Netflix’s Jailbirds: A Beginner’s Guide for Jail

Netflix recently released the first season of Jailbirds. A docu-series that follows inmates at the Sacramento County Jail as they adjust to life behind bars.

If you occasionally break the law or just curious about how the criminal justice system works; you must watch this series!

Caught breaking the law lands you in the processing room. In the processing room, you have the option to bail out. Can’t bail out in 48 hours? You go to jail while you wait and fight your case.

Most of the people highlighted in the series are repeat offenders who are unable to bail out due to violating probation.

This is the part where we start learning about jail life.

One of the most fascinating or horrifying things we learn is what is referred to as “talking on the toilet”. Yes, it’s exactly how it sounds. Literally, the shittiest way to develop a relationship.

In the Sacramento Jail, the male prisoners are located a few stories above the female cells. The inmates then empty the water out of their metal toilet bowls which allow inmates to yell in the toilet bowl to inmates on different floors.

This allows male and female prisoners to develop relationships by talking on the toilet. And just as you’d expect, flushing the toilet is equivalent to hanging up the phone.

The inmates even set up intricate mail transport systems by tying strings together and strategically flushing strings down different toilets to make a connection to different cells. The goal is to pass handwritten letters back and forth. They call this fishing. And yes sometimes solid waste comes up with the strings and letters.

If you ever wanted to make wine but felt overwhelmed by all the steps, you’ll feel more comfortable about the episode that covers pruno. Pruno is jail wine, where inmates save up fruit they ferment in plastic bags to make alcohol.

Overall, the series will make you laugh and feel sympathy for some of the inmates. It also provides you with a good idea of how the criminal justice system works. I highly recommend this series to anyone who is interested in criminal justice.