What is Pruno and what is a shank?
Pruno is crude inmate made wine. It is made mainly from fermented fruit, sugar, and yeast. It usually is reddish in color and has a sticky sweet odor like wine and rotted fruit. Most pruno appears very crude but some inmates make a much more refined, clear liquor called white lightning which has very little scent and supposedly tastes much better (it is also more expensive). Pruno is also called hooch. A shank is an inmate manufactured knife. Inmates can be quite creative in finding materials to make these weapons. They use everything from oven racks, metal from hot pots, plastic from eating utensils and even Styrofoam. The latter has become more and more common as they can not be discovered by metal detectors. These weapons are also called sheaves.
