The Prison Commissary: The Truth Behind What it is And How it Works

By now you are probably wondering what is prison commissary? I am here to inform you what it really is. This article will only take a few minutes out of your busy schedule. All this information is true; I witnessed this in person.

Prison commissary is considered a privilege in the prison environment. As an inmate you can keep your commissary, as long as you maintain good behavior. But, as soon as you start getting into trouble of any kind, or a lot of write-ups, which are written reports, they can take your commissary from you. For weeks at a time, depending on the offense, and after you have eaten the food at some Prison Units for a long time, the commissary comes in handy.

Commissary in prison is like a store that prisoners can shop at. You are required to have funds on your photo-like-credit-card-ID. Many prisons are different, but the one I worked at, the prisoners had to line up in a single file line, and get what they wanted from the commissary window. The blocks are usually called one at a time, and during this time the prisoners are very excited to go to the commissary window.

The items that can be bought at the commissary, is a lot of products, and food items we can buy at the dollar store. The items include the following: razors, soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, pens, pencils, stamps, coloring pencils, pencil sharpeners, T-shirts, boxers, socks, deodorant, plastic spoons, plastic bowls, tuna-fish, Ramen Noodles, dried beans, jalapeno peppers in a can, chips, ice-cream, and many other items, the list just keeps on going.

These items in prison may not seem much, but they are required to survive in prison. Because, the food the prison serves gets very boring, and the prisoners like to taste something different. Not all prisoners are fortunate of shopping at the Commissary Store, but some have to survive without that luxury. The food at some units is very dull in flavor, I know that from experience. Because, the prisoners at my first unit I worked at did not complain very much of the food. But, the second unit I worked at the food was awful, and the prisoners complained everyday of the food, "believe me I used to eat the same food."