Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK police/Und.) Wormwood Scrubs prison, London.

1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 4: Bin ’angin’ about the Scrubbs an’ then ’ere for nigh on three weeks, I ’ave, clobbered up like this.
1908		E. Stagg Night Scenes in London 90: When a man gets clear o’ the ‘Scrubbs’ he likes to feel as none of ’is pals is too praad to shyke him be the ’and.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 126: He was [...] sent to H.M. Borstal Institution, Wormwood Scrubs. At the ‘Scrubs’ he made a name for himself as a carpenter and handy man.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 122: Harry was a Lad, and he had just come out of the Scrubs.
1940		J.G. Brandon Gang War 74: He’s at ‘the Scrubbs’.
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross ‘The Dark Diceman’ Bitten by the Tarantula (2005) 203: . . . then prison, the Scrubs.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 164: I had just done my first stretch at the Scrubs.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 26: Many a morrie sweeping on the twos up at the Scrubs.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 11: The day after I’d arrived at the Scrubs, the solicitor my father’d got for me came to see me.
1981		(con. 1900–30) A. Harding in Samuel East End Und. 283: The Scrubs – Wormwood Scrubs prison.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 48: When they topped him, I was in the Scrubs.
1999		Observer 4 July 25: The Scrubs would provide a suitable grisly venue to compare notes on their miseries.
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 89: He’d like as not be back in the Scrubs.
2014		K. Koke ‘Letter Home’ 🎵 Mum I’m kinda stressed out they got me back in scrubs / They accused me of bullying and hustlin’ drugs.