“Mushfaking”: A Compensatory Behavior of Prisoners

Summary

“Mushfaking” is a prison argot term which is used by Ohio prisoners to describe the process of producing contraband items from whatever materials are available to them in penal institutions. Field observations of the informal social structures of two adult correctional institutions, plus a review of secondary sources of data, revealed that the phenomenon was a frequent, if not a ubiquitous, behavior among prison inmates. The findings also indicated that the “mushfaking syndrome” manifests itself through a wide range of inmate activities and is not limited to the construction of contraband. The syndrome appears to represent a compensatory response of prisoners to the physical, psychological, and social deprivations of imprisonment, but it is also influenced by the cultural backgrounds of inmates, and by their learning experiences in the larger society. Besides furnishing demanded, but forbidden, goods, services, and interpersonal relationships, mushfaking can also serve a transcendent function, permitting some inmates to escape boredom and circumvent the slow passage of time. Lastly, mushfaking can function to increase the social solidarity and informal power of inmates in relation to the formal authority structures of prisons.