Prison Diary: The Eye Glass Hustle

I'm on a family vacation, so I haven't been at the prison for a few weeks. I'm blessed Herb is back home keeping the class going. As I've said before, you really need a team to keep a prison ministry going.

Since I don't have an update from the class this week, let me tell you more about prison hustles.

I recently shared about clothing hustles, how they are used to bleach and double-stitch the prison uniforms. But here is my favorite hustle.

One inmate I know has a lens grinding hustle for glasses. Prison-issue glass frames are huge, black frames. Very nerdy. (Come to think of it, prison glass frames--big, black and nerdy--are pretty fashionable now in the free world. Strange times.)

A lot of inmates, however, walk around with nicer, more fashionable frames. Where do these glasses come from? They come from this one inmate who grinds lenses for the entire prison. How he does it is all very hush, hush. Trade secrets he keeps to himself as this hustle is very in demand and valuable.

Basically, it all starts when a inmate gets his prison-issue prescription glasses with those big, ugly frames. His loved one then comes to visit, wearing the frames he'd like to have. He take those glasses at the visit, wearing them as he leaves. He then pops the prison-issued lenses from his prison glasses and gives those along with the new frames to the inmate with the hustle. He then grinds the prison lenses down to fit the new frames.

Most of the glasses in the prison are contraband eye-wear. Though a few guys do wear the prison-issued frames. And I must say, I like those frames.

Prison-frames are all the rage now.

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