How to Not Die in Prison: A Survival Guide

by Taylor Sheridan, Tom Nelson

The debut book from Academy Award–nominated filmmaker Taylor Sheridan, creator of Landman and cocreator of Yellowstone—a no-bullsh*t, darkly funny survival guide to life inside a maximum-security prison, cowritten with prison-hardened ex-con Tom Nelson.

So, you f*cked up. Can't talk your way out of it, buy your way out of it, or beg your way out of it.

You are going to prison. You will be living under a set of rules made up by men who have demonstrated to society that they need a big ol' time out. There is no book of these rules. Nobody will tell them to you. But when you break one—boy, will you know it. For the newbie, the fish, the fresh meat—this book is your survival guide. How to mind your business without becoming a target. When to walk away. When to stand your ground.

This is how you don't die. Follow the advice in this book, and you just might make it out alive.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, True Crime, Self Help, Biography

Audible Audio

Published June 23, 2026

About the author

Taylor Sheridan is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Emmy-nominated producer, and the creator, writer, director, and executive producer of multiple record-breaking series including Yellowstone, Landman, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, 1883, 1923, Lioness, and The Madison. His acclaimed screenplays include Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River, which he also directed, earning him Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival. Sheridan owns and operates two Texas ranches including the legendary Four Sixes (6666) Ranch and Bosque Ranch.

source: Amazon

Reviews

[Brett Strickland]

I only read this because Taylor Sheridan co-wrote it, but it’s pretty bad. Can’t imagine this is a real help to anyone actually going to prison (I’ll read some reviews in a sec here and see if I’m wrong), and it’s kind of boring for someone who isn’t going (a section of the book gives a detailed description of how to play the card game War).

[Milly]

Picked this up out of curiosity. Read half of it in one day. Taylor Sheridan wrote about 10% of this and his (ex-convict) friend Tom Nelson wrote the rest. Both are extremely voice-y writers. Makes for quite an interesting read !

[Jessica]

3.6 - Information I will (hopefully) never need :)

[Krista | theliterateporcupine]

I feel prepared

[Brai Royer]

I mean it’s exactly what it says it is.. but I was expecting atleast a couple real life in depth stories of things that had happened.. they just breeze over scenarios.

It’s a classic Taylor Sheridan used his name to make him and his buddy some money.

[Crystal Rivera]

LOL! I liked the dark humor of this one. But also, it did actually seem like a smart guide if you did find find your self headed to the clicker. I appreciate that they didn't romanticize it. Lastly, good on Tom for making it out and becoming an upstanding citizen.

[Natalie]

In the introduction, Taylor Sheridan explains how Tom Nelson came to him during COVID and asked for financial help when his gym shut down. This book, and using his name to sell it, seem to be the help Sheridan offered instead. Apart from the introduction, Sheridan didn't write any other part of the book. I was hoping that we would learn about the crazy stuff we're not supposed to know that happens in jail...but the book was really all just common sense. The best part of the book is knowing that Nelson served his time and successfully integrated himself back into society.

[Kay]

Listened to the audiobook. Narration was OK. This book was so bad. It was trying to be so funny but it wasn’t. There was so much generalized basic, nonsense advice given but if you really want to know about prison life, you should read books from people that actually in prison and tell their story from a serious and emotional point of view.

[Kerry Crabbs]

I learned where and how to hide things, how to make a shiv, how to do prison tattoos, and how to make some recipes.

[Geo]

Truly a boring mediocre guide book about prison life which most new criminals will never know exists or bother acquiring at their neighbourhood book store before their heist or assault. Meant to entertain the public who have already seen a thousand Netflix series about incarceration and pretty well know the drill.

Essentially a book without an audience. Written in a strange combo of bawdy insider revelations about rough hombres, and an institutional organized official guidebook that the prison system should hand to every newcomer. Some successful screenwriter collaborated with a repeat offender to create a pretty lame read.







.

