The Prison Compendium

with No Comments

Welcome to the Yard.

It doesn’t matter if you’re on the inside, as an inmate, or a guard. Nor does it matter if you are

on the outside, as a friend, or family member visiting a loved one who’s incarcerated. Everyone’s here in the Yard. Everyone is locked up.

It’s been called a dozen different names or more, in as many different versions and incarnations: Jail, Lockup, The Slammer, Prison, The Joint, Juvy, Correctional Facility, Reformatory, Asylum, Cuckoo’s Nest, Crazy House, Boot Camp, Penitentiary, Stockade, Dungeon, The Cooler, The Can, Guardhouse, The Pen, Statesville, Bullpen, Pound, House of Correction, Up the River, Detention Camp, The Rack, The Inside, The Cage, Penal Institution, Clink, The Black Hole.

Called by any number of names, it all amounts to one thing: You’re no longer FREE. And loss of freedom has been called by any equal number of just as frightening terms, synonymous with all of the above:

Detainment, Confinement, Incarceration, Sentenced, Convicted, Institutionalized, Impounded, Held, Caged, Imprisoned, Committed, Restricted, Under Lock & Key, Sent Up River, Put Away.

But that’s only the beginning of the story.

This is a very nice example (from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean) of what prisoners can do. They wrote a few dozens of interesting short stories and all of these were compiled in an intriguing and fascinating publication. I strongly recommend reading it!!! You can find the book at www.amazon.com