Category: Prison services committee

This is a very common term for an appointment with someone on staff, often administration or medical. Someone may say that they have a lay-in for their hormone injection every two weeks. The term can also refer to a small piece of paper called a Lay-in Pass that has the time, date, name, location, and other pertinent information about the appointment. We also see the term used to refer to a guard coming to escort them to the appointment. Someone might say they were supposed to talk to Safe Prisons, but they were “never laid in.” An alternate term for a guard escorting them is “pulled out,” as in being pulled out for a lay-in.

SSI is a very common abbreviation. It stands for Support Service Inmate. Sometimes you will also see SSIs described as janitors, but SSIs can work in other support details as well, such as johnny sack (sack meal) distribution.

A janitorial SSI position can be a sought-after job because it allows the SSI access to other prisoners, sometimes across multiple housing areas. This can be an opportunity to pass along information and kites, and for trade, all of which can benefit the SSI both in status and in property.

“Stunting” generally refers to a false claim or staged issue to achieve some goal. Sometimes a person may talk about themselves or others “stunting off a unit.” This could include a range of actions from making a false claim of endangerment to a claim that consensual sex was rape to paying someone to assault the person stunting. Some people may also call self-harm to get a move to an isolation cell or transfer to a mental health unit stunting, but that seems to be a less common usage.

UCC in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system stands for Unit Classification Committee, and SCC is the State Classification Committee. The UCC is extremely powerful at the unit level, and is responsible for monitoring safety and determining custody classification changes. Trans persons are supposed to be reviewed twice a year for safety concerns by the UCC, but often this is a pro forma review simply to check off a box. UCC also makes recommendations for safekeeping designation.

Recommendations by UCC for safekeeping, unit transfers, and other issues are forwarded to the SCC for approval.

A “jacket” is something one is known for, like a reputation, but often with negative connotations. One common phrase is “snitch jacket,” which means that a person has a reputation for providing information to prison officials. We recently had someone discuss having a friend who is trans as giving him a jacket that brought about abuse for being friendly or affiliated with LGBTQ persons.

A jacket can follow you from unit to unit via prison communications networks. Your jacket can mean that you have problems at a new unit almost as soon as you arrive.

STG is a TDCJ acronym for “security threat group.” TDCJ defines the term as “Any group of offenders TDCJ reasonably believes poses a threat to the physical safety of other offenders and staff due to the very nature of said Security Threat Group.

It is important to note that a “threat” to some is a “family” and safety to others.

TDCJ currently identifies these groups as STGs:

• Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT)
• Aryan Circle (AC)
• Barrio Azteca
• Bloods
• Crips
• Hermanos De Pistoleros Latinos
• Mexican Mafia (EME)
• Partido Revolucionario Mexicanos
• Raza Unida
• Texas Chicano Brotherhood
• Texas Mafia
• Texas Syndicate

TPI often uses “prison association” or “prison organization” to refer to prison groups in general as a less stigmatizing general term and because not all groups may be officially recognized under TDCJ’s STG classification.

Groups that are common in Texas but are not classified as STGs include (according to this source): Tango / Tango Blast (regional groups for Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, and West Texas), 18th Street Gang, Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings, Mandingo Warriors, Mara Salvatrucha, Mexicles, Surenos, Tri-City Bombers, and White Knights.

A “kite” is a note sent to someone else inside. In some cases, a kite can refer to official communications, such as a Sick Call Request, but we most often see it used in TDCJ to refer to informal communications between prisoners. In some contexts, a kite can connote revealing something secret, or snitching. Apparently in some prisons, a kite refers sending a letter to a non-extent address with a return address of another prisoner as a way of sending a letter to another prisoner (in many jails and prisons, this is illegal). In TDCJ, this is generally known as a “boomerang” instead of a kite. A kite is often thrown to another cell attached to a string, which allows retrieval of a bad throw and of a response. That is probably how the term kite originated.

KOP refers to medication and generally stands for “keep on person.” Some will also define it as “carry on person.” In most prisons, medications that have recreational use or trade value will be distributed a single dose at a time, and in TDCJ these are generally provided at the pill window on the building where one is housed. Prescriptions for medications that have little recreational use or trade value will be issued KOP so it is not necessary to go to the pill window for each dose.

Running a team usually refers to initiating some sort of crisis response group. In TDCJ, this is generally an ICS (Incident Command System) team. In the federal system, it’s a SORT, or Special Operations Response Team. In the Texas system, an ICS can be initiated in case of any crisis situation, including a suicide threat. “Running a team” is generally meant to indicate the ICS is called to intimidate, harass, or assault a prisoner.