Like any physically or culturally walled-off community, the CDCR Main Line is a community rife with code and jargon.
PRISON PATOIS: Jargon intended to save time and conceal meaning from Correctional Officers (COs) or convey dense information
There are cliques, alliances, betrayals, conflagratory rumors, anti-cliques, legendary enmities, and public blood-lettings.
As with any culturally marginalize group, my CDCR ‘mates (my attempt to habitual the term inmate/felon/criminal) are occluded and insular in a way that makes it seem like I’ve dropped into an Albanian Roma camp. Better yet, I’m back in High School. Think convoluted hierarchies of influence and popularity; You’re IN or you’re NOT. There are cliques, alliances, betrayals, conflagratory rumors, anti-cliques, legendary enmities, and public blood-lettings. Like any physically or culturally walled-off community, the CDCR Main Line is a community rife with code and jargon.
It is not necessarily a separated full dialect, Like Standard Black English (SBE), fka, ebonics. While Blacks do makeup close to 30 percent of the CDCR’s prison population (while only six percent of the State’s population), SBE’s marvelously frugal six identical present-tense inflections of TO BE still identifies one as part of a racial community. Prison patois consists of jargon intended to save time and conceal meaning from Correctional Officers (COs) or convey dense information by a unique term (jargon). All of this is confusing to the uninitiated (i.e., Fresh Fish or Fish).
As I seek to convey actual experiences and dialog, I will define herein commonly used jargon and provide examples of usage:
ADJUSTMENT CENTER: Maximum security administrative segregation housing unit for inmates with serious security threats.
AD SEG: Administrative segregation housing unit for inmates at a safety risk.
ALL DAY: Life sentence.
BACK WALL: A semi-private location (there are a few in prisons) to settle a dispute (usually without weapons). “Take it to the BACK WALL you two….”
BINDLE: Individual packet of tobacco/marijuana (usually ⅓ of a cigarette). Also a unit of value for transactions valued at a market rate of $2–3 dollars. “Book of stamps (10 USPS stamps in perfect condition) for 3 bindles…”
BLUES: Prison clothes.
BONEYARD: Visiting area for conjugal and family visiting.
BUNKIE OR CELLIE: A cellmate.
CADILLAC: Instant coffee with a piece of a milky-way bar, creamer, and sweetener added. F
CANTEEN: Prison market. Main Line ‘Mates usually have the privilege (meaning it can be taken away) to submit a Slip (order form) once a month and spend<$120 (products range similar to a gas station kiosk with extra hair-care products for Blacks).
CAR: The local group one associate within a prison. Usually geographic and/or racially based. “Randy has the keys (is the shot caller/leader) for the Fresno White car.”
CAUGHT A CASE: Convicted of a crime.
CELL SLUG: ‘mate that rarely leaves his cell.
CELL WARRIOR: Loud and seemingly violent ‘mate that only makes displays within his own (safe) cell.
CHRONO: Filed document in a prisoner’s central file.
CLUCK: to barter something of value (usually to ultimately purchase a BINDLE or drugs). “Hey hey, clulk’n a college notebook (often free with a class and saved as a means of barter) for three SOUPS.”
C.O. (Po-Po): Correctional Officer — usually up-officered as a complement “yes sergeant” or down-graded as an insult (calling a sergeant/lieutenant an ‘officer’).
COUNT: CO’s must count the prison population four times a day (usually at 5:30, 15:30, 21:30 and 1:30)
DUCAT: An appointment slip and movement authorization allowing a prisoner to move around the prison without escort (CDCR DUCATS are pink). “I’ve got a 6 am DUCAT,” as justification for being on the yard and on way to MESS HALL for two lunches.
FISH: An inmate unfamiliar with prison norms, as in a ‘fish out of water.’
FISHING/KITING: Inmates passing items using a weighted string.
FISH KIT: Basic hygiene supplies issued to first time inmates: tooth brush, comb, tooth brushing powder, bar of state made soap, towel, razor, two pairs of boxers, two pairs of socks, cup and a roll of toilet paper.
FRONT STREET: Designated inmate areas with high observation from correctional staff.
GLADIATOR SCHOOL: Prison or prison yard where violence and fighting are continuous.
HOLE: Solitary confinement.
HOMEBOY: Inmates from the same city. An ally for help, protection, backup and instruction to navigate the prison.
HOOP: Hiding contraband in one’s body cavity (rectum usually). ‘Hector is the MULE HOOP’N for the Northerners in North Block.”
HOT ONE: A murder charge. “I caught a HOT ONE in Richmond.”
J-CAT: A crazy or foolish person. “That J_CAT is peeing in the garbage can.”
KEYS (XX has the KEYS): In charge of a prison/’Mate CAR. “Yo, who got the keys for Compton.”
KICKER: A fermented starter used to make PRUNO (alcohol). “Yo anyone got a KICKER I can have?”
