I think I'm qualified to answer this one for you. First I need to explain a few things, though. (I am a woman)
Back in 1994 I had left my ex husband, moved to another state and was starting over. I moved in next door to 3 kids (boy-19, girl-18 and boy-10) whose mother had just died about 4 months earlier. I befriended them and grew to love them quickly. One day the 18 year old girl told me that she needed to take her little brother to visit their step-father, who was in prison. She asked me to go with her. It took her several hours to convince me to go inside with her, but I did. Her step father was an amazing man and we became instant friends. We both loved his step kids and that sort of pulled us together. We fell in love. He served 7 years, 4 of which I was engaged to him. I went to AA meetings every Mon, Wed and Fri at the prison with him and visits on every Sat, Sun and holiday. We took part in every group available for couples and families, which allowed me to actually go inside the prison chow hall to eat lunch and even holiday meals with him.
Most prisons have jobs that inmates can apply for. It could be a kitchen job or some kind of vocational job the dept. of corrections has contracted to do. My fiance worked in a sawmill, made license plates, made school furniture, worked in the kitchen, and even acted as a peer counselor for an intensive substance abuse program he helped start.
To pass the time he worked out (he benched over 500lbs) and was pretty huge. He also did tattoos, woodburnings, drew, did woodworking, fixed bicycles donated to the prison to give to needy children in the area, took classes, did mandatory rehabilitation programming and did lots and lots of legal research. He had a television and inmates had basic cable in their rooms/cells. He also had a stereo and he used to write very long, long letters to me almost daily.
This state doesn't have any "maximum security"...and his classification was "medium/central", which is the highest custody level for this state. He spent about half of his time in a minimum security facility, though. In fact, the custody level classification has little to do with what level security facility you are put in. It depends on an inmates programming requirements, behavior and needs of both the inmate and family that determines placement. I personally know the guy who has served the longest time in my state's history...and I met him through the AA meetings at the lowest level security prison in the state. I've met a lot of this states worst criminals. Sex offenders get tormented in prison, especially child molesters of preteen and younger kids. They're called "snappers" and they get the living sh*t kicked out of them on a regular basis.
If you have any specific questions, just ask. I visited prisons for 4 years every single week, so I'm very familiar with how they work.
