While being incarcerated, you try to find as many sources of entertainment as possible to pass the time. That includes celebrating Halloween! Now, as one might imagine, we couldn’t just pop on out to the local “Spirit Halloween” store and pick up a costume, so we had to get creative with what we had. Halloween has been one of my personal favourite occasions - in my 36 years I have yet to miss one! (My favourite costume of all time was Dennis the Menace - I even had the wagon with the cans attached and drove it trick or treating!)
Well let’s just say my prison costumes weren’t nearly that elaborate - but I still made it happen! In my let’s call it, prison residence I had access to the following: Pens, paper, tape, toilet paper, bedding, and a classroom where we could print stuff. After doing some recon on what supplies might be useful for a costume-it became obvious that I could dress up as one of the most popular costumes of all time-a ghost. Here is what I used:
- Bedsheet
- Paper
Yep that’s it. I printed out two big black circles on from Microsoft Word, and voila, eyeballs! Then I put on my bedsheet and got someone to tape on the eyeballs and …voila! Prison Ghost.
Now of course one costume just certainly wasn’t enough. So what else could I use? That’s when the toilet paper caught my eyes. I knew this crunchy 0.5 ply sandpaper they called toilet paper could be used for something. Here’s a riddle-what’s wrapped in crunchy tattered paper that scares people? You guessed it. A mummy! This was definitely a team effort- so it was quite the scene when a bunch of my fellow inmates wrapped me up in toilet paper. Then I scared the guards. They loooooved that! They loved it so much I got written up. Incident report! But it was worth the laugh. Creativity was always at the core of so many prison activities - not just in the kitchen making popcorn!
It’s important to remember that these kinds of experiences were rare exceptions and vital for lifting the spirits of inmates. Celebrating Halloween and getting creative with limited resources wasn’t just about fun—it was a way to boost morale in an otherwise challenging and restrictive environment. The opportunity to engage in moments like this, even with something as simple as a makeshift costume, helped the inmates cope with the hardships they faced daily.
Emily O'Brien
Founder & CEO, Comeback Snacks