Entering Prison: Derrick Walker’s Top Tips for First-Time Inmates

Derrick Walker talks about entering prison for the first time and what people need to know to stay safe. Drawing on his own years of incarceration, he describes the importance of confidence, awareness, avoiding isolation, and using prison time to change for the better.

For those facing the possibility of entering the prison system for the first time, that can be a truly scary and unsettling prospect. However, there are some extremely valuable tips I can share so that it won’t be as difficult. In the end, everything will depend on how you confront the situation. So lend me your ears and listen very carefully to the tips I’m going to share with you. If you follow these tips and use common sense, then your time of incarceration will be much easier. Everything you experience in prison, and how it affects you, will depend on how well you implement these tips and face the period of incarceration.

Carry Yourself With Confidence and Respect

The most important thing you must know is this: whenever you walk through the sliding doors of prison, the way you carry yourself and how you interact with others around you will determine how everyone treats and views you. So when you walk through those doors, make sure you display both an air of confidence and respect, because those two qualities will serve you well and will cause others to see that you are a person who is secure with himself.

Believe me, inside all prisons there are numerous individuals looking for weakness, and if they find any in you, they will do everything they can to exploit those weaknesses, take advantage of you, and use you to meet any and all needs they may have. Don’t become what prisoners call “a good thing.”

Learn the Environment Quickly

Secondly, once you’re processed in, placed into a dormitory, and able to get settled, look around you and become familiar with your surroundings and with how the other guys interact with each other. Watch how they move and talk, and familiarize yourself with how the structure of the dormitory is set up. If you’re able to discern whether there’s a hierarchy, pay attention to it. Trust me, all dormitories have a hierarchy, so make sure you become familiar with it, because it could possibly become a valuable asset to you in the future.

Do Not Isolate Yourself

Next, and this is extremely important, do not isolate yourself, because others, especially predators, will hone in on that and try to exploit it to their own advantage. Instead, begin paying attention to see if you can connect with someone. There’s always someone you’ll be able to find who you may have something in common with. After all, within prison walls, there is always power in numbers.

Predators are constantly looking for someone who is isolated from others, and once they find that individual, they will move in and begin to acquaint themselves with that person and lay the groundwork for the trap they are trying to set. So don’t be the one they look at and hone in on.

Always remember this, because it could possibly be something that keeps you safe while you’re incarcerated: there is always someone watching you and learning the patterns of the ones who are alone and isolated from others. Once they become familiar with your patterns and routines, and if they detect any weakness or vulnerability in you, it won’t be long before they approach you and begin to exploit you in order to achieve their own needs, whether it be for canteen, money, or even sexual gratification. So don’t become a statistic. Be safe and smart.

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Lessons From Experience

I began my sentence in July 1999, and over these past almost 27 years, I’ve learned many valuable lessons that I know without a doubt have kept me both protected and safe, but most importantly, have kept me from becoming a statistic. Even though I’ve been locked up for these many years, I never become complacent or comfortable with my surroundings. I refuse to become just another notch for a predator, and I will not become another statistic within the prison system.

Whenever someone new arrives, especially someone who has never done time in prison, I take them under my wing and impart all that I’ve learned throughout my incarceration so that they’ll gain a deep knowledge and understanding of the environment they’ve entered. I promise you, it’s an environment that will do one of two things: you will either learn and adjust to this new environment, or you will become just another horrible statistic within the prison system.

Use Your Time to Change

Finally, it’s extremely important that while you’re incarcerated, you pursue rehabilitation and transform your mindset so that whenever the time comes and you are released, you’ll be a much better and different person. If you do not pursue rehabilitation and learn to make better choices and decisions, you’ll either return, or worse, you’ll end up dead.

During my time of incarceration, I’ve seen so many people leave from behind these walls and go back to society, only to return. Don’t follow in their footsteps.

I don’t know what your aspirations and plans are, but if you don’t prepare yourself while you’re incarcerated, then I’ll only tell you this: take a long look around you, because this will be your future. You deserve so much better, but unless you make serious changes in your life and develop a new mindset, prison will become a home that you had better get used to, because that’s where you’ll be.

The prison system was designed for people who simply aren’t able to coexist within society with normal people, but it wasn’t designed for those of us who are decent individuals and who have just made some really, truly bad choices and decisions.

Should you, however, have to do time within the prison system, I implore you to use your time wisely and develop a better version of yourself, and not repeat the same type of behavior that caused you to be incarcerated in the first place.

A Final Word

Life is short, so I urge you to be wise and not do anything that could potentially place you behind these walls and away from the people who care about you and love you. Sure, prison is extremely difficult, but the most difficult thing is being separated from your loved ones and locked away from living a life of freedom.

So learn from me and make changes to your life now before you end up in here with me. I believe in you!!!

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