He has a job at the prison's furniture factory, learning a trade in case he ever gets out. That and his writing and the Lord keep him busy - though not in that order. The Lord comes first, he is quick to stipulate. My bet is that he's in for murder. A crime of passion.
Murderers are typically the most honorable, affable, and predictable inmates.
The circumstances that land them in prison are often unique to them, and tend never to be duplicated. He's got booze and drugs and guns in his eyes, scars and tattoos on his body. The fact remains that, ultimately, you can't glean a thing about a man just by looking at him - especially in prison. And dis-cussing a prisoner's crimes is strictly taboo. I suppose, for my purposes as his writing teacher, what he did doesn't matter.