This supplement appears at the end of Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir in the print and eBook editions, but I am giving it a permanent place on my blog as a point of reference, especially for audiobook listeners. My sound engineer, who guided me through the audiobook narration process in the summer of 2024, said listeners would not want to hear three pages of definitions read out loud, and I quite agree.
Glossary of Acronyms and Prison Lingo
AB — Aryan Brotherhood (also The Brand). The nation’s oldest major white supremacist gang, and also considered the most violent and powerful prison gang in the country.
ADX — Stands for Administrative Maximum and is synonymous with “supermax.” ADX/supermax is a super-maximum prison control-unit for the long-term housing of inmates classified as a high-security risk and prisoners who pose an extreme threat nationally and globally.
ATF — Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, primarily responsible for the investigation and prevention of federal offenses involving the unlawful use, manufacture, and possession of firearms and explosives; acts of arson and bombings; and illegal trafficking of alcohol and tobacco products.
AUSA — Assistant United States Attorney. AUSAs prosecute all criminal cases brought by the federal government and defend the government in civil cases.
Bid — A sentence or term of imprisonment, a stint in jail.
Boss versus Hoss — Boss is a correctional officer (origin: Sorry, Son of a Bitch first letters spelled backward). Hoss is more affectionate than “Boss” and refers to a correctional officer an inmate respects more.
BOP — Bureau of Prisons
Cellie — Cellmate. Also written as celly.
Car — The group an inmate associates with inside prison, typically bonded by geography, crime, race, or race-based gangs (i.e., your homies).
Banger — A shank/shiv or prison knife.
BNL — Stands for Bad News List, a gang-generated list of inmates not in good standing with the group and, therefore, are targets for violence or worse.
CO — Correctional Officer or Corrections Officer.
DCP — Douglas County Prison
DOJ — Department of Justice (Bureau of Prisons is part of the DOJ)
Drama — In prison, it means a fight or an assault.
Fam bam — Family
FBI — Federal Bureau of Investigation
Fishing line — A long strand of fabric or string fashioned from bed sheets or clothing threads that can transport small items from one cell to another underneath cell doors or outside windows.
Hack — Another name for a correctional officer
Hit the deuces — The alarm button that COs press to bring in backup COs due to inmate fighting or other violence.
Hole — Synonymous with the SHU (pronounced “shoe”), which stands for Special Housing Unit. The hole/SHU is solitary confinement housing used for punitive or protective purposes.
Homeboy — An inmate from the same town, gang, or prison as another inmate. Variations include Homie or Homes.
Hustle — A means of income inside prison, such as bartering or selling tattooing, artwork, legal services, or conducting gambling enterprises.
Ink — Another name for tattoos
Keep-aways — Specific prisoners, races, and gangs from which an inmate must be kept away due to incompatibility, which affects housing and recreation, among other things.
Keister — Mainly used as a verb, such as when an inmate has a prohibited item and no place to hide it, they might “keister” it in their read end.
Kite — A contraband note written on a small piece of paper folded or rolled and secretively passed between inmates.
Lifer — Ann inmate serving a life sentence.
Lock in a sock — To literally put a padlock in a sock to use as a weapon against someone.
NLR -— Nazi Low Rider, a white supremacist prison gang serving as foot soldiers to the Aryan Brotherhood
PC — Protective custody, as in, “He PC’ed up and is off the yard.”
Peckerwood/Wood — A nickname for a white inmate, particularly one belonging to a white race-based gang.
PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal rights organization.
Programming — Slang for an inmate’s educational and behavioral classes, i.e., efforts to become a better person.
Quay Hearing — A meeting between prison officials and an inmate to determine the inmate’s incompatibility with other inmates, races, and gangs for housing, recreation, and other purposes.
SAC — Soldiers of Aryan Culture, another white supremacist prison gang modeled after the Aryan Brotherhood.
Sallyport — A separate, secure, controlled entryway to an enclosure, like a recreational cage.
Short — Means to be “short” on a prison sentence, with one-to-two years or less to go.
Shot-caller — Prison gang leader who calls the shots and must be obeyed. Also, the person who hands down the orders to associates of a lower rank.
SHU — Pronounced “shoe” and stands for Special Housing Unit. Also synonymous with the “Hole.” The SHU/hole is solitary confinement housing used for punitive or protective purposes.
SIS — Special Investigative Services. An SIA (Special Investigative Agent) investigates gang-related infractions and other prison rule violations, similar to the role of an FBI agent.
SMU — Special Management Unit: a highly restrictive, nearly 24-hour lockdown, experimental prison program that no longer exists in the federal prison system. Designed with the misguided aim of housing the “worst of the worst” federal inmates to make the other prisons safer, the SMU at Lewisburg, PA (2009-2018) was rocked by high rates of inmate violence, prisoner deaths, and reports of abuse with excessive punitive shackling. An inundation of civil lawsuits and press reports exposing the abuse and violence led to the shutdown of Lewisburg’s SMU. But those inmates were merely transferred to a new SMU program at Thomson, IL (2018-2023), where the same austere conditions resulted in similar violence and abuses. As with Lewisburg, civil lawsuits detailing mistreatment by Thomson officers and new press reports of the failed program triggered the closure of that unit.
USP — United States Penitentiary (federal prisons)
X’d out — When there is some drama or beef with rival gangs, shot-callers might put a hit order out on an offending inmate, meaning that inmate is “X’d out” and their days are numbered.
Yard — Prison yard
Carla Conti is a true crime journalist, storyteller, and prison reform advocate. Her debut book, Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir, will be published by WildBlue Press on November 12, 2024.