A letter from your wife or girlfriend ending their relationship with you
Diamond Geezer
A real good man
Dirty Protest
Covering cell and yourself with your own excrement
Dis
Disrespect
Div(vy)
Stupid idiot
Doing time/bird
Serving a prison sentence
Double up
Two beds put into one cell that is designed for only one bed
Draw
Cannabis or tobacco
Dropsy
A gift from a soon-to-be-released prisoner
Duff
The pudding part of a meal. ‘What’s for duff?’
Dump/Pony
Having a crap
Frisk
A bit of fun/body search
Gaff
A place, such as a room or a house
Geezer
A man
Ghosted
Shipped out of a prison to another one very quickly
Grass
Informant
Grey Bar Hotel
Prison
Had it away
Escaped
HMP
Her Majesty’s Prison/Her Majesty’sPleasure; an indeterminate sentence for young prisoners
Hooch
Home brew
Horsebox
Prison transport of a secure nature
HQ
Headquarters
HSPSCB
High Security Psychiatric Services Commissioning Board
Jail bird
Ex-Convict who returns to prison
Jam role
Parole
JR
Judicial Review
JR’d
Judges Remand
Judas hole/flap
Spy hole in cell door for checking on prisoners without opening the door
Judge in Chambers
Hearing in judge’s chambers, sometimes resulting in bail being granted
KB’d
Knocked back for, refused something
Lag
Convict
Lemon
Nasty
Lifer
Convict serving life imprisonment
Liquid cosh
Injection of lardactyl, etc.
Make one
Escape
Meat wagon
Secure prison transport
Monster
Evil person/sex case
Mule
Person secreting drugs about their person and smuggling them into prison
MUFTI Squad
Prison officers trained to handle unruly prisoners or riots (Minimum Use of Force and Tactical Intervention)
Nash on
Hurry up
Nicked
Put on report for committing an offence against prison rules
Nonce
Sex case
Nutted off
Sectioned off under the Mental Health Act
‘Now then’
A form of greeting
Old lag
Old convict
Old school
From the past with higher morals
One off
A convict suicide/what a screw says when one con leaves the wing
Ov
Where you are from
Pad
Prison cell
Pad mate
Cell-sharing prisoner
Paddy wagon
Secure prison transport
Patches/Stripes
Patches of bright yellow on a prisoner’s clothing to signify he is a former escapee
Pegger
Smoker
Peter
Cell (outside of prison it meant a ‘safe’)
Plug
Hide something up your anus
POA
Prison Officers Association
Porridge
Serving time in prison
Puff
Cannabis
QE
Going Queen’s Evidence against your co-accused at trial
Receptions
New prisoners entering prison regime
Recess
The place where the sluice is, usually showers, sink, toilets, etc.
Segregation Unit
(Seg Unit) prison within prison to keep you away from other prisoners
Served up
Cut with a blade or served up punishment from a fellow con
Screw
Prison officer – the crank machine, a form of useless labour, was introduced in the middle of the last century to make prison life tougher for those prisoners sentenced to hard labour. Male prisoners had to turn the handle 14,400 times a day, forcing four large cups or ladles through sand inside a drum. The number of revolutions was registered on the dial. The warder could make the task harder by tightening a screw, hence the slang word for prison warder