[Mike D.]

I’m not planning on going on any government-sponsored extended stays any time soon but this was a great, interesting, and thought provoking read. Not only did it lift the veil that most of us don’t see or know about but it did it in an easy-to-read and digestible way for us laypeople. Glad I took a flyer on this.

[June]

Excellent information delivered in a no-nonsense manner.

[James Moore]

Fun book- kinda a lot for someone never intending to go to prison.

[Matt Brandt]

I enjoyed this book, as it is a unique topic…. 4 stars due to a couple of dead space/time consuming chapters.

[Andres]

I first became interested in this book after watching Taylor Sheridan discuss it during an interview with Howard Stern. Fictional shows and true-crime content can sometimes make us feel as though we understand prison life, but this book revealed how widely those experiences can vary and how complicated the reality truly is.

The book also offered many valuable lessons that extend beyond prison, particularly about dealing with unpredictable people, making careful decisions, prioritizing self-care, and recognizing that our actions can have lasting consequences. I have never been to prison and certainly do not plan to go, but the insight provided throughout the book gave me greater empathy for everyone affected by crime and incarceration.

My thoughts are with victims and their families, as well as incarcerated individuals and their loved ones. We are all human, and I do not believe it is fair to judge the entirety of someone’s life without understanding the circumstances and experiences that shaped it.

Despite the seriousness and emotional weight of the subject, the book was also unexpectedly hilarious at times.

[Randal White]

Interesting. Based on my experiences of working Federal corrections for over 20 years, I think this book would be helpful for anyone who is going into prison. And for those who are out there committing crimes to read before they are arrested and convicted, in the hope that it will turn their lives around. Pretty well covers the majority of the situations in prison.

[Owen Mesham]

A fascinating look into an American subculture governed by unwritten rules, informal hierarchies, and a code of conduct that most people will never encounter. Whether you’re interested in criminology, sociology, or simply understanding a hidden world, this book offers an eye-opening perspective.

[Zee Suarez]

I was expecting a story or stories with characters I could bond and/or relate to. What I got instead was a how-to guide with lots of unnecessary statistics and boring information I’ll never need, or care to understand!
I hate to leave a book on DNF, but this was such a snoozer! One of the most boring books I’ve ever had the displeasure of paying for! Don’t bother…

[Books Data]

How to Not Die in Prison: A Survival Guide by Taylor Sheridan and Tom Nelson is a blunt, darkly funny, and surprisingly human look at life inside maximum-security prison. Published in June 2026, the book is presented as a practical guide for someone who has suddenly found himself facing incarceration, but it is also much more than that. Beneath its crude humor and deliberately outrageous language is a serious examination of prison culture, survival, mental health, relationships, violence, and the difficult journey back into ordinary life. Sheridan brings his experience as a writer and filmmaker fascinated by crime and prison systems, while Nelson contributes firsthand knowledge from more than seventeen years spent in medium- and maximum-security prisons.

The book begins with an uncomfortable reality: prison operates according to rules that are rarely written down. A newcomer may know the official rules of the institution, but those rules do not necessarily explain how to behave around other prisoners, how to avoid unnecessary conflict, or how to understand the social hierarchy. The authors therefore approach prison as a world with its own language, customs, alliances, dangers, and unwritten expectations. Their first lesson is essentially one of awareness: a new prisoner must observe, listen, and learn before assuming that ordinary social habits will work behind bars.

The opening sections introduce the reader to the shock of incarceration. The authors discuss the transition from county jail to prison and the psychological adjustment required when freedom suddenly disappears. Everyday activities become controlled by schedules and institutional rules. Privacy becomes scarce, personal possessions become limited, and even seemingly simple decisions can have consequences. The authors' humor makes these experiences easier to read about, but the underlying message is bleak: prison is not an adventure or a badge of toughness; it is an environment in which mistakes can carry serious consequences.

