Working in a prison I find that there are times I need an interpreter because in some cases the words used are like listening to a foreign language.  Some words used are self explanatory, such as “celly” which means cellmate or the generic equivalent is roommate.  However, others can be so confusing I just have to ask  “What?”  I remember the first time I heard someone talking about his “beef”.  Now in the every day world that I live in the word beef usually refers to meat from a cow, but in the prison world it has a whole new meaning.  When an inmate talks about his “beef” he is talking about his crime.  If it is a crime that does not involve ratting or harming women or children then it is a “solid beef”.  Other terms have just made me laugh. One of them – “kick rocks”  – tells someone else to beat it or get lost, but in a much more colorful manner.  Over time these terms and many others have become fairly common in my life, but I didn’t realize how common until I used a term and my friends looked at me and said “What?”

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