After our discussion about dictionaries being the books most requested by those who are incarcerated, a former prison inmate calls to report that dictionaries are so popular in prison in part because they’re used to settle debates in Scrabble...
rollup n.— «Patrick Neil, a division manager for Ventura County’s probation department, would not comment on why Avary was removed from the furlough program. “Any causes behind a rollup is not something we can discuss,” Neil...
snapper n.— «Police said a correctional officer overheard Campbell say to Morrissey, “At least I’m not a snapper like you.” Officials at the prison said that in Vermont prisons “snapper” is a derogatory term for an...
commissary berry n.— «If she were in the prison’s general population, she would surely sprout “commissary berries”—inmates who glom on to anyone with a little cash who could buy them a $1.50 cheeseburger or an 87-cent Milky...
Texas cocktail n.— «We use what’s known as the Texas cocktail, which is injections of three different drugs. The first drug that is injected is sodium pentothal and that, in this state, is the fatal dose. Once that dose is given, the...
spud juice n.— «Spud juice was made in a five-gallon bucket with two large cans of tomato juice, four pounds of sugar, one tablespoon of yeast shaken up in a small container of hot water, and roughly three gallons of water.…These...