Our hands are not for boredom: 30 unusual things that were made right in prison (31 photos)

When it’s so boring that you want to climb a wall, a creative streak often awakens in people. How else can you explain these bizarre inventions and crafts made behind bars?





1. A boiler made from an old coffee can. It was used to brew prison moonshine



2. A key made from a piece of wood, a pair of screws and a washer



3. This papier-mâché head is one of those used by Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin when they tried to escape Alcatraz in 1962.



4. They also made this drill out of a vacuum cleaner motor. With its help they drilled through the walls of their cell



5. Another trinket from Alcatraz. A key was cut from this spoon, possibly using machines in the prison workshop. Typically, guards covered the keys with metal covers so that prisoners could not remember the pattern and recreate it



6. The receiver itself was most likely smuggled in, but the hiding place was definitely made behind bars



7. This adorable little bear was made using a spoon and painted with something found in prison.



8. Immersion boiler, which was also made for distilling prison alcohol



9. This cribbage board was made by an Alcatraz inmate and given to the cook as a token of gratitude. He made pegs from toothbrushes



10. The wooden pistol that John Dillinger used to escape from prison in Indiana. The exhibit was sold at auction for $19,000



11. The prisoners made this pistol from scrap metal found in prison.



12. This abstract was made from pieces of broken lunch boxes, rice, red pepper paste and soy sauce.



13. Homemade sex toys



14. A box made from chip bags, sheets and cardboard



Look



15. A pistol made from a stapler that fires 22 caliber ammunition



16. Sharpening made from a spoon and thread



17. Sharpening made in a workshop for working with metal from nuts and screws



18. A grappling hook made from bed springs



19. Sculptures made from soap



20. Saw made from a sheet of metal, twine and a wooden dowel



21. Popsicle stick lamp



22. Homemade tattoo machine



23. Abandoned chessboard



24. The prison system through the eyes of a prisoner



25. Another tattoo machine



26. Sex doll



27. Gun made from scrap metal



28. Candy dildo



29. Works by inmates of a women's prison made from toilet paper



30. Toilet paper dice