A major part of the book concerns relationships and social survival. Prisoners quickly learn that they cannot interact with everyone in the same way. The authors discuss friendships, rivalries, prison groups, cellmates, guards, and the importance of staying out of unnecessary disputes. One of the recurring lessons is to avoid drawing attention to yourself for the wrong reasons. The book encourages readers to understand their surroundings, respect boundaries, and recognize when a situation is becoming dangerous rather than trying to prove themselves.

The discussion of prison gangs and informal alliances reveals how complicated prison society can become. People form groups for protection, companionship, identity, and practical reasons, but those associations can also create obligations and conflicts. The authors emphasize that survival often depends less on being the strongest person in the room than on knowing when to speak, when to listen, when to walk away, and when a situation requires firm boundaries.

The book then turns to the prison economy. Work assignments, commissary, privileges, and informal exchanges all become part of daily life. The authors explain how prisoners adapt to limited resources and create small systems of trade and social interaction. Food becomes particularly important. The book describes ways prisoners combine commissary ingredients into improvised meals, turning limited supplies into something more satisfying than institutional food. These passages are often comic, but they also demonstrate human adaptability: even in an intensely controlled environment, people find ways to create small pleasures and a sense of normality.

When the book reaches the section dealing with emergencies, its tone becomes more serious. Riots, lockdowns, violence, solitary confinement, and other dangers are discussed from the perspective of someone trying to remain alive and mentally intact. The authors' basic message is not to seek confrontation or imitate prison violence but to avoid becoming part of it whenever possible. The book also discusses the reality of physical danger without romanticizing it. The emphasis remains on awareness, restraint, and survival rather than bravado.

Health is another major concern. Prisoners may have limited access to medical care, restricted food choices, and difficult living conditions. The authors discuss the effects of poor nutrition, stress, inadequate healthcare, and long periods of inactivity. Their observations reveal that surviving prison is not simply about avoiding violence. A person must also take care of the body under circumstances that may make ordinary self-care difficult.

The authors give particular attention to mental health. Prison can create loneliness, anxiety, anger, depression, hopelessness, and emotional numbness. The book discusses the psychological strain of confinement and the importance of finding constructive ways to occupy the mind. Reading, studying, creating art, exercising, developing skills, and maintaining some form of spiritual life can help a prisoner retain a sense of identity. The authors treat mental survival as just as important as physical survival.

Relationships with people outside prison form another emotional center of the book. The authors discuss visiting days, letters, phone calls, care packages, romantic relationships, and parenting from prison. These connections can provide motivation, but they can also become complicated by distance, shame, financial pressures, and the emotional burden placed on loved ones. The book recognizes that incarceration affects entire families rather than only the person serving the sentence.

Eventually, the guide turns toward reentry. This is one of its most important sections because leaving prison does not automatically mean returning to a normal life. Former prisoners must find employment, rebuild relationships, deal with restrictions, adjust to technology and social changes, and resist the habits that contributed to their incarceration. The authors stress that freedom brings its own challenges. Without the structure of prison, a person must make responsible decisions independently.

Tom Nelson's own story gives this section particular weight. His past included drug addiction and serious crimes, followed by more than seventeen years behind bars. After prison, he rebuilt his life and became a husband, father, and personal trainer. His experience demonstrates that a criminal past does not have to remain the final definition of a person's identity.

Ultimately, How to Not Die in Prison is not really a celebration of prison survival. Its deeper lesson is that the best way to survive prison is not to go there in the first place—and, if you do, to use the experience as an opportunity to change. Sheridan and Nelson deliberately strip away the glamour sometimes associated with prison stories. Their world is frightening, restrictive, lonely, and exhausting.

The book's humor makes its difficult subject accessible, but its final message is serious. Prison exposes the consequences of destructive choices, yet it also demonstrates the possibility of adaptation, learning, and redemption. By the end, the focus has shifted from surviving incarceration to building a life that makes returning to prison unnecessary.

