SURVIVING PRISON

The Practical Inmate Handbook for Jail Rules, Etiquette, and Reentry

De: Hex The Helpful Ex-Con, Ex-Con Mike

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

The Practical Inmate Handbook for Jail Rules, Etiquette, and Reentry

Most books about prison focus on redemption, outrage, or spectacle.

This one focuses on survival.

Surviving Prison is a clear-eyed, experience-based guide written by someone who spent more than a decade inside. It does not promise reform, transformation, or meaning. It explains how prison actually functions - and how to endure it without making your situation worse.

This book breaks down the realities few people explain before incarceration begins: how authority is enforced, how respect and boundaries work, how small mistakes escalate, and how isolation and pressure change the way people think and behave. It addresses daily survival inside - cell life, routines, unwritten rules, mental strain, communication with the outside - and the challenges that continue after release.

Written without bravado or moralizing, Surviving Prison treats incarceration as an environment to be navigated, not a lesson to be learned. It is intended for people facing time, families trying to understand what their loved ones are entering, and readers seeking an honest account of life inside institutions built on control.

This book stands alongside BOY=BAD, a survival narrative that explores how people are shaped long before confinement - showing what happens when early conditioning meets institutional punishment.

This is not comfort reading.
It is preparation.

No nonsensical guide to prison...

This book delivers exactly what the title promises—a no-nonsense guide to surviving prison, written by someone who’s done real time (over 11 years, in fact). It’s not overly complex or bloated with filler. Instead, it’s straightforward, focused, and brutally honest about what to expect—from the moment you're arrested to the long road back to life on the outside.

The author doesn't sugarcoat anything. He walks you through the dos and don’ts with the kind of grit and insight only someone who's lived it can provide. It's not polished literature—the language leans heavily on crude slang and raw spoken word over polished grammar—but in this case, it works. Let’s face it: you’re not heading into a place where everyone’s quoting Shakespeare. The tone feels right for the subject.

It’s not something I’d personally go back and reread, but I do think it serves its purpose well. If you’re trying to understand the mindset of an inmate, or you—or someone you know—might be facing time, this is a pretty decent survival tool. It's short, direct, and doesn't waste your time.

Recommended for the context it serves. 3 out of 4 stars.