How do inmates, for example, obtain staples or potentially injurious scraps to use as weapons? ?

Question

I've heard of prisoners fashioning weapons in solitary confinement. My question in sum, is where do they get the resources, however limited, and what possible caches do they come up with to hide their weapons, in isolation? This is for a film script. Thank you.

Answer 1

I work in a prison, and let me tell you, these guys are inventive! They've got nothing but time on thier hands. I could tell you 101 things that the average person would overlook in a prison that can be used as weapons - there is virtually nothing that can't be, hasn't been or wont be used. I'm not going to list them, because although it would be helpful to you in your film script, it might also be helpful to inmates who have internet access. Sorry, years of being in there has made me think differently than most people.

The Discovery Channel shows prison documentaries all the time, you might want to start there. Or you can just google "prison weapons" - its pretty easy to find, sadly enough.

Answer 2

The correction officers are just as corrupt as the inmates. That's one way

Answer 3

You have a lot of time to yourself, so you learn to be creative. I've seen shanks made by filing a toothbrush against they wall, by disassembling a razor, from parts of your bed you can peel way over time, and even plastic wrap (wrap it tight, heat it up, and tie it with strings from your clothes).

Many inmates have jobs inside the prison. Working in the kitchen, laundry room, or trash collection can give you access to all kinds of things.

Answer 4

Even a toothbrush can be sharpened into a shank- which can then be hidden in a body cavity (like the r****m). If you have all the time in the world, the simplest object can be fashioned into a weapon. Even shards of metal from the bed frame. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say.

Answer 5

Your in a cell for 20+ hour's of the day. You have time to think of everything more then once. You can fashion a weapon out of almost anything, you normally use something plastic or something that's fairly strong but can be ground into a point. You don't use slashing weapon's in prison you use stabbing weapon's so they don't have to be that sharp. You just need a bit of strength be able to stab someone with it.

Answer 6

While I was doing an internship in the local probation department, we had an incident in the county jail that made them stop allowing staples on any document that was going to inmates.  We had a guy decide to commit suicide by staple... he planned it out over several months, which is probably the scariest part... he saved all the staples from his court documents- around 30, and swallowed them all at once.  He didn't tell anyone what he'd done until he had a severe infection in his intestines from the staples.  After several surgeries (on the county's dime, of course) he survived.

Inmates have soooo much free time to come up with things that the normal person wouldn't even dream of coming up with.  Ever been sick in bed and thought about what you wanted to do when you were able to get up and going again?  The longer you lay there, the more detailed the plan is... now multiply that by years in many cases.

Answer 7

I spent 6 months in solitary confinement, but it was a jail, not a prison. They put me in there, because I talked my cellmate into killing himself. All I had in my cell was a bed, sink, toilet, and bible, I was allowed to leave my cell for 30 minutes, 4 times a week for a shower. The reason I went to jail was for 3 counts of assault and battery. I made a shank from part of my bed, I broke off a part of the frame, and sharpened it on the cement floor, but I never used it.