There Is No Privacy In Dormitory Style Prisons
And it takes some getting used to.
There are a number of ways to be housed in prison. While common sense dictates that you lose the majority of your rights once you become an inmate and that you can’t expect to be able to close a door and be left alone anytime you’d like, some situations provide a bit more privacy than others.
The most privacy you’re afforded, in my experience so far, is in a single-cell environment. Single-cell means you don’t have a cellmate, so once you’re locked in your cell at night (or whenever), other than a small window on your door, you have a decent amount of privacy. In most camps, you’re allowed to cover the bottom half of your window if you need to for short periods of time.
Double bunks are exactly what they sound like — you have a cellmate. Otherwise, it’s exactly the same as single-cells. If you want to do anything “private”, you typically wait until your cellmate leaves the room to shower or do something else. Or you’re quiet about it.
Finally, there are dormitory-style prisons, which is what the living situation is where I am now. This style has the least amount of privacy of any situation. It consists of an open room with bunk beds. There are 60 men housed in each dormitory.
