The book provides information in a concise format for the prisoner and his/her family on what to expect--the mechanics of prison life, explanations of formal and informal vocabulary, guidelines for coping.

The National Prison Project Journal

There is no such thing as a free ride! Some people never learn that basic fact of life. So when they are asked if they are going to report to the prison themselves, which means paying their own way, they elect to let the federal marshals take them. An unwise decision!

The consequence of choosing to let the government pay for the transportation is this: the judge will either order you to be taken away at once or--at best--he may give you a time to report to the marshal's office in the District Court House where you found yourself on trial. Whatever the case, the moment you report to the marshal, you get clamped into a cell where you wait for the bus that will take you and other prisoners to jail, a trip known as the "diesel tour." To get to your camp or FCI, the bus will probably stop at several prisons en route, picking up prisoners being transferred to your prison or another one on the circuit and dropping some off. Throughout this ride, you are handcuffed in such a way that you are lucky to be able to hold the sandwich or drink the beverage they give you during the day.

Odds are you will be disgorged at another prison, which of necessity must be of a high security level, and put into its holding area--a very crowded huge pen-type room with insufficient toilets--or into a small segregation cell. Here you may remain for anywhere from a day to several months waiting for the bus to return and take you to your destination.

That's why those who self-surrender and pay their own way are the wiser. What they spend in money to rent a car, or to put gasoline into a friend's tank, or to host the family going up with them is more than compensated by the amount of discomfort saved.

Now that you have told the judge you would prefer to report directly to your assigned prison and he gives you a reporting date, you should arrange to get there by 2 p.m. If you arrive later, the Receiving and Dismissal people are annoyed because it will delay their quitting time. It means that many of the things that you can have done that day, like having your clothes tailored to fit, will be delayed until the next day or next week. Arriving soon after noon means the R & D staff have just returned from lunch and have some energy to do a decent job in rushing you through the "humbling" process of being stripped, fingerprinted and photographed. Hopefully, you will be given bus pants, blue bus shoes, and a coat (if it is cold), without having to stand in the hallway for a while before they call you back for the next step.

Go with the flow! You might find yourself cold, hungry, or thirsty during this short period. You may also feel abandoned when you trade your clothing for prison garb, which may range from dull brown and shabby greens to embarrassing bright orange.

One more benefit of arriving by yourself is that prison officials are more willing to allow you to bring in some of your personal belongings if they do not have to handle an additional half dozen people who came off the bus with you.