range n.
(Can./US prison) the open area outside a row of cells.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 124: I eagerly listen for the familiar swish-swash on the flagstone of the hallway: it is the old rangeman* ‘sweeping up’ (*Prisoner taking care of a range or tier of cells). | |
| et al. DAUL 174/1: Range. (Western prisons) A gallery or a tier of cells. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Go-Boy! 146: The three of them watched me very closely, always fearful that I might do the dutch by plunging off the range. | |
| Prison Sl. 7: Range A row of cells in a cellhouse. | |
| Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Range: Tier, as in ‘yell down the range.’. |
In phrases
(US prison) to scan the area outside one’s cell by using a hand mirror to catch any reflections of approaching warders etc.
| Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 267: An inmate will flash the gallery or flash the range by using a shiny object to look for the reflections on it of any guard while he is doing the illegal boiling. | |
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |