Correctional officers confiscated hundreds of gallons of homemade alcohol from inmates at a California jail ahead of a Super Bowl party they were allegedly planning.
The Alameda County Sheriff's Office said the "illegally made jail house alcohol" had been found during a search at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California on Saturday.
Inmates at the jail hid had hundreds of gallons of the alcohol in garbage cans and other hideaway, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The sheriff's office posted a picture of 25 deputies standing in front of several bags of the confiscated alcohol, which they said was made from fruit and juice, on Instagram.
"Illegally made jail house alcohol from fruit and juice. There will be no super bowl party at Santa Rita Jail tomorrow. Good work by our team on duty today," the sheriff's office captioned the image.
According to the Chronicle, officers at the jail regularly find smaller stashes of the homemade alcohol, known as pruno or prison wine.
However, they were tipped off that inmates were "going big" to watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
"It smells horrible and can make people very sick," Alameda County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Sgt. Ray Kelly told the newspaper.
"We find it commonly in much smaller batches, but we're told they were going big for the Super Bowl." The sheriff's office has been contacted for additional comment.
Pruno is usually made in prisons by fermenting fruit, sugar, water and yeast from bread for a number of days in a sealed plastic bag.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that homemade alcohol can cause botulism, a life-threatening illness, and anyone who drinks pruno is in danger of getting it.
"Making alcohol this way can cause botulism germs to make toxin (poison). The toxin is what makes you sick," the CDC said. "It's hard to know if pruno has botulism toxin in it, because you can't see, smell, or taste the toxin."
The CDC said it doesn't know how pruno can be made safely.
"If you make pruno, you put yourself and anyone who drinks it in danger of getting botulism. The alcohol in your drink won't destroy the toxin (make it harmless). The only way to be sure you don't get botulism from pruno is to not drink it," the CDC said.
According to the CDC, symptoms of botulism include double vision, drooping eyelids, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth and muscle weakness. As the disease gets worse, people can also have difficulty breathing and suffer from paralysis.
