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 games...
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 said, using the term...
keister v.— «The inmates know officials are looking for the phones and are going to great lengths to hide them, he said. It’s tough, officials admit, because some of the phones are small enough to be, in prison parlance, “keistered.”» —“McNeil...
mack n.— «Mr. Levine and his client were prisoners in California’s Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex. Like other federal inmates around the country, they found a can of mackerel—the “mack” in prison lingo—was the standard currency.» —“Mackerel...
Air Giulianis n.pl.— «The food truck man, Mr. Samolis, said he often gives free food to inmates who are released from Rikers with no money.…Often, these released inmates wear the orange sneakers that the jail issues. “They call them Air Giulianis,”...
suicide gown n.— «Across the way, about a dozen inmates are engaged in a “socialization” exercise. Some participants are chained to benches—”for civilian workers” safety,” as Hong explains it. Others sit listlessly at tables, in long draping...
