On committal to prison, Mr Lawlor will find himself undergoing the same initiation process as any convict, being stripped, showered, photographed and fingerprinted.
Unless he can avoid imprisonment he will be sent to Mountjoy Prison, the State's main committal prison and a daunting place.
The reception area is behind huge oak-and-iron gates. Once a prisoner is sent there from court, he or she is issued with prison clothes of jeans, cotton shirt and a jumper. They are required to shower, and distinguishing marks such as tattoos, colour of eyes and hair, height and weight are noted.
Prisoners in the higher security categories are taken to the main prison, but prison sources pointed out yesterday that Mr Lawlor would almost certainly be at risk there.
It is felt more likely he will be sent to the Training Unit, to the rear of Mountjoy in Glengarriff Parade. ail Eireann to reside there when he spent almost a fortnight there in October 1987 after refusing to sing a bond to keep the peace after his arrest during a street protest on behalf of the women street traders of Moore Street. The Training Unit has a liberal regime, with staff and the 80 or so prisoners for the most part wearing their own clothes.
Unlike in the main prison, the inmates in the Training Unit are locked in their cells from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. In the main jail the prisoners have much more lock-down and eat their meals in their cells.
There are no toilets in the cells in Mountjoy, and the prisoners empty the buckets of their waste each morning in a process known as "slopping out".
There is no in-cell sanitation in the Training Unit either. But the prisoners call a prison officer if they wish to go to the toilet during the night and are allowed out.
If he is committed to the unit, Mr Lawlor will also enjoy the privilege of having his own cell.
In Mountjoy there is much doubling-up in cells because of the pressure on accommodation. There should be only fewer than 500 prisoners in Mountjoy, but there are usually around 600. The pressure on space has eased somewhat with the opening of prisons in Portlaoise and west Dublin.