I went to prison 10 years ago. There were weights where I was at. Very old school York Barbell, but they had everything basic that you needed for a hardcore dungeon gym. They had a weight pile out on the yard with a roof over it, and then a quite large weight room in the basement. While I can’t say I know every single thing that went on or was available in there, I never heard of any gear available. Guys were making a big deal about smuggling creatine and selling it for ridiculous prices.
In spite of that, there were some really strong guys in there. I would see entire groups of guys benching and they would just keep ramping up, 315, 365, 405, some even 455. If I had to give a rough description of how people tended to work out, and how I did while I was in there, it would be similar to Eastern Europeans who work out for several sessions a day in between naps and laying around. You pretty much have nothing to do but work out and rest. No pump work was usually done, it was all about lifting heavy weights.
People would go work out in the morning, take a nap, come back in the afternoon, then come back in the evening. There was plenty of time to rest. Nutrition isn’t great, you don’t get a lot of quality protein, but there are a lot of starches available and you can get a lot of calories that way by all you can eat oatmeal and grits and such.
Also, you hear a lot of bodybuilders talk about the atmosphere at Gold’s out in LA, or powerlifters talk about the importance of atmosphere and good training partners at a hardcore gym. Now picture the atmosphere lifting in a prison full of aggressive convicts putting heavy weight on the bar and screaming at you to “PUSH THAT SHIT! I AIN’T PULLIN IT OFF YOU! PUSH IT OR ITS GONNA CRUSH YOUR ASS!”, especially when you’re half scared of the monsters screaming it at you.
I’m sure people will still say juice was available in there, but aside from pot and some painkillers and shit being available, it wasn’t really like that. You generally got paid 65 cents a day to work in the kitchen or something, hardly enough to afford cycles, and syringes are really hard to hide. I saw in there that you can get big and strong without perfect nutrition, and you can train frequently with heavy weights provided you get adequate rest and don’t do a lot of bodybuilder type intensity techniques.
Just my experience.