P Is For Penning

Remember back in first grade when you sent your friend a note written in lemon juice? On the envelope you wrote "Open with big toe." You were so cute. The guys in the Supermax remember sending notes like that too. Too bad they don't have a readily available supply of lemon juice:

On another day, the government asked Danine Adams, the prison agent who monitored gang mail at the Supermax, to demonstrate how [leader of the Aryan Brotherhood T.D.] Bingham allegedly slipped a secret letter past security.

Taking the witness stand, Adams held a blank piece of paper before the jury. The previous night in her hotel, she explained, she had written on it using a Q-tip dabbed in her own urine.

Then, amid the stately marble of the Ronald Reagan Federal Building, she flicked a lighter and waved it patiently under the paper. The judge had ordered the sprinklers turned off above jurors, to prevent them from being soaked should something catch fire. Finally, on the paper in Adams' hand, the word "URINE" magically began to materialize.

For a novel experience, pretend you're watching Perry Mason and it's Della Street on the stand giving the demonstration. Hamilton Burger would have a cascading series of strokes before even being able to launch an objection.

The Aryan Brotherhood also used interesting codes and ciphers to communicate, but wasted all that cleverness on running their little prison fiefdoms.