Mind your language
I DO not want to trespass on Dr Dal- rymple's patch (indeed I'd run a mile to avoid it), but I've just come across a new book of prison slang which shows how dreadful prison is at any time — more especially at Christmas, which partakes of the spirit of the 'anniversary syndrome', when prisoners are more likely to turn violent or harm them- selves.
The book is Prison Patter by Angela Devlin (Waterside Press, Winchester, £12). This chirpy title covers a collec- tion of slang which even at its jokiest reveals a depressing world of loneliness, bullying, madness, restraint and, above all, drugs.
Angela Devlin accepts that 11 per cent of men and 23 per cent of prison- ers are drug-dependent. The rich vari- ety of slang terms reflects this culture. Some of these are quite funny. H is for heroin (£10 a wrap), also known as beast, big H, boy, brown, chinese, ele- phant, flea powder, gear, gold dust, Harry, Henry, horse, junk, scag skag, shit, smack, stuff, quill tackle or the nasty. Taken mixed with cocaine, it is known as H and C (as in water).
Or if you prefer ecstasy (E10 a tablet), ask for Adam, Adam and Eve, apples, Barney Rubble, black and whites, Californians, crown, Dennis the Menace, disco biscuits, disco burgers, dollar, dol- phin, double cherry drops, doves, echoes, fantasia, green apples, happy, heaven sent, hug drug, lemon and limes, love doves, love hearts, mints, New Yorkers, om, omega pills, pink cadillac, pit bulls, power pills, red hots, rhubarb and cus- tard, saucers, scorpions, snowballs, snow- hearts, tablets, tangerine dreams, tangoes, Thatchers, triple-Xs, white burgers, white doves, Xs, X-files. It's enough to give you the sweats.
Some of these terms have a spurious status as `secret' references to drugs, but, as Angela Devlin points out, 'In jail there are of course many complex fac- tors in the achievement of peer status, but one of them may be the acquisition of specialist language.'
This is undoubtedly true. But hush, here comes the kanga [kangaroo = screw], dressed as Father Christmas.
Dot Wordsworth
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