A&E
- The A&E documentary series "60 Days In" sends regular, law-abiding citizens to jail as undercover inmates.
- The undercover inmates quickly learn many of the jail's unwritten rules that inmates live by.
- Inmates divided themselves by race and had strict rules for settling conflicts, the participants learned.
Life in jail is hard enough as it is. But it's even harder when you don't know the unwritten rules.
Seven ordinary people found out what it takes to survive behind bars on the show "60 Days In." Now in its fifth season, the documentary series follows law-abiding citizens as they navigate life at Arizona's Pinal County Adult Detention Center for two months.
The undercover inmates quickly learn that inmates at Pinal County obey a strict set of unwritten rules that dictate who they eat with, where they can walk, and how they settle disputes.
Violate one of the rules, the participants learn, and they'll be met with certain violence.
Read on to see 11 of the unwritten rules they had to follow behind bars:
'This jail is segregated. There's no other way around it.'
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The biggest unwritten rule inmates discovered was that at Pinal County jail, inmates segregate themselves by racial group.
Inmates are expected to eat, share cells, and fraternize only with members of their race. The main racial groups in the jail were whites, blacks, US-born Hispanics, foreign-born Hispanics, and Native Americans.
"This jail is segregated. There's no other way around it," an undercover inmate named Abner said on the show. "Whatever race you belong to, you have to follow the rules."
As Abner discovered, racial ties are even stronger than gang rivalries for Pinal County inmates.
"You come in white, it doesn't matter what gang you belong to in the streets — you're white," he said. "If you come in black, and you're a Blood, a Crip, or whatever — you're black."
If you break the racial barrier, you'll have to answer for it later
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Even if Pinal County inmates didn't agree with the racial segregation that took place, they adhered to it for fear of consequences down the line.
If an inmate is convicted and sent to prison, they'll be expected to share developments from their time at Pinal County. (Jails are run by local law enforcement agencies, and hold inmates who are awaiting trial or are serving short-term sentences, while prisons are run by state or federal entities and house those who have been convicted of serious and are serving longer sentences.)
Word will quickly spread throughout the system if someone at the jail isn't obeying the racial code, and they could face violent retribution if they go to prison.
"When you start seeing intermingling like other races eating with other races, that’s one telltale sign that something bad is going to happen to them," a Pinal County inmate named Willie said in one episode.
"We all get along, but when it comes to these rules, they need to be abided by," he said. "Because when you get to prison, or what we call the yard, you’re going to have to answer for everything you did in jail."
Don't 'split' tables during chow time
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Racial groups eat together in jail, and according to an undercover inmate named David, it's a breach of etiquette to walk between two tables being used by the same racial group.
"You don't split the tables to go places. That was one of the things I learned as time went on," David told Business Insider. "You couldn't split tables to use a shortcut or to get something from your room."
Like in most other cases, violating this rule can lead to violent punishment.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- 13 black women from history you probably didn't learn about but should know
- What 12 numbers on nutrition labels mean and why you may want to pay attention to them
- How much luggage you can bring on every US domestic flight and how much it will cost you
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