Do’s and Don’ts to visiting in federal prison. #prisonvisitation #prisoncommissary #prisonguard #federalprison

Do's and don'ts to visiting in federal prison first if you're driving to see someone in prison drive slowly in that very broke prison town they're looking to give expensive tickets when you the visit starts you can embrace the beginning and end of the visit too much touchy throughout the visit can lead to problems including shutting the visit down if you are they prisoner do not touch cash I mistakenly took money from my mom's wallet to go to the vending machine to buy her a Coca-Cola a guard stopped me and said inmates do not touch cash if you do it again you are going to the hole one time my parents tried to bring an S and a T to fill out the prison scrabble set and I thought they were going to arrest my parents you cannot bring anything in other than money in a ziplock bag so you can buy your loved one loved one things in the venue machine in fact while you're waiting for them go to the vending machine buy things so when they come down it's already there because these vending machines empty quickly do not interrupt someone's visit I made this big mistake I introduced my friend Brad to my friend Andrew who is in a visit and it's like just because I'm good friends with him and the camp didn't mean that I can interrupt his visit because he was getting terrible news at home and I later learned someone had said this is the last time I'm coming to visit you and that's when it kind of hit me prison visitation is not all it's cracked up to be it can be brutal devastating you get bad news from home you don't feel like you can contribute it's part of the reason some prisoners won't visit at all and they totally separate themselves from their family in the outside world you can kind of fake it through an email or a phone call but when you visit and your family's gonna know if you're doing the work they're gonna know if you're productive if you're disheveled if you're complaining I want all of you to make it about them it is a big effort to get there it is exhausting friends at times they'd get home and they'd say dude I need to take a nap this has been a full day but as a prisoner you're like what's the big deal it's a hundred yards to visitation it's a hundred yards back up to the dorm it's all about them and if you're going to visit let them know your plans upon your release how you're making the most of your sentence I'd loved one friends would say to me dude you're working hard you look great what do I need to do to get three months in this minimum security camp I could use a break I want you to use your experience productively what I didn't like is one some prisoners would say you're 20 minutes late you're 30 minutes late I've been looking over from my dorm into the parking lot for the last 30-40 minutes what's happening to you without recognizing the effort and expense to get there it's part of the reason some families won't return if you played guilty as I did and you made bad decisions as I did and people are coming to support you because they love you prove worthy of it thank them be grateful which is why I will say if you want prison visitation to be great and productive it is all about them not about you hope you visit well if you're in prison make the most of the oh one more thing make sure you take a photo by a token in the prison commissary when you take the photo you give the token to the the person whose job is to take photos in about three weeks later the photo is going to show up on your rack. Visit Helen Prison.