Prison slang in Australia: Are you gay for the stay, or just a scrim?
ARE you gay for the stay? If so you wouldn’t want to do it with a gronk, a dog or a scrim and you certainly wouldn’t want to do it in the bone yard.
Got all that? Congratulations — now you’re ready for prison.
News.com.au has obtained the official list of prison slang compiled by corrective service authorities.
And it has to be said some of them are pretty funny — although if you came across them in real life chances are, you wouldn’t be laughing.
And it also has to be said that while both officers and inmates have their own language used on the inside, the inmates are a fair bit funnier than the screws.
Speaking of which, first prize goes to “gay for the stay”, which — as you can probably guess — applies to an inmate who is heterosexual on the outside but prepared to, shall we say, love the one you’re with for the duration of their sentence.
As Tony Soprano so succinctly put it, “Prison doesn’t count.”
There is also “cockatoo” — on a completely unrelated subject — which is an inmate who acts as a lookout for approaching guards.
A less desirable inmate would be a “dog” (informer), “gronk” (irritating person) or “scrim” (self-important prisoner) There is also a “spinner”, diplomatically described as an “inmate acting strangely and possibly dangerously due to mental health issues”.
You might encounter some of these types while “doing a brick” (10 years) or even just a “coat and tie” (five years) — although the last place you’d want to spend those years is in the “bone yard”, which is where “protected” inmates such as sex offenders and informants are housed.
End up there and you’d want to be careful going to the brasco with your date roll, if you know what I mean.
Here is the full list of 2017 prison slang compiled by Corrective Services NSW:
USED BY OFFICERS
Baggies — new officers
Blue — fight
Bupe — Buprenorphine, a prescription medication for people addicted to heroin or other opiates
Crims/crooks — inmates
Knock up — for an inmate to press the call-up button in a cell
Let go — release inmates from cells
Slot — cell
Three-outs — cell with three inmates
Two-outs — cell with two inmates
Lock down — inmates locked in cells
USED BY INMATES AND OFFICERS
Buy-ups — Approved purchases by inmates (eg toiletries, chocolate)
Cockatoo — inmate who is the lookout to alert inmates that an officer is coming
Done/Petrol — methadone
Freshies — new inmates
Greens — prison clothing
Ma’am — female officer
Segro — segregation of inmate
Shiv — improvised knife
Slash up — to self-harm through cutting
Sweeper — inmate who undertakes paid domestic tasks in an area of a centre
Wing — inmate accommodation area
Yard — secure outside area near a wing
USED BY INMATES
Bone yard — area where inmates on protection are housed, often because they are sex offenders or informers (see Dog).
Boss — used when addressing officers
Brasco — toilet
Brew — cup of coffee; also jail-made alcohol
Bridge up — to fight or show off
Bro — Koori or Polynesian
Cellie — cell mate
Co-ee — co-accused
Chat/Chatty — chat is an inmate who is dirty; a chatty cell is dirty, untidy cell
Chief — officers, especially those in charge
Collar and tie — five-year sentence
Date roll — toilet paper
Dog — inmate who reports on other inmates to officers
Dog and bone — phone
Doing a brick — 10-year sentence
Frequent flyer — return inmate
Gronk — irritating inmate
Ink — tattoo
Peter thief — an inmate who steals from another inmate’s cell
Pipper — senior or executive correctional officer
Rock spider — paedophile
Satin silk — milk
Scrim — an inmate who thinks they are important because of the particular job they have in prison (eg certain clerical positions)
Screw — correctional Officer
Spinner — inmate acting strangely and possibly dangerously due to mental health issues
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