KITE: A hand-written note — often in code — written on a small piece of paper (often rapped in a bar of soap and suttled between cells on lock-down). “Float me a KITE with your digits.”
LOCKDOWN: To lock all inmates in their cells.
LOCKER SHOPPING: Commenting (or stealing) the contents of another’s private locker.
“Hey what you LOCKER SHOPPING for?” (Looking in my locker)
MAINLINE: General prison population (contrasted with Death row, Level One, )
MANDO: Mandatory “Wearing your shoes to and from the dayroom is MANDO.”
NICKEL: Five year sentence
O.G.: Old Gangster — a term of endearment/respect for seniors, i.e., ’old gangster.’ “OG you want my milk?”
OTHERS: Anyone not part of a major racial group (Asians, mid-easterners, Jews, most foreigners, etc.) “I roll with the OTHERS OG.”
PARTNER: Close friend, usually cell-mates (no sexual connotation). Also, CELLIE or BUNKIE
P.C.: Someone in protective custody. “He PCed up and is off the MAINLINE.”
PHONE CALL: Someone from another building wants to talk with a ‘Mate outside. “Hey, Shotgun you got a PHONE CALL (meaning you should go to the front door).”
PISA: (pronounced PIE-SA): A non-gang affiliated Latinos (usually migrant laborers in the USA).
POLITICS: Race relations and standard on the MAINLINE. “It’s POLITICS man, you can’t sit at this table…. Or share an open packet of food.”
PROTECTIVE CUSTODY: Solitary confinement for the inmates protection.
PROGRAMMER: An inmate who attends classes and improves themselves.
PRUNO: Homemade alcohol (and why plastic buckets are contraband) from a fruit, bread and sugar base (shy no pure sugar candy is allowed in CANTEEN) with a KICKER. “T-bone got busted with a PRUNO bucket.”
PUNK: Derogatory term for a homosexual or transsexual man that affects feminine traits. The worst insult you can give to a ‘Mate and guaranteed to start a fight. “You’ a PUNK!”
QUARTERLY PACKAGE: ‘Mates have the privilege (which can be taken away with a rules violation — 115) to order/receive a package of up to 30 pounds from an approved outside vendor once a calendar quarter.
R&R: Reception and Releae — Facility yards and housing units for inmates new to the prison system.
SHAKEDOWN: When prison guards tear apart inmates’ cells looking for contraband.
SHANK: Generic for prisoner made knives.
SHOT: Single service of instant coffee. Means of measuring value. “Got’ a SOUP for a SHOT.”
SHOT CALLER: Leader.
SHU: Maximum Security Administrative Segregation housing unit for Inmates at risk to safety and security OR in protective custody.
SNY: Special needs yard for those with mental/physical conditions.
SOUP: Usually an instant Top Ramen Noodle packet that is valued at 25 cents and used as a basic unit of measure in the prison barter economy. “Soda for 4 SOUPS!”
SPREAD: Communal meal consisting of a mix of leftovers and canteen purchases. Usually served in a flour tortilla. Virtually always only for one’s CAR or race. “Making a SPREAD for Superbowl. What U got (to contribute)?”
STICKS: Cigarettes.
STRAPPED: Carrying a weapon on one’s person (usually in a sling under a t-shirt). “No one messes with Nortenos, they’re always STRAPPED.”
TAKE FLIGHT: To initiate a fistfight. “When he came back from the yard, he saw his CELLIE LOCKER SHOPPING in his locker and TOOK FLIGHT.”
TIME DOWN: Years spent inside prison.
TRIPLE C or TRIPLE C M S: A patent of the mental health department. “Don’t sit with that TRIPLE C.”
WOOD PILE/WOOD: White Racial/Gang identifier. “He’s over in the WOOD PILE (White-controlled area of the YARD).”
50/50 YARD: Yard converted from general population to half general population, half special needs yard.
115: The form document number used by CO’s to charge an inmate with a rules violation (can lose privileges like Visits, CANTEEN, YARD, and QPs with the possible loss of ‘GOOD TIME CREDITS’). “Gave me a 115 for standing up during count.”
602: The form document number to file a complaint against a CO. “I’m gonna 602 that mother’ for taking my charger.”
To better understand prison life, read The San Quentin News (largest inmate run and written newspaper in the USA).
This vignette was inspired by David Foster Wallace’s footnotes in Consider the Lobster.
Free of the twin distractions of mobility and community, I spent my time pondering deep concepts — one was survival on the Main Line in an infamously famous and brutal prison, San Quentin.
If you are curious about prison life and the real work that goes on there, read The San Quentin News, look at Humans of San Quentin, or listen to Ear Hustle.
If you like this article and want to read more such articles without any restrictions, why not consider becoming a Medium member (if you are not one already) by using my referral link below?
I get a portion from your monthly fee at no extra cost to you and it will go a long way in supporting me as a writer.
