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Rachel Buncan
Instiuctoi: Nalcolm Campbell
English 11u2
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Have you ever thought about the number of people who are put away in jails or prisons in
order to make our world a safer place? Do you realize that over 75% of these people are doing
illegal drugs while locked up? Have you ever thought how these criminals obtain access to the
illegal substance while incarcerated? These questions run through my head frequently; perhaps
because Im a criminal justice major. But generally, you cannot escape from the magnitude of
news stories on the number of crimes committed on a daily basis even in the prison system.
Logically, you would assume within the prison system, steps are taken to prevent further
criminal acts. Unfortunately, the reality is frightening. Its affecting the safety of prisoners and
prison guards. Its scary to think that prisoners have access to get what they want from inside
prison bars. On a routine basis, prisoners have easy access to illegal drugs and are actively using
within the prison system. If one of the goals of the prison system is to rehabilitate, you may ask
how this can happen.
How drugs are smuggled in
Some people have a theory on how they think certain drugs are obtained in prison based
on their exposure and perceptions of this issue. Many are right, but there are some ways that will
surprise you because criminals are very creative and determined to feed their habit. Inmates are
obtaining illegal drugs through family members, random people, and prison guards. Yes, even
test 10/30/13 8:26 PM
Comment [1]: S questions to stait off papei
might seem excessive
test 10/30/13 8:29 PM
Comment [2]: Night want to tiy anu combine
sentence 1 anu S since they incluue "scaiy" anu
"fiightening". Both aie similai feelings.
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Comment [3]: Sentences aie a little choppy, tiy
anu get a little moie flow fiom sentence to
sentence.
test 10/30/13 8:31 PM
Comment [4]: Who aie "some people". Regulai
people. Authoiites.
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Comment [5]: Auuiction coulu be a goou
substitute woiu.
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prison guards. However, the process usually starts with a visit from friends or family. Shocking
and creative ways the drugs are smuggled into the prisons include drugs inside soda cans, baby
diapers, and even in a persons lip when they exchange a kiss, says USA Today on January 23
2003. The New York Times reports drugs are also coming in by pills being crushed and spread
into a paste on a stamp or spreading in a childs art work.
The prison guards are not as innocent as people may think they are. It seems even prison
guards are looking for ways to access extra cash. The inmates hire prison guards to access
whatever drugs the inmate desires and bring it into the prison for cash. Some of these guards are
never caught; but this was not the case for Erik Messner, 24 of Springfield, PA. This young man
was caught red-handed. Messner was allowing inmates to give him the contact information of
their friends or family members, and then would arrange a meeting, says Michael Price, from
Daily local news, in PA. Messner was even caught keeping the cash and a portion of the drugs
for himself. Messsners salary as a prison guard was thirty-two thousand a year. He took a risk of
losing his steady income for extra cash. Why would he take this risk? This shows me how some
people will do anything just for money. Additionally, it is an example that our prison system is
corrupt and unsafe when you have employees actively participating in illegal activity.
Another unique way prisoners are obtaining drugs is during their structured work
assignments. For example, designated inmates are assigned road clean-up based on their
behavior. These inmates have the opportunity to travel outside of the prison walls to pick-up
trash along highways. In many cases, this is another way for the inmates to get access to the
illegal drugs they crave. There have been reported incidents in which the inmates family or
friend drives by and throws a soccer ball, tennis ball, or even a clump of dirt out the window.
These have drugs inside them. Another creative example is the use of paintball guns splattering
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Comment [6]: Pennsylvania when incluuing foi
the fiist time.
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Comment [7]: Auueu an extia S
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Comment [8]: Is an example of
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the prison walls with drugs for the inmates to access. Needless to say, the creativity and
approaches are endless. So what actions are being taken to address this challenge?
Technology
With the advances in technology, you would think that it would be easy to detect and
keep drugs out of jails and prisons. Indeed, over the years improvements have been made
replacing the drug dog sniffers and the human eye. Improvements such as scanning and
detection devices have been installed and are helping. Mr. Power, Criminal Justice Director, at
University of Columbia, goes to say in many northern areas they have placed new security
cameras that are bullet resistant and will not break even with a sledgehammer. These cameras
can monitor and record drug passing activity and will also prove helpful when people attempt to
break out of prison or start fighting. Some prisons have implemented the use of the millimeter
wave imaging system to scan visitors upon entry. This system is similar to the imaging system at
the airports where it is an x-ray type of your body. This system not only helps to identify drugs
but also weapons. The disadvantage of the machine is it cannot detect drugs in body cavities.
These machines have started to deter behavior. People who knew about the prisons having this
system are too scared to even try to smuggle drugs in, says Thomas Dohman, Graterford State
Correctional Institution, intelligence captain. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is currently
funding to get a system that can easily track if someone has drugs in their body cavities. It is
being developed in Quantum Magentics.
How an inmate really thinks
Reading the words the prison wall is not a boundary anymore, said Terry Thornton,
spokeswoman of Corrections and Rehabilitation, raises so many thoughts for me. The inmates
are not worried about getting the drugs they want. A prisoner Brian Plump, said himself, that he
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Comment [9]: Boes he have a fiist name.
