Pruno: What is prison hooch?

By Lauren Smith

Updated: 04 July 2023 & medically reviewed by Dr. Jenni Jacobsen

Names for pruno

The term pruno is derived from the use of prunes in early recipes in prisons and is a name that dates back at least to 1918.^[1] Pruno may also be known as prison wine, toilet wine, hooch, buck, or brew.^[2]

It’s a type of hooch, an illegitimate and usually poor-quality alcoholic beverage.

Related: Types of alcohol

What are the ingredients in pruno?

To understand the pruno process you need a basic grasp of alcoholic chemistry. Alcohol, be it wine like pruno, beer, or liquor, is made by fermenting in fruit, grains, or vegetables: exposing them to yeast or bacteria, which reacts with the sugar in those ingredients to create ethanol (EtOH alcohol) —the chemical name for the alcohol we drink.^[3]

Pruno is a wine, meaning it’s made from fermented fruit. In prison, inmates use whatever fruit they have handy: often apples, oranges, apricots, grapes, or fruit cocktail mix, pulverized the best they can.^[4][5] Sometimes potatoes may also be used and are rumored to make pruno more alcoholic and decrease brewing time.^[6] However, the use of potatoes in pruno has been associated with outbreaks of botulism (see below on the dangers of pruno).^[2] Sometimes the mass of fermenting fruit—known as a kicker or motor—is kept from batch to batch in order to kickstart the fermentation process.^[7]

Inmates may also add additional sugar, often from sugar cubes, powdered drink mix, hard candy, jelly, syrup, or even ketchup.^[5][6] The more sugar present, the more ethanol can be produced, up to a certain point.

Traditionally prisoners then add crumbled-up bread to the mixture, in the mistaken belief that it provides yeast for fermentation. In fact, all of the yeast in the bread will have been killed off during the baking process. Instead, it’s the natural yeasts that grow on the skins of fruit, especially spoiling fruit, that likely provide the fuel for fermentation in the pruno process.^[7][8] On the outside, brewer’s yeast can be used.

Inmates report procuring the ingredients for pruno from prison meals, commissary purchases, and kitchen theft. ^[6]

How is pruno made?

The concoction is mashed up and placed in a watertight bag or another container. Prisoners have reported using garbage bags, foot containers, and shampoo bottles.^[6] The container needs small holes or slits to release the gases that form during fermentation.^[9]

The container is left to ferment somewhere warm where it won’t be discovered and confiscated by corrections officers. This is often in a toilet, in the shower area, under bunks, and inside walls. Warm water is poured over the bag every day. 

After five to seven days, the sugar in the fruit should have become alcohol. The longer the concoction is left to ferment, the more potent it will be. After the process is complete, the fruit kicker is strained out and the drink can be consumed.

However, the results usually aren’t pleasant. Bartender and former inmate Nick Crouch described pruno as “like drinking the nastiest sweet and sour margarita but with bread in there and orange.”^[10]

Making pruno or other alcoholic beverages in prison is prohibited, and inmates risk having their concoctions discovered and punishments handed down.

How strong is pruno?

The alcohol content of pruno is variable and highly unpredictable. Some prisoners claim their recipes make highly potent beverages: up to 44% alcohol or 28 proof.^[6] However, this is unlikely, due to the use of fruit and the crude fermentation process.

Instead, pruno is thought to range between 3% and 15% alcohol by volume (ABV), or between the potency of a weak beer and a strong wine.^[11] Adding more sugar and fermenting the pruno for longer can increase its alcohol content but likely not above 15%.^[9]

Related: How long does alcohol stay in your system?

Why do inmates make pruno?

Pruno is described as ubiquitous in prisons, especially state and federal lockups and men’s prisons. Pruno may be more common in maximum security units and among those with long sentences: they have less to lose if their pruno mixes are discovered. 

Inmates overwhelmingly say they consume pruno to get drunk. They may be looking for a distraction from the boredom of prison or simply want to celebrate events the way people do on the outside. Corrections officers report that pruno activity often increases around holidays, birthdays, and televised sporting events.^[6]

Related: Alcohol abuse and mental health

Additionally, prisoners with pre-existing substance abuse issues may be more likely to make and consume pruno. These prisoners with addictions constitute a substantial portion of the prison population. In a meta-review of 24 studies across ten countries, nearly a nearly quarter (24%) of newly-arrived inmates in prison have alcohol use disorder.^[12]

For them, pruno, and other intoxicating substances smuggled into prisons, can be a way of sustaining their addiction even while incarcerated. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that illicit supplies of alcohol in prison, along with limited access to recovery services, can make inmates suffering from alcohol addiction even more vulnerable to health risks while incarcerated than on the outside.^[13]

Is pruno dangerous?

Making and consuming pruno isn’t just against prison regulations. It can also seriously impact prisoners’ health.

First, there are the general risks of heavy alcohol consumption. These include short-term hazards of falls and injuries, fights, vulnerability to sexual assault, nausea and vomiting, and unconsciousness. It’s difficult for prisoners to determine the strength of a batch of pruno, meaning they can accidentally become far more intoxicated than they intend. Long-term risks of alcohol consumption include liver disease, cardiovascular disease and stroke, cancer, worsened mental health conditions, and obesity.^[14]

Additionally, batches of pruno have been linked to outbreaks of the deadly illness botulism in prisons. Botulism is caused by a bacteria that produces a toxin that attacks the body’s nervous system, causing muscle paralysis, difficulty breathing, and even death.^[15] Food-borne botulism is most commonly caused by improperly preserved, canned, or fermented food, so you should avoid eating food from tin cans that are deeply dented or bulging.^[16] 

It’s unclear how exactly batches of pruno caused botulism in these outbreaks. The CDC notes that toxic batches had at least one of three ingredients: potatoes, honey, or food from bulging cans.^[2] Spores of the C. botulinum are commonly found in the soil and have been detected on raw potatoes. Several previous outbreaks of botulism in the United States have been linked to potatoes, and researchers believe the warm anaerobic fermentation process of making pruno may have facilitated the growth of the bacteria and its production of the toxin.^[17]

Pruno has caused cases of botulism in prisons in California, Arizona, Utah, and Mississippi. Nearly all the inmates involved had to be hospitalized; some were ventilated for days or weeks.^[2]

Symptoms of botulism include:^[2]

• Double vision

• Blurred vision

• Drooping eyelids

• Slurred speech

• Dry mouth

• Difficulty swallowing

• Thick-feeling tongue

• Sleepiness

• Muscle weakness, starting in the facial muscles, producing the above symptoms, and then spreading to the arms, legs, and chest

• Difficulty breathing

• Paralysis

Death occurs in 5 to 10% of patients with botulism, even with treatment.^[18]

Pruno, because it’s made in unsanitary conditions and using old, molding ingredients and low heat, can also cause other types of food poisoning, with gastrointestinal symptoms.