Words I Learned From Bad-Ass Gangsters in Jail Part 3
The third installment of my continuing ‘Words I Learned From Bad-Ass Gangsters In Jail” series: words and phrases I acquired while serving at Fraser Regional Correctional Centre. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2.
Bit: A jail sentence
Duce: Two-year bit
Fin: Five-year bit
Hook: Seven-year bit
Sawbuck: 10-year bit
Doz: 12-year bit
Beef (when heard on the street): or Bert & Ernie: A break and enter
Chonie: A chocolate bar
Hot Chonie: A hot chocolate
Mo: A month
Crack: To talk
Grease: or dork: To cut someone out of a deal
HO: Holding out
Burning me off or gunning me off: To stare
Shaking it rough or hanging off the fence: Not having a good go of it, eager to get out
Kifey or Kife: Bad jail coffee (also means ‘shitty’)
Bozo, boxed, jimmied or cum-drunk: Intoxicated
Bakered: High off weed
Half-snapped or half-cut: Drunk
Cut one or drop a biscuit: To fart
Play duck: Play stupid
I’m a memory: I’m getting out soon
Clown show or goof show: Total fuckhead douce bag
Hammer Hawk: Someone who looks at your penis when you are pissing
Inmate: Prisoner serving less than 2 years (in a jail)
Convict: Serving more than 2 years (in a pen)
Short-timer or Guest: Anyone serving 10 months or less
Shit tickets: Toilet paper
Sandbagged: Holding out from giving you what you want
Stick: A smoke
TM: Tailor made smoke
Keep six: Keep a lookout for the guard
Six-up: A guard is on the way
Chargeable: An offence in jail
Gated: Picked up by the guards as soon as they release you
DO: Dangerous offender
Semi: Semi-secure
Seg: Segregation
PC: Protective custody (for rats, skinners, hounds, and goofs)
Fall down: Someone you can’t rely on
Copper time or good time: Serving your time well and getting out in two thirds
Getting a U: Getting an unsatisfactory mark on your file – you get three Us and you’re back in the maximum, five Us and you start to lose your good time
SHU: Special Handling Unit
38-1: Solitary – doesn’t play well with others
Rubber Neck: Looking into other people’s cells
Cup of coffee or sock change: Here for a short time
Shit show: Chaos
Shank, shiv, or a poker: Improvised jail knife
Check-off: Someone the rest of the prisoners don’t want on the range
Check-in: A person who has been checked-off (removed) by prisoners
Drum: A cell
Tank: Holding cell they put you in when you first get sentenced or when you are moved
Suitcase: Ass, for smuggling (like hoop)
Taking it dry: Hooping something without lubricant
Natural born hooper: Someone who is very good at hiding things in his ass
Stonewalled: No response from the guards when you make a request
Leaf: Rolling paper
Coluck: A cellmate
David Malmo-Levine is a Vancouver marijuana activist incarcerated at the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre in Maple Ridge, BC, for his establishment of the Vancouver Herb School. Please click here and here for more information on David’s case.
