Being locked up behind prison walls is no picnic and you need to get used to that idea before you find yourself on the wrong side of those walls. A lot of bad things happen in prison, you can’t do anything to prevent these things happening and you can’t even run away to escape from the dangers. What you can do is learn how to cope with the challenges and avoid the dangers you will meet inside prison. Surviving prison depends on knowing what to expect and how to deal with it.

Some former prison inmates describe prison as hell on earth, and that is exactly how it can be if you start off on the wrong foot when you are sent to prison. Despite the hellish nature of the ordeal, surviving prison is possible if you learn the right things to do to cope with life behind bars. Here are 5 tips for coping with prison life.

1. Avoid gambling. Whatever you do, don’t get involved in any form of gambling in prison. Playing card games to pass the time is fine, but never get drawn into betting on the outcome. If you are tempted into gambling, you can find yourself in debt and the way payment is extracted could be very painful.

2. Avoid drugs. The use of illegal drugs is widespread in prison. Don’t get involved. In the first place, you don’t want to develop a habit that can ruin the whole of the rest of your life. In the second place, you don’t want to find yourself in debt to the prison drug barons. In the third place, if you get caught you could find your term in prison extended.

3. Avoid gay prisoners. Don’t behave in a homophobic manner, just remain neutral but distant. Sexual assaults are a danger in prison; if you keep company with homosexuals you risk being beaten up by the homophobes or sexually assaulted by other inmates who assume you are homosexual.

4. Stand up for yourself. If another inmate picks on you, fight back even if you don’t have a hope of winning the fight. If you don’t fight back, you will be marked out as an easy target and will become the victim of every bully inside the prison (guards as well as inmates).

5. Keep yourself to yourself. Don’t confide your personal business to other prisoners and don’t try to interfere in other inmates’ affairs. If you witness a person doing something wrong, develop a case of selective blindness, deafness and dumbness.

Prison is a harsh world within our world, and it can change people for the worse. You can learn how to survive a prison sentence and come through the experience undamaged. You will find that surviving prison is not impossible provided you learn a few essential rules of behaviour and maintain your defences at all times.
Surviving in prison depends a lot on commonsense and knowing how to behave.