In that sense, How to Not Die in Prison is ultimately a book about consequences, resilience, and second chances. It offers an unusually direct look at a hidden social world while reminding readers that the most valuable freedom is the freedom to make better choices before those choices disappear.

[Stephanie Tallon]

I thought this would be interesting-I was wrong. Not worth a read unless you are currently on trial

[CJ]

I like Taylor Sheridan’s shows, but I’ve never cared much for the characters he plays in them—Yellowstone being the obvious example. They always come across as pompous, arrogant, and convinced they’re the smartest guy in the room. After reading this book, I’m beginning to wonder if maybe that’s less “acting” than I thought.

As for the other author, I’m genuinely glad he got out of prison, turned his life around, and made something of himself. That’s great, and he deserves credit for it. But a lot of his writing still carries this underlying “I beat the system that had it out for me” attitude that gets old pretty quickly. There’s a persistent victim mentality running through the book.

I don’t doubt that there are bad cops, bad corrections officers, bad prison doctors, corrupt institutions, or people who abuse their authority. Of course there are. But there’s also a remarkably effective way to avoid about 99% of the prison-related problems described in this book: don’t commit crimes that land you in prison.

The bigger disappointment for me was simply that this wasn’t really the book I expected. I picked it up because I was curious about what life is actually like inside prison—the routines, personalities, hierarchy, bizarre stories, unwritten rules, and day-to-day reality behind the walls. There is some of that, but an awful lot of the book is literally instructional: how to play certain card games, how to cook food in your cell, how to make prison weapons, and so on.

Maybe that makes sense given the title, but I’d wager 99% of the people buying How Not to Die in Prison aren’t doing so because they’ve just been sentenced and need a field manual. They’re buying it because prison is a world most people will never experience and they’re curious about what it’s actually like. The book frequently seems oblivious to that audience.

There’s also a condescending tone throughout—as though the authors are speaking from atop a very tall horse to us poor civilians who are simply too naive to comprehend the realities of prison. Between that and the repeated sense that every institution is the problem, it became tiresome.

I read the whole thing in about a day, so clearly it kept me entertained. It’s not terrible. It’s not particularly good, either. It’s mediocre, occasionally fascinating, occasionally eye-rolling, and not nearly as insightful about life behind the walls as I hoped it would be.

Read it or don’t. I’m not your parole officer.

[CHRISTOPHER STONE]

Being a huge Taylor Sheridan fan is what originally drew me to How to Not Die in Prison. And just to be clear—I have absolutely no plans of going to prison! 😂

What surprised me was how interesting the book actually was. Much of it comes from the experience of co-author Tom Nelson, who spent most of his adult life incarcerated. His story fascinated me as much as the practical advice itself.

The book covers the realities of prison life and gives straightforward advice about surviving physically, mentally, and emotionally in that environment. I obviously can’t judge how well the advice works from personal experience—and hopefully I’ll never find out! 😂—but much of it sounded practical and was interesting to learn about.

What impressed me most was Nelson’s story. For someone who spent so much of his life incarcerated and caused so many problems along the way, seeing the direction his life eventually took and how he was able to turn things around was encouraging.

Definitely not a book I expected to pick up, but being a Taylor Sheridan fan got me through the door, and Tom Nelson’s story kept me interested. A unique and surprisingly fascinating book.

[TheNextGenLibrarian]

There’s no rulebook for prison…until now.
🚔
Cowritten by filmmaker Taylor Sheridan and former inmate Tom Nelson, this darkly funny #nonfiction guide breaks down the unwritten rules of surviving life inside a maximum-security prison. From knowing when to keep your head down to understanding when you need to stand your ground, it offers an insider’s look at navigating a world with its own complicated code.
👮
I love a good narrative nonfiction book that gives insight into topics I don’t know about, particularly surviving in maximum security prison! I love Sheridan’s shows and he did a great job co-narrating the audiobook The dark humor should keep what could be a pretty heavy subject engaging, while the focus on unwritten rules, hierarchy, and survival offers a completely different look at incarceration.

