It would be very easy to dish on Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino’s time spent in prison and how ‘scary’ things got while he was serving 8 months for tax evasion, but it’s more of a lame duck target and not worth teeing up on at this point, other than the say that his time spent was likely different enough from his normal life that it likely was unnerving since he couldn’t do or go what he wanted for nearly a year. Anyone else feeling sorry for him? A number of fans have shown a great deal of support, as have his Jersey Shore costars, and yet few if any people ever tend to admit that he was likely never in any danger given that the shanks he saw during cell checks, as he talks about, would have been meant for him only had he screwed up in a big way and run his mouth as too many reality stars are known to do at times. Thankfully for Mike though he did his time without any huge complaints and kept his head down as he waited for his day to get out. Many of those put in jail or prison can tell those that have never experienced a day in the slammer that hearing your name called when it’s time to go is one of the sweetest sounds that could ever reach your ears, and leaving a place like prison is, for many people, a joy that is hard to match.
As far as his explanation of prison goes however one has to wonder if he was expecting the food to be good or for things to be as comfy as possible. It’s likely that he did considering how he talks, but it’s also easy to see that he received something of a wake-up call since prison isn’t where they send people to have fun. The fact that the reality star is so willing to speak on his experience tends to mean that he didn’t learn much apart from what he might have learned had he been cut off from appearing on the show without having going to jail, meaning that he learned next to nothing. There are a lot of people that would gladly argue with this by saying that he learned his lesson, that he was given a look at what life is like for convicts and what he never wants to experience again, but given that a lot of people don’t want to talk about their prison sentence unless it’s bound to do something for them, it’s easy to state that he really didn’t learn anything of value other than to keep his mouth shut and his head down. Monica Haider of CNN has more to say on the matter.
Prison isn’t meant to be easy, and whatever stories exist about white collar criminals getting off easy aren’t entirely exaggerated, but given the differences between one prison and another it’s easy to think that Mike did get off pretty easy. He could have been doing years instead of months had things gone sideways, meaning that the reality star, who’s no doubt spinning this experience into something that ‘changed his life’ and will keep him on the straight and narrow from now on. Reality stars are kind of hard to take seriously in a big way since they contractually agree to put their life on blast the moment they step onto the set, and as a result we get a life that appears to be less than genuine most of the time since those that can actually act this way on camera without it being an act aren’t any less worthy of ridicule as those that are behaving this way just for the ratings. If not for his actually being in prison it’s fair to say that it would have all been deemed as an act to promote the show in some way, but the reality is that Mike did get a taste of what it’s like to be locked up and likely as not it would appear that he realized how tough he isn’t. Those that have been incarcerated know it’s not always about being tough, but about being smart and learning who to speak to and when to just shut up and do your time. Charles Trepany of USA Today had his own opinion on the subject.
The positive note out of all this of course is that he did in fact do his time and came out the other end without any added time or any major issues that might need fixing. A lot of people would argue that due to his celebrity status he was never in any danger and that he might have even been coddled a bit and to be fair that’s more opinion than anything. He did his time, now it’s enough to think that he gets to tell his story any way he sees fit.
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