We have all been like Morgan Freeman at one time, dragged into a prison server for so long that we treat it as a home. Some people say that prison servers are way too hard, or a waste of time, and they just quit. I can partially agree that if you are not having fun on a server and think you should do something else, you should leave. But this blog isn't for them, it's for you. The miner, the PvPer, the trader, the survivor, it's for you.

Prison isn't how it sounds:

Some people don't give prison servers more then a glance before scrolling down the page and looking elsewhere. Some think you just get dropped in a bedrock cell with a wood pick and get the rest of your life to mine yourself out. It's not like that.
You get your own starter tools and go to the first rank mine, A most likely. This mine will be mostly cobble, some coal and iron scattered around. You mine what you can, coal to smelt iron ore, stacks of cobble, you sell these at the shop. You recieve in-game money to purchase items, food or save until you can buy access to the next rank, B. This is probably the slowest point and people give up here because they want action, creepers, PvP, or they get impatient and bored. For those who push through this stage, they are rewarded with the /rankup command with which to move on to a higher quality mine. Once you reach a high enough rank, diamonds and enchanting may become available. That is when you can go out and PvP.
Note: safe/spawn camping will get you banned, and hitting everyone who crosses the line will get you marked as a "prick".

Ragequiting:

We've all been there, the stuff we worked so long and hard to get, gone in the flash of a diamond sword. All we can do is sit there and think, "(vulgar words) WHY ME?". Solution, enderchest! Put in spawn and in the mine, enderchests are there for your convenience. There is no reason to carry around several stacks of iron or diamond into the PvP area, so don't go complaining that "There was no space in my Enderchest!" Once you get several ingots or etc., craft a block. Once you get a stack of blocks, sell them! No need to dirty your enderchest with stacks upon stacks of coal.
Tip: Stay organized, here is a screenshot of how I do it:


Plots are your best friend:

Is your enderchest really full with enchanted tools? You have another option. Most prison servers have a plot world that you can:
A: Store your stuff
B: Create a player shop and sell at a reasonable price
C: Take donations (If the server is large, I guarantee you some cool stuff)
D: Use as a farm or base. Have a wall of anvils, have a wall of chests, have a wall of furnaces, etc.
You can show your building skill to others (usually in tower form), and use it as a place to meet your friends and exchange items in secret.
TIP: Never, EVER add anyone to your plot who is out of fist's distance irl. They WILL rip you off. An admin will say "That's prison for you." and leave you going back to the mine to get another chestfull of diamonds.

Player shops:

A tip for when you reach a higher rank, most mines will be the same, but with added stuff. The difference is in the shops, diamonds and iron go up in value, and you just finished off your best pick. "What to do?" you ask. Go to the plots, find player shops that sell diamonds and etc. for a lower price than the shop is buying. This is not a glitch, nor an exploit, because you are also giving to those that need it most. Let's say someone in Mine C just got some diamonds. Their shop buys them at $200 per diamond. They go to their plot and set up a shop selling them for $300 per diamond. "Lol. Suckers!" they think, but actually, they are setting you up for easy money grinding. Let's say you are in D mine and diamonds go for $400 per, that's a $100 profit per times you click a sign. You get money, the C mine guy get's money, everyone is happy. However, on the other side of things, buying from a lower shop and selling at a higher shop is cheating the system, and will get you banned. If you see this being exploited, report it.

LAG:
People complain about lag on all servers. When the mines refill/reset, the whole server will be lagged by loading blocks. If a beefy computer isn't within your budget, a flash drive is. I won't go too far into this because I myself have near to no client-side lag, therefore I have not done it. I have, however, found out from multiple sources that you can "dedicate" more RAM (RAM is how fast you computer can go)  to minecraft. All you have to do is plug in a flash drive and somehow dedicate the RAM. I don't know how so searching on Google may help. What I do know is that once the RAM is dedicated, the flash drive itself becomes useless. I also know that you may only dedicate 4GB of RAM from the flash drive, so do not use your 12GB flash drive with all your schoolwork on it, just go to the store and pick up a 4GB for cheap. 
Edit:
Lag can also be prevented by turning your render distance WAY down when underground in the mines.


That's it, now go have fun on your prison server.
-Quapperops