CW: incarceration, imprisonment/confinement, violence, death, crime, physical assault, drug use, addiction

[Jeannette Hartman]

Taylor Sheridan, renowned screenwriter, producer and director, met Tom Nelson, an ex-criminal with 17 years of incarceration behind him, at a gym he went to in Los Angeles.

Starting as a teenager in South Carolina, Nelson was in and out of prison for drug-dealing, armed robbery and grand theft auto, among other things. He shared a screenplay he'd written with Sheridan, who was impressed with his writing skills and suggested that he write a survival manual.

The result is this book: a frank, practical, gritty guide complete with recipes you can make in your cell to statistics on prisons and prison life. Highly readable and darkly funny, it will rid you of any fantasy you've imagined or picked up from movies about prison life.

[Kaz Newton]

While I have no plans of ever going to prison or committing serious crimes, I’ve always wondered what I would do if I found myself in prison. This book answered so many of those more specific questions and gave practical advice in a way that was very digestible and conversational. The level of detail also reinforces that which we all already know (but can always use a reminder of when someone cuts us off on the road), which is that the best strategy is to avoid prison at all costs, because it sounds even worse than I had previously imagined. Very interesting read! Thank you for sharing this niche knowledge with the world.

[Samantha]

Very Strong 4.75/5!
Only Taylor Sheridan could write a book on life in USA men's maximum security prisons and turn it into a travel style guide! This book is exceptionally brilliant and readable!!!
If you're someone headed to prison or you know someone that is I recommend you buy them this book cuz it may change their life if you're someone who has no intention of ever committing a crime of any nature that you're curious on the human nature within the person's systems this book will become a favorite quickly!
Sheridan proves again and again he truly has a gift for hard hitting entertaining writing!!

[Carol]

Never in my life did I think I’d be reading a prison manual… but here we are! 😂

This was a fascinating and eye-opening journey into the realities of life as a prisoner. I learned so much about a world I knew very little about, and some of the statistics scattered throughout the book were absolutely staggering.

It’s definitely a unique read, and I’m not sure it’s one I would recommend to everyone. But if you’re curious about what life behind bars is actually like - or, like me, you just enjoy learning about something completely outside your normal reading lane - it was certainly interesting!

Definitely one of the more unexpected books to make it onto my reading list! 📚

[Jacqueline Callister]

This book would be beneficial for a person recently convicted and awaiting sentencing. Use the time to read this book.
It was an interesting book and it is beyond me how I actually already know a bunch this stuff…most likely programs and films. The great book and film by Stephen King’s, The Shawshank Redemption, was mentioned at least once. (I could just be imagining that it was referenced more.)
The really interesting and laborious task was making substitutes for favorite or popular dishes with what food stuff is available. I found this humorous in the length one would go to and has to go to in order to concoct a facsimile. I had to laugh.

[Cara Sensing]

This is a serious tell all of advice on what life is like for a convict. I developed interest after hearing a Podcast interview of Taylor Sheridan. Being a huge fan of Taylor’s impressive shows, I knew this book was a must read. It didn’t disappoint. The creative writing style, real life experiences, and just the brutal honesty of how broken our I department of corrections is. Even if you don’t have plans on going to jail, and I promise you it isn’t at the top of my list either, I still think this quick read is informative and entertaining.

[Marissa Burger]

I admire Tom for his story of resilience, which forms the basis of this book. It's definitely a "man's" book. In fact, I found two men in my family silently reading it during a family reunion after I had put it down. I bought it because of its ties to Taylor Sheridan, but I don't think Taylor wrote much of it other than the italicized intros at the beginning of each chapter. I admire Taylor for putting his name on this book as a solid for his friend (read the preface). I didn't hate it, but I don't think they wrote it for a middle-aged corporate horse girl. That's my bad, not theirs.