# The question about the showers

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The question about the showers," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-question-about-the-showers/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The single thing John Kiriakou says he most wanted to know before going to prison, and the lunch his attorneys arranged with a former George Washington University professor, himself recently released, to answer it.*

- **Arranged by:** Kiriakou's attorneys, a couple of weeks before he reported to prison
- **The briefer:** A former George Washington University professor who had served two years
- **His offence:** Playing "fast and loose" with a National Science Foundation credit card
- **Kiriakou's first question:** "What's the situation with the showers?"
- **The answer:** Individual enclosed showers with curtains at lows and minimums; the toilets likewise
- **Verdict:** "He was exactly right"

**The question about the showers** is John Kiriakou's account of how he prepared for imprisonment, and of what he actually wanted to know. He gave it on the DeProgram programme in July 2025 when a viewer asked how bad prison showers really were, prefacing the question with *"we've all seen the movies."*[1]

## The lunch

Kiriakou's lawyers arranged a briefing. *"One of the things that my attorneys did for me was they scheduled a lunch a couple of weeks before I left for prison with a former professor from George Washington University who played fast and loose with the National Science Foundation credit card and got two years."*[1]

He stresses how little he asked. The showers were *"one of the very few questions I asked my attorneys"*, and it was *"the very first question I asked him."*[1]

## The answer

The professor dismissed the premise. *"Oh no, don't worry about that,"* he said. *"It's nothing like what you see on TV. You're going to go to a low or a minimum, and they're all individual showers, completely enclosed with shower curtains. Same with the toilets. They're all individual toilets with shower curtains. Don't worry about it at all."*[2]

Kiriakou's verdict on the briefing is unqualified: *"he was exactly right."*[2]

## The rule underneath it

He then generalises from the plumbing to the etiquette. *"I never saw a guy naked in prison,"* he says, and immediately corrects himself for accuracy, *"well, that's not true. We did have one strip search once."*[2][3]

The correction aside, the point stands as a rule with an enforcement mechanism: *"you do not walk around exposing yourself unless you want to have every bone in your face broken."*[3] Kiriakou illustrated it in the same passage with the case of a prisoner who ignored the rule and was beaten senseless for it.[3]

The episode belongs to a small class of Kiriakou stories in which the reality of the [federal prison system](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/federal-prison-security-levels) turns out to be less lurid than its reputation, a corrective he applies as readily as the reverse.

## See also

- [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto)
- [Federal prison security levels](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/federal-prison-security-levels)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Chomo](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chomo)

## Sources

1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-07-25), at 57:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypVxybJzHo&t=3431s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-07-25), at 57:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypVxybJzHo&t=3463s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-07-25), at 58:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypVxybJzHo&t=3495s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-25-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/

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