Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see jailbait n. (1)

1. a wife or girlfriend who pays regular visits to her partner while he is in jail .

1998		Source Oct. 162: Another jailhouse bitch, buying him sneakers, coming up with bail money [...] smuggling in weed.
2001		J. Quinn Metes and Bounds 117: I didn’t want to be Tillett’s jailhouse bitch either [...] what I wanted to be Tillett couldn’t handle.

2. (US prison) a man, not necessarily homosexual, who is forced to become the subservient sexual parttner of a stronger prisoner.

1999		H. Bulutcan Pegasus Descending [ebook] I thought you were a pro, Lefty, but the more I see your handiwork, the more I get the impression you're just a little jailhouse bitch who can't get it up.
2006		R. Fleming Fever in Blood 23: Once you get inside, then you'll change your tune. Yeah man, they'll make you into a bridesmaid in no time. A jailhouse bitch.
2013		F. Solomon Capitalism [ebook] A hardened criminal making another prisoner his sex slave, his sissy, his ‘jailhouse bitch’.

(US prison) an ersatz cappuccino (see cite 2023 for recipe).

2023

Rayman & Blau Riker’s 152: ‘Jailhouse Cappuccino.’ You take grains of instant coffee, crush it down with a tablespoon, and add a couple of drops of hot water and a lot of sugar and [...] beat it until it becomes a paste. If it got enough air into the mixture, and then hot water, it would create a froth.

(US prison) a dominating male homosexual prisoner who exploits or protects his partner .

1951		in J. Blake Joint (1972) 24: He is simply the brass-brained, muscle-bound Golden Boy who appointed himself my jailhouse Daddy-o.
1963		J. Stearn Grapevine 193: The butches, dominating the femmes, were known as Jailhouse Daddies, and they liked their girls jailhouse sharp [HDAS].
1991		E. Izzi Invasions 13: You would be open game [...] Unless you found a jailhouse daddy and even then the odds were even that he’d sell you out, get you to suck off his buddies to prove his power over you.
2005		W. Henderson City of Nightmares 287: One of the racists had gotten beaten up and raped as soon as he was let out into population, and had a black jailhouse daddy.

(US) a homosexual prisoner or one who engages in homosexual acts (voluntarily or otherwise) while in prison.

2004		C. Smith Seven Black Plays 175: Everybody knew he was going to be crazier than a jailhouse ho when they finally let him out, if he wasn't crazy already.
2013		A. Steward on http://www.liveleak.com 31 July 🌐 I be a skittler meaner den hitler, but now ma pants on da floo cause I'm da jailhouse ho.

(US Und.) a prison inmate who has become a self-taught lawyer, either to pursue their own case, combat prison corruption or help fellow inmates.

1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 100: ‘Soldier Johnnie,’ who was something of a jail lawyer and agitator for his and his friends’ rights.
c.1943		‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Guardhouse Lawyer: Soldier whose sophistic interpretations of army regulations are apt to lead him into trouble.
1965		Dowling & Gunther Cases & Matrials on Constitutional Law 127: Justice White's dissent [...] expressed doubt ‘that the problem of the indigent convict will be solved by subjecting him to the false hopes, dominance, and inept representation of the average unsupervised jailhouse lawyer’.
1969		L. Hall Modern Criminal Procedure 132: Many assert that the aim of the jailhouse lawyer is not the service of truth and justice, but rather self-aggrandizement, profit, and power.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 51: Jailhouse lawyers were ridin’ high, talking all that jive about searching and seizing illegal evidence.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 56: Jailhouse lawyers were abundant. Earl was too unpredictable.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 243: Jailhouse lawyers and writ writers would file suits no doubt.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Jailhouse Lawyer: A prisoner who assist others in filing legal actions. Some are quite knowledgeable, others know enough to get themselves or others into trouble. Jailhouse lawyers are important because most prisoners have limited access to law libraries, little legal knowledge, and there are all too few lawyers able to assist prisoners.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 95/1: jailhouse lawyer n. an inmate who knows everything about the rules governing the correct running of the prison.
2003		Sun (Baltimore) 11 May 🌐 Mr. Gideon ultimately won his appeal because beneath the cracked veneer of dissolution and thievery was a man of resolve, a jailhouse lawyer who succeeded beyond his own dreams.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] He wasted no time finding a jailhouse lawyer.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 198: That evil no-goodnik has become an ace jailhouse lawyer.

