Basic Information Regarding Prison

Greetings, this guide will cover some basic information regarding prison and its environment, I'll be going over many things that aren't showcased on the server and that many players aren't aware of, such as the procession and before spawning in your cell, items, commissary, politics, and many more. If you have any further inquiries or would like to add more things to this guide, my LS:RP forum inbox is always open. (PM me on Harmen_Chatman)

Detention & Procession
After getting arrested, you're not straight forwarded to your cell in SACF, but rather in a county jail before your first court date (Refer to this PAGE for a list of county jails within San Andreas) . On LS:RP, if you request a court date, you're detained in SACF till any further notice.

The Rodriguez Law Group wrote:First Thing to Know:  What Happens After You Get Arrested
The first thing to know is what will happen to you after you are arrested for a felony. Once you are in custody, the government has 2 court days (that means business days, so holidays and weekends are not included) to bring you in front of a judge for Arraignment. At Arraignment, you will enter a plea of “Not Guilty,” and two hearing dates will be automatically set.

Felony Settlement Conference
The first hearing date will be set in 5 court days from the Arraignment, and is usually called a Felony Settlement Conference or “FSC,” for short (different counties have different names for it). The FSC gives your criminal defense lawyer and the D.A. an opportunity to try to settle your case.

Preliminary Hearing
The next court date, usually 8 or 9 court days after your Arraignment, will be the Preliminary Hearing. At the Preliminary Hearing, the D.A. is required to present to an impartial judge the evidence that he has, and must prove that he has met a burden of probable cause. At the Preliminary Hearing your lawyer has the opportunity and the duty to cross-examine the government’s witnesses and to make motions to exclude prejudicial evidence in order to attempt to have the case dismissed by the judge.

Held To Answer
If the judge finds that the government has met its burden of proof at the Preliminary Hearing, he will issue an order that you be “Held to Answer.” This means that you will be arraigned again within 10 court days and that the D.A. will file an Information. After you are arraigned on the Information, the D.A. will have 60 calendar days to bring your case to trial.

Please keep in mind that all of the timelines that I gave are based on you exercising your constitutional rights to a speedy trial.  You can “waive time” and stretch out the process, and the timeline can change. Only you in consultation with your criminal defense attorney can decide whether or not to “waive time.” There are many strategic reasons to “waive time,” and it is almost always done to benefit you and the preparation of your defense.

If you decided not to go through a trial in cooperation with the government personnel, utilizing the PENAL CODE to decide your character's charges is somewhat mandatory, LS:RP's penal code doesn't provide the real life sentencing, therefore doing your own research is recommended, if you need help with that you can always message experienced members or the council on SADCR's or our Discord server.

After getting transported to SADCR, you're gone through many phases which I won't be detailing on this thread, but briefly you're stripped from your items and clothing and provided with merely state issued clothing and soap, and finally a toothpowder which is quite nasty and not like the normal toothpaste.

Commissary and Inmate Account
Just like mentioned above, when you land on the mainline you're not provided with anything other than your clothing and a bar of soap and a "tooth powder". Usually, prisoners that just landed rely on homeboys from the same area to hit them up with a care package till their friends and family wire money into their bank account (also referred to as books).

Those who doesn't have anyone on the outside tend to do activities to get their money up, from porter jobs, to being a commissary clerk, or a trustee within prison. There's also other illicit activities that prisoners tend to going about, for instance the tattooing hustle and drug dealing is more common ones among prisoners and institutions, especially level four ones.

Paperwork
Paperwork has been debated subject for a while now due to the lack of resources and information, but it has been cleared out by many roleplayers from USA and those that actually served in some of LA prison institutions. Before getting assigned to a cell block and what not, your character IC'ly goes through a series of guideline sessions and is provided with a handbook to assist him with the nature of the facility and its rules, he's also provided with an IAF (Inmate Admission Form) which is basically paper which contains your information, such as your full name measures, gang affiliations, and most importantly if you ever cooperated with any law enforcement agency, and if you're registered as a sex offender or a child molester.

When you land in a cell block, especially in a level 4 prison institution, you're going to definitely be approached by an inmate of your race to check your papers and make sure you're straight. Almost every level 4 yard has a no acceptance code for snitches and rapists or molesters.