33 Shocking Habits Former Inmates Couldn’t Escape Even After Freedom
A somewhat-friend of mine did a few years and the one habit he couldn’t shake was distrusting people. He said that people in prison are never nice, if they’re nice it’s because of a hidden motive. Up to this day he still doesn’t trust people who act nice / generous / helpful / .. towards him.
A couple guys I know-after being out for 5-10 yrs- wrap their arms around their plates and shovel food in their mouths at the speed of light. They are also super defensive of their food. When I first got to know them I jokingly swiped a chip off one of their plates and he flipped his fork up and demanded I give it back, freaked me out a lil
Realising I could just get up and go somewhere. That I could make plans tomorrow from a thousand different choices. Hard to break the habit of checking everyone who enters your vicinity. It feels like you’ve gotta mark everyone off as a non threat Edit: I don’t care if you do that and you’ve never been to prison
Definitely sleeping habits. Still haven’t broke them. Haven’t slept a full night in over a decade. Any noise and my eyes are open and I’m wide awake. I can hear really well. A raccoon comes nightly to eat scraps and cat food and I can hear him crunching outside on the porch from bed on the opposite side of the house (roughly 60feet away). Wide awake.
My ex would sleep a certain way all the time. To me it seemed like he was sleeping as if he was in a coffin,his arms crossed and wouldn’t move the entire night for a couple months. He eventually broke that habit. Edit: a word
My uncle was in prison for a while and we’ve talked a bit about his experience and how it effected him: -He has a hard time not being violent. You’d never guess since he mainly just sits in a corner and smokes but he’s been out for nearly ten years and still always struggles with using his words -The guy cannot stand authority. He tells me that its hard to listen to bosses when you know you’re probably smarter and tougher than them. He knows most people feel this way, but he just can’t ignore it. He’s taken up professional carving so he can be his boss. -He’s really in touch with our native roots now, on account of joining a first nations gang in prison. -Doesn’t talk much, I don’t know if that’s because of prison but he really only speaks if he wants to. Not the type of guy who likes to talk just to talk. -Doesn’t have a lot. He has some sort of abandonment issue or something so he doesn’t want a lot of things to miss if he goes back to prison. -For all the time he doesn’t spend with people, he’s out with nature or doing something in the wilderness. I think it helps keep him calm and feel connected. Nice enough guy, but prison kind of f****d him up I think and he’s going to live his life being slightly disconnected with people
Not me personally but I know a guy that said after he got out he just wanted McDonald’s. When he got there he spent 20 minutes staring at the menu trying to decide what to order because he wasn’t used to having choices.
I had to completely change my sense of time. I agree with all the people who said they ate super fast, but then we would slow walk back from the chow hall- any excuse for a few minutes more outside. I made sure I never consolidated enjoyable things. If I had a snack- I ate it and concentrated on it. If there was something good on TV, I watched it. Now, I’ll snack while I watch a movie because there aren’t enough hours in the day- but on the inside I was trying to make hours and days go away. I’ve got a good job now, and nice respectable friends, but I still react to confrontational situations more quickly, decisively and… efficiently than they do. I’m able to pull back at the last minute, but it’s pretty clear that violence is not a tool in their arsenal.
When my dad got out of prison (10+ years) we nicknamed him Martha Stewart because he was such a clean freak. His home looks like an ikea catalog, he has glass containers for his shoes, he wakes up early to iron/wash/scrub everything. When I lived with him for a year, I was grounded so many times over leaving water drops in the sink.
Not me – but guy who worked for me. When things were very busy, I would often get carry-out lunch for everyone and bring it back to the workplace. This one guy would eat a cheeseburger and french fries in two minutes. Wow! Once I asked him why he ate so quickly. He said “Well nobsforgma, I spent 7 years in a Federal prison and if you didn’t eat your meal in 10 minutes, you didn’t get anything. That 10 minutes often included the time it took standing in line to get your food.” OK then. I never said anything to him about it after that.
Not me but my best friend who spent 2/3 of her life locked up in juvie and prison: If she wanted a glass of water, she would ask permission. Also, if we were at my apartment and we’re gonna leave to go somewhere, she would stand behind the door and wait for me to open it. As if the door to my apartment was locked and only I had the keys. RIP M
I spent 72 months in prison for a tragic car accident that I had caused. After I was released I kept telling my wife exactly what I was doing without her asking. She thought it was funny at first but after a few weeks of it she was starting to get bothered.
Having your head on a swivel, protecting your personal property in an obsessive manner, and sizing everyone up. When I was locked up, I always knew what was going on 360 degrees around me. Only the last unit I was in had lockers with actually locks, so before that, I had to protect my commie, paperwork and books all the time. Most people would fight you to take your s**t because that is the respectful way to do it, but cat burglars are the worst; they sneak around and take s**t. They get f****d up by everyone when they get caught. It is code: you want my s**t, come get it. Not sneaking around and steal it. I’ve been out for almost a year and a half but I still constantly size people up. No matter where it is (grocery store, Walmart, walking down the street), I still analyze each person and figure my best course of action if we have to fight.
Dude I work with said for the first little bit after getting out he would take a leg out of his pants when he’d s**t. Not sure how common that was, dude’s a fighter though, so maybe that had something to do with it.
Not wearing shoes in the shower. Eating with forks and knives. Having salt and pepper for food. Not always having to watch your back. Being able to get food when you want it, and just get up and leave to go for a drive or something.
Hardest habit? Talking s**t to dum***s old men who think they’re right cuz they’re old. Easiest habit? I’m never eating top ramen or getting a bowl cut from a Mexican “barber” again
Not an ex con but my step dad has been in and out of prison for the majority of his life, he always said that whenever he gets out of prison you’re so use to to it being loud all the time that when he got home he couldn’t sleep because it was so quiet.
Never been to prison. But i did a few months in county jail. Something i havnt seen mentioned is trading food. When i got out i asked my girlfried to trade me her chicken wings for my macorni. Pure habit. I really couldve just went to the kitchen and got more chicken
Just knowing what I could do to someone who crosses me. Knowing just how badly I could f*** them up physically and mentally. I have to remind myself that “no, this person probably has a family, probably hasn’t done anything wrong in his life, don’t destroy him just because you can.”
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