>"A deck of cards cut from milk cartons. A wand made with medical tape. How a group of inmates learned “the magic of magic.”" Many of a magician’s most basic tools — ribbons, knives, coins — are not available in prison. So Garza sent Jay a list of permitted items, including toothbrushes, cigarettes, pencils, playing cards and plastic bottles. Jay designed tricks that used these limited materials, and Garza began making his own props, like balls and poker chips, from glue and toilet paper.

To Garza, magic was a way of ordering time. After the first week in prison, he said, a question presents itself: “What do you do? And you look at it like, ‘I’ve got two years, I’ve got 10 years, I’ve got the rest of my life in this place. What am I going to do with my time?’” Some people pursue a G.E.D. He got into magic.