Are There Ways You Can Earn Money in Prison?

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If you’ve never been behind bars or you’ve never had your loved ones incarcerated, you may think that inmates don’t need money. Money to inmates is as essential as it is to us. They equally need money to survive in those cells.

Prisons usually provide the basics to their inmates. They give the inmates food, a few clothing, towels, sheets, and other limited hygiene supplies. Anything else the inmate needs will be upon themselves, which is why they need money.

There are several ways inmates get money while in prison. Some are genuine legal ways, while some use illegal tricks that can land them into more trouble if the prison finds out about them.

The prisoner may receive money in their commissary account from friends and family. As is well known, we all come from different economic backgrounds. The lucky ones from well-to-do families receive money frequently and spend to the maximum limit allowed by the prison. What about the less fortunate ones? How do they earn their money?

Let’s find out below.

How Exactly Do Inmates Earn Money?

There are many ways prisoners can get money in prison. They use the money they get to purchase basic requirements such as hygiene materials. They can also purchase phone time, products from the commissary, and media purchases.

Below is a list of how these inmates make money:

The Prison’s Monthly Pay

All correctional centers offer inmates money at the end of every month, although in small amounts. However, the amount an inmate receives varies and depends on several factors. For instance, an inmate that owes money on their book gets a monthly distribution of five dollars only.

If the prisoner doesn’t owe any money, he receives a higher allocation than others. Those not owing any money and who have not received higher education receive a monthly distribution of $7.50. However, those with no money owed on their books and who have a higher education such as a high school diploma or G.E.D. receive $8.50 every month.

Inmates with an extra income or hustle manage a better life by buying various basic and luxurious products. But for the inmates with no extra hustle or extra income, the money they receive as their monthly distribution is used to buy basic requirements only.

Pay Slot Jobs

In correctional facilities, there are several job opportunities with pay slots. However, for you to qualify for these jobs, you must have an excellent educational background. If you manage a job but owe money on the books, part of your income will be deducted directly from your earnings to settle the debt.

Employed prisoners aren’t too well off either. The income they earn from their jobs is always low, ranging from $15 to $30 per month. Inmates make a better income if they manage a job offering premium pay slots. Here they may earn up to $50 or even $120. The premium job slots are usually job opportunities in the facility’s factory or factories. There are, however, limited opportunities in these factories.

Although premium job slots pay almost the same amount paid to do the same job outside, they are great since the facility pays for nearly all expenses.

Support from Family and Friends

Inmates may receive support from their families. The families send funds to the prisoner’s commissary account, which the inmates can access to buy extra stuff from the canteen. However, the family must be supportive and understanding for them to receive this support. Most inmates have unhealthy relationships with their families and friends. So the family doesn’t offer help, and the inmate has to stand by themselves.

Supportive families send money and offer emotional support to ensure the inmates have positive mental well-being.

It’s, however, heartbreaking to see how some inmates desperately ask or rather demand money from their families. Some go further to bully their loved ones over the phone to send monetary support.

Fake Relationships and Sex for Money

Although it’s disheartening, some inmates seek financial support in exchange for sex. Prisoners receive money from people outside the prison in exchange for intimate relationships and activities. Some inmates also fake relationships and give fake promises to their “lovers” outside the prison to get money from them.

Men outside prison go through the D.O.C. websites looking for incarcerated women with whom they can build a relationship, either emotionally or sexually. In exchange, they send money to these inmates.

The female prisoners also rely on their partners, who they knew before they were sent to jail. These inmates will fake romance and interest in these men to gain financial support. Some even lie to these men about how they plan to return to them once they are free.

Some male inmates who don’t have side hustles opt for gays. They sell their body to gain money or get commissary items. These inmates believe that this act of prostitution is not gay as long as you’re paid for it.

Despite earning these prisoners a living, this trickery idea is not always the right way to go. The inmate can become more depressed after feeling used. The inmate will also feel a negative growth in their character, something that they fight endlessly throughout their prison life.

