Regular people who went undercover in jail for 2 months discovered a strict social hierarchy that governs everything from where you sleep to whether you get to shower

A&E

• “60 Days In” follows undercover inmates who navigate life in Fulton County Jail in Atlanta and Clark County Jail in southern Indiana.
• The undercover inmates learned about the complex social dynamics that take place in jail.
• Unwritten rules dictated how new inmates eat, sleep, socialize, and solve disputes.

Life in jail is no cake walk — and it’s even harder when you don’t know the unwritten rules.

Several law-abiding citizens learned those rules the hard way when they went undercover as inmates for the A&E show “60 Days In.” Now in its fourth season, the show followed the undercover participants as they navigated jail life at Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, for two months.

The participants were given false identities and booked under fake charges during their stints behind bars, and needed to maintain their cover stories to prevent other inmates from catching on.

As they quickly learned, jail life is governed by strict rules that dictate the way inmates eat, sleep, socialize, and solve disputes. Most people don’t know about these complex social dynamics until they experience them for themselves.

Read on to find out about the complicated dynamics that take place in jail.

On their first day, new inmates often find themselves getting grilled by veteran inmates about the nature of their crimes. Inmates are on high alert for inconsistencies in someone’s back story, which could suggest they are an undercover mole.

A&E

The undercover inmates quickly learned that there is a strict social hierarchy in jail that governs everything from where you sleep to whether you get to shower or not.

A&E

New inmates are constantly getting tested by those higher on the social ladder. In one early episode, an undercover inmate named Jeff got pressured into buying commissary items for a veteran inmate. Word quickly spread that Jeff could be taken advantage of.

A&E

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• Regular people who went undercover in jail uncovered 13 ‘ingenious’ life hacks inmates use to survive life behind bars
• Some people get arrested on purpose because they want to go to jail — here are 8 reasons why they do it
• Elderly people in Japan are getting arrested on purpose because they want to go to prison

SEE ALSO: Regular people who went undercover at a jail for 2 months discovered inmates will go to staggering lengths to get high — and how they smuggle illegal drugs behind bars

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