Gossip goes by many names: the poop, the scoop, the lowdown, the dope, the scuttlebutt, the 411, the grapes, the gore, and hot tea. Plus, John Donne’s love poems are among the greatest in the English language, even as they’re famously...
joint rag n.— «Magazines produced by prisoners are called “joint rags.”» —“A convict’s look at life on the inside” in Carleton University Carleton Newsroom (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) July 21, 2009...
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...
cell warrior n.— «Among prison guards, Tavares became known as a loud-mouthed malcontent who spat at guards passing his cell, tossed feces or urine at them, and made violent threats. “He was what guys refer to as a cell...
shit up n.— «Assaults, when they happened, were generally of a relatively minor nature in comparison: grabbed arms perhaps, a shoulder-barge, the occasional slap, kick—or a favourite with the subversive prisoner, a “shit up,”...
featherwood n.— «“It’s no different than you guys [who] got the Crips and the Bloods, the ‘cuz’ and all that, and the Mexicans have the Southern and the Northern. So we have the peckerwoods and the featherwoods.”…It is a...
