Anyone who practices medicine in a jail or prison has to become familiar with a broad array of slang terms that are unique to the correctional setting. One such word is "kite." In a jail or a prison, the term "kite" refers to a written request for something.
Kites can be made for anything, but those of us in the medical department deal with medical kites. A typical usage could be this:
Inmate: "I need to see the doctor. I'm sick."
Officer: "Well, fill out a kite then."
"Kite" can be a noun, as in: "Fill out this kite."
"Kite" can also be a verb, as in: "I kited medical but haven't seen the doctor yet."
In my experience, usage of the slang term "kite" is almost universal in correctional facilities. It would be hard to exaggerate how common this term is. The word "kite" is recognized all over the country from the Deep South to New England and the West Coast. It is used in jails and prisons, state and federal facilities, and both adult and juvenile facilities. And since medical requests in jails and prisons are made frequently, the word "kite" is an everyday word.
Yet where this meaning of "kite" came from is a mystery to me. I cannot find any dictionaries that list this usage of the word "kite," at all. Even the dictionaries devoted to slang, like The Online Slang Dictionary or the Slang Dictionary, don't list the term "kite." The Urban Dictionary comes close by saying that "kite" can mean "correspondence received while incarcerated: 'My cuz sent me a kite...'" But this is not the same as how "kite" is used in my jails.
"Kites" are internal jail requests, not a synonym for mail. In fact, inmates in my jails refer to mail as "mail," not "kites." "Kites" instead are requests for something within the jail system. For example, an inmate could write the following kite: "I missed mail call. Can I get my mail, please?" That request is a kite. The outside mail is not.
So how can a slang term be so common in jails and prisons all across the country yet be evidently unknown to linguists? Where did this meaning of the term "kite" come from? I have heard three possible explanations, none of them entirely satisfactory.
The first is that "kite" derives from a common prison method of communicating with another inmate in the next cell or even many cells away. It works like this: the inmate folds up a note and ties it to a long piece of string. He then swings the note attached to the string underneath his cell door and into the cell of his friend next door. Since the folded-up note attached to a piece of string resembles a kite, it was called a "kite," and the term "kite" then became a universal prison term for any written communication, including requests for medical care. Makes sense. I give it a big maybe.
The second explanation is that the term "kite" derives from one of two archaic English meanings of "kite." The Oxford English Dictionary says that "kite" can mean "a fraudulent check, bill, or receipt." "Kite" can also mean "an illicit or surreptitious letter or note." However, these definitions do not at all fit the modern usage of "kite" in jails and prisons, since modern prison "kites" are neither fraudulent or surreptitious. However, since fraudulent behavior, like writing an illicit letter, can result in one being imprisoned, perhaps this definition morphed into communications within a prison -- the "kite" as understood today. I am skeptical of this explanation.
The third possibility is that "kite" is related to the snarky English expression "Go fly a kite," which means basically "you're annoying me. Get lost." Similarly, "floating" or "flying a kite" can refer to making any suggestion that you do not expect to be accepted. Either way, this explanation implies an attitude of being dismissive of inmate concerns, as in:
Inmate: "I'm sick. I need to see the doctor."
Officer: "Oh, go fly a kite."
Of course, it is not true in the modern era that we are unconcerned and dismissive of inmates. We are, in fact, the ones who set up the kite system by which inmates can quickly and easily inform us of their medical needs. And we strive to respond quickly! However, it is possible -- and even probable -- that "kite" harkens back to a harsher time in the 19th and 20th centuries when inmate concerns were indeed commonly ignored.
Whatever the derivation, the word "kite" carries with it negative connotations. That is why most jails and prisons discourage the use of "kite." Instead, inmates are supposed to used "medical request forms (MRFs)" or "internal communication forms (ICFs)" or other acronyms of the same ilk. These don't exactly trip off the tongue. Variations of this conversation happen all the time:
Inmate: "I'm sick. I need to see the doctor."
Officer: "Well, fill out an MRF then."
"MRF? What's that?"
"A medical request form."
"A what form?"
(exasperated) "A kite, man! Fill out a kite!"
"Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?"
Because of this ease of use and universal understanding, I don't see the word "kite" going anywhere soon.
Jeffrey E. Keller, MD, FACEP, is a board-certified emergency physician with 25 years of experience before moving full time into his "true calling" of correctional medicine. He now works exclusively in jails and prisons, and blogs about correctional medicine at .