My friend has been sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for sale of cocaine, he is currently in a privately owned prison until he gets designated to a federal prison. I have two questions. Does anyone know how long it takes to get designated to a facility? And now that the prison he is in is crowded they have three people in each cell, there are two bunk beds and a flip down bunk, so three inmates now in the same cell. He heard from other inmates that for every day he has to share his cell with more than one other person that is one day taken off his sentence and also that there is somewhere he could file a civil lawsuit against these people for "overcrowding". Is any of that true and where would I get information on that?

Each institution will be somewhat different, most unless they are in protectivie custody or lock down are at least two man cells, but 3 and even 4 man cells are common.

Also many years ago they took TV rooms and changed them to houseing with 6 to 8 inmates in those cells.

They also have open housing in some facilities where there may be 30 plus inmates in a open housing ( sort of like military basic training)

And no there is no truth to one day off for over crowding, He may be less croweded there than he will be other places.

Also besides the "crowding" are they out of the cells into day rooms during the day.

But he would first file a written complaint to the institution, then he would have to file a law suit in federal court since they are a contractor for the Federal system.

And he may find that some prisons like lets say some of the really old ones don't have air conditioning in the summer

And others will be 50 to 60 years old and in very poor condition.

He has a lot to learn, it sounds like his "inmate" gossip ( and why if this was true have they not did this) they want him to file and complain and then laugh at him when the staff members take out their payback on him.

Thanks for the answer, I will relay that information to him. I do think that others find that he will speak up and they sit back and wait to see what happens. I do not know anything about this stuff and find this site extremely helpful for things such as this. Once again, thank you so much

If he has not served time before, he needs to learn first not to be taken advantage of by staff or by other inmates.

Also the contract prisons do not have to follow the same rules as will the actual prison. The same with those being held in country jails awaiting transfer to a prison.

The contract prisons have contracts and rules that they have to follow.

There are times when over crowding does happen, and there have been law suits against them, the result has been changes in laws and in some cases money damages.

I am not sure of the set up for the contract prison, most Federal Prisons have a Warden, several Dep Wardens and they will have a housing manager and couselor.

If there are real issues, he can of course file a complaint and file a law suit, but he should consult a civil rights attorney before he goes too far.

He will find that if he really minds his own business, does not bother other inmates and staff ( does not get into debt) and keeps out of the gang issues, he will be OK.

If your friend is waiting to get transferred out to a cushy Federal prison he could wait a long, long time. Sometimes the Federal country clubs are full and the prisoner will actually spend their entire sentence in a local county jail. It's been done like that for years. The Federal prisoners are "farmed" out to the local jails that are federally approved with extra concrete and more bullet proof windows. I once knew of an older lady who was a Federal prisoner who never spent a day in a federal facility but did her entire time in a local county jail as it was "approved" by the feds for holding federal prisoners. The local jail got so much per day for holding this prisoner and actually had about 10 other Federal prisoners at that facility at the same time. It's quite common to do this sort of thing.

And some of those Federal prisons are not all the cushy, Ok, the one I worked at, had a tennis court, a food buffet line ( even sword fish on muslim religious holidays)

But there are some not so cushy ones also, the one in Memphis comes to mind as does the one in Atlanta GA

I meant "cushy" as in tongue in cheek. We're not talking Martha Stewart here, but regular people doing hard time.

Actually prison is much preferable over county jail anytime. At least in prison you can have a job and some sort of freedom to wander around. In county jail you are in a cell or the dayroom and that's it unless you have a job in the laundry or kitchen or wash cop cars. There are no rehabilitative facilities, access to education or betterment like in prison. County jail time is 100% pure boredom. All you do is eat and watch TV.

The BOP ( Bureau of Prison) does have actual rules to exact size of cells, number of inmates in the cell and more, but because of over crowding often have to break the rules, but what the heck here they are

http://www.bop.gov/policy/progstat/1060_011.pdf

http://archive.gao.gov/f0102/150574.pdf

And although this is Florida, this is a fairly normal prison in alto of places
Virtual Prison Tours - Cell Housing Unit (alternative viewer)