Inside Women's Prisons: Former Inmates Tell All

Buzz Feed

15-05-2025

According to the World Prison Brief, there are currently over 733,000 women and girls imprisoned globally. This number continues to rise, increasing at a rate that surpasses the male prison population. That being said, women constitute only around 2 - 9% of the total prison population in various countries. The United States holds the record for the highest number of incarcerated women, with an estimated 190,600.
So, when Reddit user u/Justin_Butts asked women to share what their prison experience was like, here is what was said:
"The best way I can describe it is like a boarding school full of every type of female you can imagine. I spent about two months at a facility with around 400 women, whose charges ranged from small petty crimes, to rape and murder. Everyone had their own cliches that they kept to, but there was a lot of dumb drama. Try to think of the most troubled girls from high school, and then imagine 400 of them stuck together, in a place that is miserable, where they are isolated from their family and the rest of society. That's basically the jist of it..."
"Not me, but an ex's older sister got 3 DUIs, and the last one meant she did a few weeks in jail. One of the first things she said she learned was how to make a prison dildo out of a toilet paper roll, Saran Wrap, napkins, and a rubber band. She's a fine member of society now, but just had a bit of a reckless stage. Still makes me chuckle thinking about that prison dildo."
"In prison, the fights are really the worst part. I remember one time when I first got there, a woman attacked another lady at my table where we were eating. It happened so fast, I was still sitting there when another girl had to pull me up and away from the fight. I saw why soon after because a different girl who had nothing to do with it (like me) caught a fist right to the face, and it broke her eye socket. She was rolling on the ground, screaming and crying. I never saw her or the instigator of the fight again in my time there. No one ever tried to fight or start anything with me, but I never gave them reason to. I stayed in my cell a lot of the time and just read, drew, and wrote really long letters, even when we were allowed out. I didn't talk about anyone in there, good or bad. I just tried to stay positive and listen more than I talked. I actually got the nickname 'Smiles' even though I was probably the most depressed and anxious person there."
"My mom went to prison when I was a junior in high school. She was innocent, the other people had more money and our lawyer was complete shit. Long story short, she was in there for about one and a half years. There are a lot of girls who are, or are while in there, lesbian. My mom said they are horny all the time. I remember being 18 and visiting my mom and a few of the younger inmates would do the blowjob gesture with their tounge against their cheek at me. Another thing is cleanliness. Inmates pretty much do most of the work around the prison, and my mom said one day the people in the kitchen opened the meat grinder because it hadn't been cleaned for a while. When they opened it, they found about a million maggots inside it. Basically, the whole prison had been eating maggot meat."
"My friend said they threaded their eyebrows with tampon strings."
"I got locked up in a women's prison when I was 21. When you first get there, they ask if you're addicted to anything. If you said benzos or alcohol, they dosed you up with Klonopin. Anyone who's been there before knows this, so for the first two weeks when I was in the drug treatment area, things were very chill..."
"My mom's friend is doing time right now. Her letters basically say there's a ton of sex in the showers, and you hear sounds of sex at night."
"Mom was a corrections officer for a long time. So she worked in a jail, not a prison. She said there was a ton of drama and sex in the women's unit compared to the men's. So, as someone who's spent time in jail, I can tell you drama in the men's unit is usually at a zero or a ten. The women's unit is probably more of a constant six."
"I've worked in various prisons. Men will act aggressively to assert dominance. It may escalate to violence, but a lot of the time, it is just a matter of one guy wanting the other to submit, and the level of violence may stay mild if someone backs off. Women aren't as prone to that sort of physical domination. When a woman decides to fight another, she wants to HURT her. The escalation to severe violence can be quite sudden, and less likely to end just because someone backs down."
"There's a lot of drugs, people offering prescription pills immediately upon entry, a dearth of good books, and asshole guards. My ex was in for drugs, and she didn't get undergarments for the first week she was there for literally no reason other than that someone forgot to give her, and they didn't want to admit to it. They wouldn't give her veggie meals (even though they're supposed to). She ended up having to eat only bread and apples the entire time she was there, lost a ton of weight, and still has digestive problems to this day. She was a scared white girl from a middle class family who made straight A's in school and she still got treated like shit. I can only imagine what it must be like for the troublemakers."
"Pretty much every inmate does or deals drugs. They make weapons out of every object available, from toothbrushes to plastic spoons. Fights and stabbed women are pretty common, and the vast majority of guards are corrupt."
"I spent a week in a cell by myself. No one to talk to and no way to leave — it was just me in a room with a slot in the door for food. I didn't ask for anything or attempt to communicate with officers because I ultimately just wanted to be as inoffensive as possible and not cause any trouble. It was freezing cold, and there was no way to tell time. I counted breakfast and read, reread, reread again my paperwork stating how phone calls worked and when I'd get out. All in all, I found it very draining. It is mentally exhausting just trying to keep occupied while having zero stimulus. Jail food is not as bad as elementary school food was."
"My mom went to prison for about three years. I got to visit her a couple of times a month. She told me that girls she knew had died or killed others. She was once locked in solitary confinement just for witnessing a brawl. Sunlight is scarce and usually treasured. The guards would frequently screw up count, so everyone would have to stand around for a long time until they figured it out."
"The overcrowding thing can be real af. The cells held two bunkbeds each, and the entire hallway was lined with extra bunkbeds because it was overfull."
"I spent 30 days in jail after drinking underage at 19 years of age. It was horrible. The girls were beyond mean, and hygiene in general was lacking. Ironically, my skin got really clear because I had no makeup and I bathed as much as possible. The food was lukewarm garbage. We usually had cold grits and warm milk for breakfast, bologna sandwiches on hard bread for lunch. I once traded a roll of toilet paper for a twin package of Dunkin Sticks. Some guards were nice and others had it out for me. They would drag their flashlights along my cell bars to keep me up at night. I made a face mask out of a pad so I could sleep. We used newspapers as rollers for our hair to get ready for church. Overall, it was hell. I was only in there for 30 days, but it felt like an eternity, and it was shocking how quickly I acclimated to jail life. I wouldn't wish jail on my worst enemy."
Let us know if you have anything to add in the comments! And if you've been to prison and have something you would like to share, but want to remain unknown, let us know in the anonymous comments form below. Your response may be shared in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community post!