Most embezzlers, con artists and other white collar criminals are considered teachers and so become the best friends of up and coming “lazy” criminals.
The most coveted friends in the prison system (unless you are looking for a bodyguard) are convicted lawyers after that the white collar criminals. They are usually harmless and can help you.
You seem to know a lot about prisons. I hope it’s not from first hand knowledge. And I hope I never learn very much.
I do have two funny stories. A friend of mine was retired and he taught part time at a prison. He said he was told they’re never to discuss why they’re incarcerated. One day my friend was sitting at his desk talking to a student prisoner and another one was working at the blackboard behind him. They were talking about computers and my friend was explaining to the guy across the desk from him about how people can hack into computers and steal information. The prisoner said “I wonder how much time you’d get for that.”
The guy at the blackboard said “Five years.” He was in for hacking into the University of Tennessee.
Another time my friend told one of the prisoners that he was coming along too slow and he needed to speed his work up a little. They man said “Sir, I’ve got 15 years to finish this.”