As I have previously blogged, prison is not a country club no matter what how many stories I have to read about Lil’ Wayne’s incarceration.

The latest illustration of the fact that going to prison is no holiday is rapper Mystikal who was released from prison in January 2010 after serving 6 years for sexual battery. I read an interesting article this weekend about his experience of being incarcerated and his musical comeback.

The article offers this description of part of his time behind bars:

He settled into Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, outside Baton Rouge. He picked potatoes and tomatoes, dug holes, worked “every job they had.” He rode out Hurricane Katrina there, as a posse of relatives from New Orleans crashed at his home.

He was eventually transferred to David Wade Correctional Center in north Louisiana, much further from friends and family. One advantage? The prison pig farm produced pork chops for the menu.

He worked his way up the prison hierarchy to the “preferred” jobs. He liked the grass-cutting job because of its “seasonal” nature – in winter, he had time off.

His celebrity afforded no particular advantages or disadvantages. He lived in a dormitory amongst the general population, and had no trouble, he said, aside from minor infractions. “I wasn’t perfect. I tried to get over when I could.”

I am glad that Mystikal did not try to portray his incarceration as though it were 6 years at Club Fed. Below is a radio interview that he conducted as he was being released from prison in January.

This article follows one where T.I. clearly does not glamourize his own experience of being incarcerated. More articles like this please… rather than ones about how Lil’ Wayne is living it up in lock down.