Going to Prison

So last Wednesday I took my first ever trip to a prison (yes this may be a shock but it is true) located in Eger. The town is about a 2-hour train ride East of Budapest, and get this, we left at the wee hour of 7:00 and arrived in Eger just after 9:00 (the long day had officially begun). First off I would like to mention that I almost walked past the prison mainly because from the outside it looked like a regular, old, cute European building. The fact that the outside of the prison looked like a regular building took me by surprise a little bit because even though I have never been to a prison what I expected was not what I saw at all.

We walked inside and were immediately met by the prison’s governor who was a younger man around the age 35 and who, at first, I thought was just a guard who was going to clear us to go inside. We all squished into a small office (small being an understatement in this case) and watched a brief presentation about the prison itself. This presentation was a very eye-opening thing for me and I learned so many interesting facts about the Hungarian prison system. For me the most interesting fact was that there was very little gang activity within the prison. In America I feel as though if you are in prison you become part of a gang not only to fit in somewhere but also for protection and a sense of pride. The governor told us that gangs were extremely rare in Hungarian prison as well as drugs and violence. When I think of prisons the things I think of are the exact same things the governor said were rare; gangs, drugs and violence. No matter if you like prison movies or not it is common knowledge that in America these things exist and it took me by surprise how uncommon they are in Hungary.

What one would think a typical prison fight would look like. After my visit I learned that prison fights are not common at all and if anything it consists of a one guy punching another once and then it ends. This type of fight is a very media produced fight and would be very rare in a prison in Hungary and I wouldn't be surprised if its never happened before.

After this presentation it was time to walk through the actual prison itself. What I expected was what I had seen in movies; a long narrow walkway and on each side metal cages with 2 or three people inside sitting on the bottom bunk of bunk beds. What I actually saw was a hallway but on only one side were about 4 or 5 doors that had only a little slit in which you could see in or the people inside could see out. It was almost an anti-climatic feeling for me because even though I was scared of what I thought I was going to see, this prison was not in the least bit intimidating. The men and women were separated but each corridor had rooms and within each room were about 6 bunk beds against the walls with a table in the middle. The women’s rooms looked a bit homier and some of the beds even had stuffed animals on them. I thought that it was a funny concept to put 12 women who are clearly prone to breaking the law in a room together. I’m no genius and I have never done studies on people in prison but in my personal opinion putting that many people with such personalities in a room together was a recipe for disaster. I thought back to the fighting situation and had to remind myself that fighting doesn’t happen as much as I thought and obviously the set-up works well.

This picture actually works very well because the governor was talking about how the major thing people try to smuggle in is cell phones. They use very creative ways like putting it in hair brushes, fish and even salamis. Who would have ever thought a cell phone would mean that much to someone.

 My first ever visit to prison was surprising, eye opening and very interesting. The governor of the prison definitely enhanced my experience because he was funny but at the same time knew what he was talking about and was very respected within the prison (every guard we passed saluted him or shook his hand and stood at attention). Even though prison wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be I still would never be able to stay there for an extended period of time (mom and dad this was clearly a great deterrent for me). Life in prison takes away almost all of your freedoms; freedom to choose what you wear, freedom to do what you want, freedom to eat what you want and most of all freedom to be free (corny I know). This was again a great opportunity for me and I enjoyed it very much and am so happy I was able to experience the prison environment without actually being in prison :)   

How I felt walking out after only 2 hours in a prison and I was only visiting!