If there’s one thing MacGyver proved again and again on his hit TV show it’s that he can't be tied up for long, especially if there’s a stick of gum and a battery laying around.
He made escaping captivity look like child’s play, but in real life very few prisoners ever make grand escapes, despite what movies and TV shows would have you believe.
Since they’re stuck in prison for the duration of their sentence prisoners have to become MacGyverish in their own right, to bring some of the comforts of home to their cell.
Got a battery, some tape and a bit of wire? You’ve got the makings of a lighter, and if you combine fire with a roll of TP you can make your own in-cell stove
The TP is rolled into a cylinder, folded in at the ends, and lit so it burns from the inside out. That slows it down and intensifies the heat. Inmates hold their undercooked meal above the flame, and voila, you can get it as hot and crispy as you like.
Want to learn more tricks created by cons? Read 7+ MacGyver Tricks People Have Learned In Prison here
http://www.insidetime.org/mailbag.asp?a=1276
The same magazine runs a column about sentencing - though not reproduced at the magazine's page, there are a couple of splendid examples of how to be completely blind to reasonable behaviour...
http://www.banksr.co.uk/images/Postbag/Inside%20Time%202014%20%282%29%20written%20February%202014_JB.pdf
http://www.banksr.co.uk/images/Postbag/Inside%20Time%202014%20%281%29%20written%20January%202014_JB.pdf
In both cases it's the first article.