DannyBoyinExile

If necessity is the mother of invention – then boredom is surely the father. I’ve seen inmates sit around and just figure out ways to repair, adapt, or improve things to the extent that it almost makes me proud to be an inmate – but not quite.
It’s amazing to see a guy with no electrical training whatsoever (who can barely read and write!) completely disassemble a radio, boost it, rebuild it, amplify it – then hook it up to a speaker he made completely from scratch, and jam it so loud that the whole run can hear it! (It’s not so impressive at 1am, granted, but you see what I mean.)
I had a friend named Danzo – names have been changed, to protect the guilty – who could take a stolen remote control (which is immediately recognizable), strip its guts out, rewire it into a pocket calculator (which is much less noticeable, and legal), where he could then change the channel of any TV, or turn it on and off. And the calculator still worked! MacGyver would be proud.
Of course, all innovations aren’t as harmless. I’ve seen weapons crafted from just about anything. Cell doors can be jammed and opened at will, with materials you can find in any trashcan. Some guys strip the capacitor from an old, nonworking fan and rewire it into a good fan (giving it two capacitors, in other words) to make it blow twice as hard. And just about anyone knows how to make a homemade multi-plug, so you can plug in extra items – or even just “piggyback” two plugs together, into one socket. (They have to figure something out, when it’s so hot in the cell that your petroleum jelly is literally melted – and there’s only one socket available for both cellmates to use!)
All of the above are strictly illegal – but can readily be seen on any run, on any cellblock, on any prison in TDCJ. Said items are taken and thrown away as often as they are found, but people will do what they must, to make life as bearable as they can. This is home to some people, after all, like it or not. As a guard, you should expect people to adapt things in just about any way imaginable. And as an inmate, be sure to hold onto your bits and pieces of this and that – because you never know what they may come in handy for… So says DannyBoy.