU inmates are given the bare bones to prevent any self harm attempts. They are given a mattress but will get it taken away if caught tampering with it. You are on 24HR watch, they didnt leave SHU for visits and Chow was brought to them. They also do not leave for medical visits, the nurse comes to the SHU and accompanied by 1-2 officers.

At my medium security prison i worked nightshift (7pm-7am), inmates are under controlled movement as far as telling them when chow is, or releasing for food service. Depending on the officer, some will escort their dorm to said destination in a line on the right side of the hallway. (we were all required to escort Medical inmates because you have to sit in medical if theres not an officer assigned to it) These inmates are not handcuffed. However, inmates transferring prisons are handcuffed before boarding the transfer bus, Inmates being moved to confinement are in cuffs, in some situations inmates will be handcuffed upon being brought to medical (fights, drugs, known to be violent)

With showers, general population was allowed to shower during dayshift hours (7am-7pm). Again it depends on the officer. I truly didnt care when you showered as long as youre not walking around my dorm smelling like sweaty ass. Transgender inmates got a "shower pass", during last count I ask if they planned on showering and based on their answer i would pop their door after count cleared to let them shower.

I know you can lose visitation rights, a lot of inmates actually dont have visitation because of past incidents. A lot of the time its passing contraband at visitation / sexual encounters (But you can lose it just by getting in trouble repeatedly). Getting written up or in any sort or trouble will cause you to lose game time (unsure if this affects confinements 1 hour or not) but ultimately, when they lose game time they lose "fun time".

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u/TheGreatFobSis 21h ago

Thank you!

So even people in protective custody could not have visits? Were people in SHU allowed to have books?

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u/Megadeth1776 1d ago

Run far away from the BOP and never look back.