It’s Their House; I’m Just a Guest by Douglas Kent

It was very interesting story about US prison system and how idiotic the it is. A man has to spend 48 months in prison. And from start, it isn’t clear why. So, I had always wonder what kind of crime he had committed to carry on such kind of sentence.

So, his father takes him to another state where the federal prison dedicated to him is based and leaves. And he must get used to his new home.

Even his fellow prisoners are intelligent and nice persons, the bureaucratic system isn’t. The funny thing is that only in strict regime block prisoners are allowed to have warm breakfast. Otherwise, it’s just serials with cold milk. And they are paying there something 20 cents per hour for hard labor? This should be against the law as it’s much lower than minimum wage. But seems, that prisons in US are above the law.

Anyway, for the myth and you can get free dental care there is a myth. They just destroy your teeth and you have to pay much more for proper dentist later. Anyway, declaring yourself alcholic and drug user always helps. You can get even reduced sentence.

The funniest part is the system getting you back to society. You have ten days to find a work approved by bureaucratic idiots. And obviously this isn’t easy in current economic situation. You are not allowed to use car to get to work and your boss must report exactly the work start and end times by phoning to supervisors. But when your boss is busy with something else, those supervisors think, it’s your fault.

And you are allowed to meet your family, but not in their homes?

Anyway, it was nice and educational reading for me. Being accused in UK to cause stress and anxiety to some idiots, I demanded my rights to be in prison and get my promised three meals a day. Because never in my life I haven’t had such kind of luxury. And, I hoped that after prison they have programs to get me finally honest work. After reading this book, I come to conclusion that this wasn’t a good idea.

Anyway, It comes clear in the middle of the book why he was sent to prison.