(US black/prison) a homosexual or lesbian affair that is taken up in prison, irrespective of the lovers’ actual sexuality.

1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 250: ‘There’s lots of square broads that go for jailhouse love while they’re locked up but won’t even speak to a stud [i.e. masculine lesbian] once they’re back in the street’.
1978		R.D. Pharr Giveadamn Brown (1997) 134: Studs [a lesbian] came close to touch Boots’s breast. Boots stepped away [...] ‘Jailhouse love is for the birds, Studs’.

see punk n.¹ (5)

see jail tail under jail n.

(US) an obscene gesture or shout.

1978		Nolan & Mann Jericho Mile [film script] You can give the whole world the jailhouse salute [HDAS].
2000		P. von Helsing Goodnight Nobody 22: Then all hell broke loose, the loudest, most profanity-laden uproar I've ever heard in my life. I panicked, then realized—they were cheering me, giving me a jailhouse salute.

(US prison) a promiscuous, voluntary prison homosexual.

1999		T. Young N.Y. Press 18 May [internet] [Mick Jagger] has the louche manner of a jailhouse slut, the pouting coquettishness of a sex kitten [...] He's able to incorporate aspects of feminine sexuality into his persona without seeming homosexual.
2003		www.valvetime.net 6 Oct. 🌐 Now arrested with arms handcuffed behind my back. / Ends up I’m a jailhouse slut. / Screamin as I’m rammed up the butt!
2004		http://gayfilesmonster.com 🌐 Square-jawed cop Tristan Bennet thinks it’s all pretty dirty, but that doesn't keep him from getting awfully turned on when the jailhouse slut, Enrique Velazco, starts sucking Fischer off.
2013		http://ask.fm/Averyis 🌐 I’m gonna make you drop the soap over and over again and make you my little jailhouse slut.

(US) a second-rate (probably monchrome) tattoo, created in prison without professional skills or equipment.

2020

D. Winslow ‘The San Diego Zoo’ in Broken 135: Chris guesses that if they look at his arms, they’ll find cheap jailhouse tats.

1. (US) a prisoner who is forced to engage in homosexual practices or who becomes a homosexual while in prison .

1965		Ward & Kassebaum Women’s Prison 76: Those whose are introduced to homosexuality in prison, the jailhouse turnouts.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 234: Many inmates who are not practicing homosexuals outside the jail, and who, in fact, are repelled by homosexuality, seek it out here. They are known as ‘j.t.’s,’ jailhouse turnouts.
1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 173: There’s only a few natural punks in there that are free-world; the rest of them are penitentiary turnouts.
1970		J.D. Douglas Observations of Deviance 101: One jailhouse turnout found her affair so satisfying that she divorced her husband and put her child up for adoption.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 117: jallhouse turnout [JTO] one who went into prison predominately straight but who returned to the ‘outside’ as an overt homosexual.
1981		Allen & Bosta Games Criminals Play 70: A ‘jailhouse turnout’ in prison jargon refers to an inmate selected by his peers to function as a male prostitute, then forced into submission against his will.
1992		W.R. Dynes Homosexuality & Govt. 167/2: [There is a] sharp distinction between those referred to by the inmates as ‘true’ homosexuals and those identified as ’jailhouse turnouts.’ The jailhouse turnout or J.T.O., in contrast to the true homosexual, has her introduction to homosexuality in jail or prison.
2000		Garnets & Peplau in Journal Social Issues LVI:2 210: Women’s prison subculture distinguishes between the lesbian and the ‘jailhouse turnout’.

2. (US prison) a gang member who is recruited while in prison.

1989

L. Gonzales Still Point 206: Some of the [tattoo] work was so new that it was still scabbed over and peeling — ordinarily a sign of a jailhouse turnout, a new gang member recruited in jail.

see wife n. (3)