Once in the prison, their lives were difficult, though not without small pleasures. Prisoners would would rise at 5:30 or or 6:00 a.m; clean their cells; have a breakfast of hash or stew; work for five hours (when season permitted and work was available); take a midday meal of roasted or boiled meats, fresh baked breads, and vegetables, if available; return to work for another five hours; and end their day with a dinner of simpler fare. They had to observe a strict code of silence except when working outside. Tobacco, for either smoking or chewing, was distributed each week and the prisoners were permitted to partake of it in their cells.

Forever promoting prisoner uplift, Laramie citizens collected books and magazines for a prison library that at one time held some 1,200 volumes. Likewise, community ministers held weekly services, and university faculty gave periodic instructive lectures to guide prisoners back to the right path. Baths were taken weekly, more often in warm weather. Uniforms were routinely laundered. Those who exhibited notably good behavior were granted up to five days off their sentence for each of the calendar months in which they qualified.

Common punishments consisted of living in total darkness; loss of tobacco or library privileges; bread and water diets; and forfeiture of good time or time off. In more extreme cases, a prisoner might be manacled to his cell door; and hung by both hands from the ceiling of the cell for two to four hours; placed in the solitary cell or “dungeon”, or subjected to a high pressure water dousing for up to fifteen minutes at a time.

This was unusual, though as it was the intention of the prison administration to reform the prisoners, to have them “go out from here better, both morally and physically”. And so with a good serviceable suit of clothes to the value of $15 and a cash gratuity of $5 they went forth to rejoin productive society.