Do inmates experience boredom in jail? Can you provide an example of something an inmate might do for fun if they were bored?

That's where you play cards and board games;

Time to break out the CS canisters.

Because it's hard enough to pass the nighttime lockdown in jail without having to deal with sleeplessness, what with the dusk-til-dawn florescent bulb over your burnished chrome shaving mirror shining in your eyes, and the CO’s slamming armored doors throughout the graveyard shift.

Stock futures inch lower to kick off start of the new trading month: Live updates - CNBC

And a lot of this has to do with common comfort.

You can only watch so many hours of basic cable on the shitty day room TV…play so many tricks of Spades…read so many chapters of Michael Crichton…listen to so much Top 40 radio over your earbuds, before it all just becomes too fucking much.

That's where you watch The Price is Right;

6 Daily Habits Doctors Say Will Help You Live Longer - SELF Magazine

They lash out under circumstances where they would normally just let things slide.

And as the seconds, minutes, and hours tick by, your ass starts to ache, your eyes cloud over, and your brain begins firing on one single cylinder.

The perpetually tired don't think straight.

If you lived in South Africa, would you support nuclear power as a solution to the country's energy woes?

That's where you typically shoot the shit with your fellow inmates.

That's where you eat your meals;

And that's where you've fucked right on up, since now you're inevitably going to nap, and nothing's more dangerous in jail than an intermittent sleep cycle.

PlayStation State of Play June 2025: Everything Announced - IGN

See those stainless steel stools?

Take a bunch of prisoners, lock them in a pen, make them as uncomfortable as possible and feed them shitty food, and if you're VERY VERY lucky, they'll only manage to take it out on each other.

And if you're not…well….

Lawyers could face ‘severe’ penalties for fake AI-generated citations, UK court warns - TechCrunch

Spartan circumstances only build character when you're allowed to maintain a certain level of self respect and esprit de corps.

Some eventually relent and escape to their cells and those welded sheet metal bunks…really no more comfortable than the day room furnishings, but at least you can get horizonal.