commissary

“Cash for the commissary, are you mad? I asked for rolls and coffee, not a jewel-encrusted egg! Don’t you know who we are? We are the Babushkinovs! Our name is all the credit we need!”

Their extra room became the commissary, to use an old Hollywood term.

The “kitty” is then resold, creating a secondary market within the jails that is cheaper than the commissary.

Hourlong lines to buy food at the commissary or to make a phone call.

In Hollywood, studios tended to lay claim to nearby restaurants almost as extensions of their own commissaries, with cocktail privileges.