Introduction

I am a criminal. Well, I've been sentenced by a judge to a Mandatory Minimum sentence in a prison. I am not going to write about anything which occurred before my sentencing. Firstly, it does not really matter because this blog is an attempt to capture the experience of prison - the culture, the people, and the social relations - and not the arrest and judicial processes (even though both are well-suited for similar treatments). In a manner of sorts, it is a prison ethnography.

Secondly, I do not want this blog to be overrun by discussions about a particular crime. No matter what my crime was, the Internet is certainly full of people who would call for my execution, or my complete absolution and immediate release. All I shall say is that the crime of which I was convicted had no victim, nor did it involve harm to a person or property. I was not required to make any restitution; just prison, fines, and court costs.

I intend to allow comments as long as they are civil, intelligible, and thoughtful. I reserve the right to delete anything that doesn't meet that criteria. Most importantly, if any comments are made which could allow me to be identified, they will deleted and the poster banned. Most readers will have no idea who I am; a few may know me personally. Others may deduce it from some of the information I share. But it is without a doubt that the prison would not appreciate the publicity and exposure they are about to receive, and should they have a hint I am the author, I would suffer immensely.