I get the impression that it all depends on the prison itself, rather than the general laws, rules and sentence of the prisoner. Which leads me to thinking that, just like many (not all, but many) police officers on the street are prone to abusing their authority, same happens with the whole facility of prisons. I might be wrong, but I believe one of the biggest causes is the lack of general transparency regarding the prison system and institutions combined with a lack of knowledge and lack of interest in general. So there is nobody to report a prison when something sketchy is detected, and even so, it's not easy to win against an authoritarian facility. Both your comment and this article are giving us important information and an insight into an important matter. And I wanna say thank you for that.

I also worked in prisons for many years, and my reaction is similar. At the prisons I worked at, the rules/lists of things you could not bring in were posted at the door, offenders were not put in segregation without cause, and rules were not "arbitrary": there were specific, articulable reasons behind everything. Often, offenders are not honest (surprised?) with their families. They may be embarrassed for why they were sent to "the hole" (sexual activity with another inmate, drug use, etc are rarely conveyed to families; instead its "I got blamed for something I didn't do" or "the cops are just on a power trip, I guess."); offenders will be in contact with multiple girlfriends on the outside (more women engaged to = more money coming in and options you have when you get out), etc. When something like smuggling contraband, or some kind of large disturbance happens, visitation has to get canceled, people are be turned away, for safety & investigation. It's not arbitrary, it's reactive.

I don't know about your country but in mine the rules all all prisons are exactly the same, the only difference is the prison officers themselves. ALL prisons have similar problems to deal with but HOW they are dealt with is entirely up to the prison officer on duty. Overcrowding and understaffing lead to increased pressure on staff and, in addition, you do have staff who have taken on the job for entirely the wrong reason..

I admire anyone who works in a prison. I know it can be super hard in many ways. Thank you for your hard work.

Prisons should be about rehabilitation.