If you’re one of those weirdos who’s strangely fascinated by true crime, criminals and prison life, then prepare to be sickly obsessed with docuseries 60 Days In.
In the series, volunteers are incarcerated as undercover prisoners for 60 days to give viewers an insight into what goes down behind bars.
The series has made international headlines for its heavy content and its disturbing look into the shocking and often scandalous dealings that occur in prison.
With the first two seasons now streaming on Stan, we’ve sussed out the wildest facts we picked up from the show about serving jail-time.
1. Prisoners use contraband mobile phones to score drugs and plan riots
Inmates often find sneaky ways to smuggle mobile phones into their cells and no, it’s not so they can pass the time by playing Angry Birds or to keep up with the Kardashians.
As you’ll learn from watching the series, the most rebellious of prisoners get their mitts on mobiles for much more sinister purposes.
In one ep, guards uncovered a mobile phone in one of the prisoner’s cells during a prison raid.
It is explained that the illegally obtained mobile phones are used to plan targeted attacks, riots and / or drug deals with prisoners from other pods.
2. Prisoners find sneaky hiding places to conceal weapons
The fact that prisoners make shanks (makeshift weapons) is certainly no secret, but the method of how they hide them is.
During the aforementioned raid, officers discovered a shank hidden in a light fixture.
The prisoner had covered the handle in string to use the next time there was a prison fight.
One shank, for example, had been crafted from a toothbrush.
Observe:
Yeah, I reckon that’d definitely do some damage if a riot ever breaks out.
3. Inmates create weird makeshift drugs to satisfy their cravings
Many criminals enter prison with serious drug addiction issues and because it would be near-impossible for them to obtain illicit substances behind bars, they are forced to create weird pseudo-drugs from whatever materials they can find.
In one episode, an inmate had crafted a ‘crack stick’ from an electronic cigarette filter in order to feel some sort of buzz. Prisoners would crush the filter, wrap it in toilet paper that had been soaked in coffee then smoke it.
When a ‘crack stick’ is smoked, the nicotine released from the filter gives inmates a small high.
Prisoners have also been caught on camera snorting powder made from tobacco pills which is said to have no impact other than to satisfy an addict’s urge to have something up their nose.
Although tobacco pills are totally legal and available over the counter in the real world, it is considered contraband in prison which makes you wonder how TF they manage to obtain such items.
Inmates caught with ‘crack sticks’ can receive up to 30 days in solitary confinement as punishment.
4. Trustees can also get mighty creative if a makeshift ‘crack stick’ doesn’t cut it
The prisoners who are able to get their hands on illicit substances find clever ways to distribute them throughout the jail.
For example, trustees (prisoners who have been tasked with special jobs like cleaning or preparing food) snuck drugs into the women’s prison by sticking them to food trays or hiding them in the food.
In season 1, an undercover police officer named Tami overhears an inmate asking the other women if they’d seen any contraband in their food trays that was meant for her.
Tami points out that she’d smelt tobacco burning from her cell and wasn’t sure how it was being distributed and now assumes that it must’ve come via the food trays.
5. Prisoners exchange sex for goods
Inmates would exchange sex with other inmates for valued items such as ‘crack sticks’, mobile phones or protection during prison fights.
The above scene depicts an openly gay prisoner offering sex to an inmate but upon being caught by prison guards, he was transferred to another pod as punishment.
6. Sneakers can be a signal of an incoming prison fight
Prisoners would know that a coordinated fight was about to break out when they’d see other inmates wearing sneakers instead of the orange sandals they’d usually wear.
In one ep, a prisoner explains that the reason for this is that you can’t fight as well in sandals and therefore inmates would lace up their sneakers to help them in combat.
“You can’t fight in (sandals) very well,” one inmate revealed. “They come off easy and they slip.”
BTW if you’re intrigued by how inmate scraps unfold, you’re gonna lurve this show ‘coz it’s rampant with spicy prison drama.
60 Days In seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Stan.
