Like surely they don’t allow prisoners to have razor blades right?
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Prisoners can get plastic razors with the blades embedded in the plastic heads. In more secure prisons they are allowed only to take them into the shower to use them, and are expected to return them after the shower. If they do not or they are tampered with then the guards lock the place down and start searching.
Even more secure places like mental wards will have a group of people shave all at once under direct supervision. The person watching will take the razors back after they are used.
It depends on the security level. In minimum security (low risk non violent or trusted prisoners) the razors are sold at the commissary and freely held, but if you want a new one you have to turn the old one in with all the blades in tact. Also electric battery operated razors are available to purchase. Any incidents or violence with razor blades could see them more tightly controlled like medium and high security populations, and people in minimum security don’t want that. They’re the guys just there trying to serve their time as comfortable as possible. In higher security levels there are shaving groups. Where if you want to shave you and everyone else wanting a shave gets taken into the bathroom and handed a disposable razor. No one leaves that bathroom until all the razors are returned with all the blades in tact.
A lot of Medium security prisons allow Inmates to buy disposable razors from commissary and keep them on their person. When they are finished with them they just throw them in the garbage. Even in maximum security depending on the state.
In maximum security a guard comes and gives everyone one razor each for 15 or 30 min. Then the guard comes back and takes them. You don’t leave your cell with it.
I just got out of prison. Yes they provide and sell disposable razors. The same Gillette ones you can get at the store. I’ve also seen electric trimmers.
I work in a medium security state prison. Inmates can request a razor and swap them out. The CO inspects them to make sure the blade is in place when exchanging.
Went to a prison on a school excursion and a teacher asked the same question. Pretty blunt reply from one of the prisoners was ‘there’s a whole lot more deadly in prison than a safety razor’
Back in my day (20+ years ago) we got single blade safety razors. The kind that were, in theory, good for one use. But in practice, they’d be in pretty bad shape before finishing your face.
We would get two per week. We were supposed to be on a turn 1 in, receive 1 new system. Some of the guards were strict on that, others were not. I was fortunate, in that one of the guards I was on good terms with was a fellow “5 o’clock shadow by noon” guy. He’d bring me extra razors if I asked.
It was difficult, but possible to take them apart to get the blade. The thing was small, so was not very effective as a weapon. But they were fairly useful as a cutting tool for prison crafts. Which is an entirely different discussion.
We were able to buy low quality electric razors. They were prime targets for theft, though. I never bought one myself. I did try a friend’s, and found it entirely useless for my thick facial hair.
Finally, it was possible to get an electric shave pass. This would let you go to the barber shop and use the hair trimmers. Had to get one of those from medical. I got one at one point, which was nice. But then I went to another facility, where the doc said those passes were only for black guys who got bad ingrown hairs/razor bumps.
My facility did not allow beards, so shaving was mandatory. This may not have been the case everywhere, but I was in several facilities across my time, and shaving was mandatory in all of them.
The best shaving situations I had were near the end of my sentence. I went to a minimum security work camp, and then a work release program. We were able to select from the full spectrum of commercial razors.
Do they get shaving cream? It sounds painful to shave with a single blade razor. If I don’t shave for 4 days there’s no way a single blade is going to get it done comfortably.
I worked in a high security facility between 99 and 07, back then the only people that didn’t have access to razors in their cells were “ad seg” (ie solitary with a view) and like another poster said they were given razors only under direct supervision. Typically they would be escorted to a “shower cell” and given a fresh disposable razor which was returned and inspected before the inmate left the shower.
Related story; I remember there was a CO that got put on suspension when SPM (Carlos Coy aka south park mexican, convicted of molesting a 9 year old girl in 2002) came through because the officer told him the best way to kill himself was to go down the arm rather than across when he escorted SPM to a shower. IIRC the guy was eventually fired but rehired a year later thanks to the union.
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