Using Skills to Earn a Living

Inmates with unique, valuable skills take advantage of them to earn some money from fellow inmates. Prison life and money-making are all about how creative an inmate is and how fast an inmate can think and create something useful from the limited available resources.

Below is how inmates use various skills to get financial resources.

Tattoo Drawing

Tattoos in prison are always in high demand. However, there are no available tools at the jail for tattoo drawing. Inmates who have the skills of improvisation tools for drawing tattoos are advantaged. They craft tattoo guns from pen barrels, CD player motors, simple wires, and sharp guitar strings. The inmate should also be able to draw a straight line on the skin of another inmate. Apart from tattooing fellow inmate’s skin, they also tattoo their cups, writing names of famous sportspeople or sports logos on the cups for pay.

Craftsmanship

Some inmates draw portraits or carve beautiful sculptures using available resources, such as bar soaps. They then sell the paintings they draw and the beautiful sculptures they craft to the neighboring community.

Other inmates get money by fashioning T.V. antennas using paper clips. Some even polish yard stones to make necklaces or furniture.

House Chores

Some inmates earn a living by washing clothes and ironing them. Others sew clothes, mend old shoes, repair electronics, operate stores, or run sports pools—all in an attempt to earn an extra coin for a living.

Earning an Income from Illegal Activities

Despite the strict rules enacted in prisons, some prisoners manage to go away with illegal dealings. They smuggle in contrabands and sell them to fellow inmates for money. Some use available resources they get to prepare illegal substances like brew.

Let’s see how:

Drug and Substance Smuggling

Inmates having external connections and linkages to persons who can smuggle in drugs earn their fortunes a great deal. The most common drugs smuggled are heroin, meth, and marijuana. This hustle, however, does not always end well. It can result in your family being charged with smuggling or can even get you killed.

Pharmaceutical Medicines

Psychiatric drugs can get you high, and most inmates know that. Some have taken this as a way to make money. How’s that possible? Now, the inmate hustling this way has to have some good acting skills. They then hide the medicine under their tongues and go to sell them to fellow inmates.

This hustle pays off, but again, it’s a risky and tough one as you can have to act crazy to get the medicines.

Alcohol Brewing

Prisoners have discovered a new way of brewing alcohol. They will smuggle a few apples from the chow hall, smash the apples in a trash container in their rooms, and mix the crushed apples with sugar. They will then leave it for three to five days for it to ferment.

The alcohol brewed this way has an unpleasant taste, but it pays off. A gallon of this alcohol can go for $20.

This alcohol, popularly as Pruno, can be worked on to form whiskey named white lightning. The inmates boil the pruno alcohol then distill it in a hot container to make the whiskey. This whiskey can sell at $25 for every cup.

Cigarette Trading

Cigarettes are banned in prisons. This has cut off the supply of this substance, making it a hot cake in the jails. Any inmate who can manage to find them is worth a lot more than you might think. A single pack of cigarettes can cost up to a hundred dollars.

Where do inmates get cigarettes from?

The tobacco the inmates chew and drop on the yard is a valuable asset to an inmate. Just as the guard walks away, a prisoner will hurriedly pick and walk away with it. They will then dry the tobacco and roll it in bible paper. They then sell to other inmates at high prices to smoke them as cigarettes.

Phone Smuggling

Here is where you’ll find the most real kings. A simple, cheap phone on the outside will cost thousands of dollars in prison. Some inmates manage to smuggle phones inside the prison and sell them to other inmates. It’s also surprising to see correctional officers and other prison employees smuggling in phones to the inmates, selling for exchange with money.

However, this hustle might soon end as prisons are using frequency-interference devices to crack down on phones inside prisons.

Conclusion

Inmates, just like people living in a free world, need money for survival. Various opportunities can earn them money, some legal and genuine, while others are illegal and unacceptable. But, the most impressive thing about prison hustle and ways of making money in prisons is creativity. Being creative and open-minded will earn you a living in prison, making your jail life experience a bearing one.

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