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Comment [10]: Explain what that is anu how it
woiks. Saying it is similai to x-iay may not
suffice. I know what it is but eveiy ieauei may
not.
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sees illegal drugs every day. He also stated that if he wanted to get some sort of drug he could
get it in an hour. In my mind, this is absurd and wrong that a prisoner who is imprisoned for
criminal activity can so quickly and confidently obtain drugs behind bars. The inmates are not
even worried about being behind bars because they can still obtain access and do what they want
to do. How is this rehabilitation? It appears we live in a world where the criminals are in charge
of prisons, not the employees who are hired to do so. Their access to drugs such as cocaine,
heroin, marijuana, and prescription pills are limitless.
Most inmates, approximately 69 percent are addicted to drugs before even entering
prisons, according to studies done by Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. When
they arrive their addiction doesnt stop, it continues because the access is not blocked. The drug
use and maneuvering to obtain drugs is one of the culprits of prison gang fights. Most gangs are
built around drug use. Prison gang members have control of the guards and control of the drug
flow who gets the drugs, when and how much. According to Mike Ruff, a Corrections
Department Special Agent, something that appears to be a riot between different gangs is not
necessarily because theyre rivals; its because of a drug deal gone bad. These gangs are selling
drugs ten times the price on street. Ruff goes to say the gangs are the main source of drugs for
these inmates. The fights all begin if they dont get the drugs they want at the time they need.
The top drug for these gangs in prison is marijuana according to the study done in 2012 by the
Columbus Dispatch. Many inmates dont have a specific drug they use; they will take anything
they can get.
Will drugs ever stop?
Based on the percentage of drug related crimes, it is not surprising that drugs have taken
over outside and inside jails and prisons. Patrick Arvonio, the former warden of East Jersey State
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Prison says, "Nobody can convince me that there's a county jail, a prison or any other place
where people are locked up that there aren't drugs. Over the years, drug use has tripled in the
amount of inmates that enter prison or jails. Prisons have still not found a way to keep out every
type of drug attempted to be smuggled in. They may never find one. The only thing they can
keep doing is trying to get more and more new technology, learn the new ways inmates are
trying to bring in drugs, and making sure the staff they hire is trustworthy. A troubling trend due
to government budget cuts is the government is going to reduce the amount of times the cells
are checked daily because of cost, say Mark Freeman, POA deputy general secretary. If we
dont have enough money to check the jail cells, how are we ever going to get enough money for
the new technology to put into prisons?
Help stop the drug use.
Trying to come up with ways to help stop the over use of illegal drugs in prison doesnt
come easy. There are many sources that cause this problem. According to Senator Mark Leno, of
San Francisco, We currently have over 4,100 state prison inmates who are serving time for
simple possession. These inmates that are serving time for possession are truly the one that are
making the drugs in prison so popular. They come in with an addiction and just continue it. Their
focus is to make connections and find ways to smuggle drugs inside prison. Instead of states
sending these people to do time in prison, they should be sending them to substance-abuse
treatment centers. This would also have an additional benefit to reduce prison overcrowding
which is another challenge. Leno says, Clearly this is a significant population, and how we deal
with them could impact our overcrowding. In my opinion, all those inmates could be placed
somewhere else and we would have less drug trafficking into prisons. Would also cut down the
amount of our tax money goes to these prisons. In California the cost for state taxpayers is close
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to 10 billion a year. Thats in extreme amount of money that we are putting towards people who
are not fixing their bad habits.
Another way we could help this problem is to have some sort of rehabilitation in prison
for the inmates. In the Maine state prison, they do not offer opiate replacement treatment for
those that need it in prison. However they do offer drug counselors that are either in a group
setting or one-on-one based. Judy Garvey, the Maine prisoner Advocacy Coalition said,
prisoners need more education, substance abuse programs and job training to help stop this drug
issue. The longest running drug abuse program was created by the Federal Bureau of Prisons
and implemented into a many prisons over the past 20 years. They have a variety of strategies
including having staff members at different locations incorporate their own literature, research
and effective evidence-based practices.
One other way that jails and prisons help is by providing pharmacological maintenance
programs. These programs include the long-term administration of a medication that either
replaces the illicit drug or blocks its actions. This can give the inmates another path to choose if
they dont feel comfortable with counseling or talking in a group. According to Dr. Howard
Samuels, from outreach center he found information from the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administrations (SAMHSA's) Uniform Facility Data Set (UFDS), drug and
alcohol counseling was available in about 40% of Federal, State, and local adult and juvenile
correctional facilities.

All comes together
At the end of the day, bringing drugs in a prison to having programs available for the
inmates is all one big circle. They all affect one another in some way. Inmates that are already
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Comment [11]: Who is we.
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addicted to drugs are going to keep it going if the recovery programs are not helping. The staff
and other inmates are going to be affected by the illegal drugs due to it making the inmates have
various emotions. The guards are looking for extra easy cash, in which they get these illegal
drugs for the inmates outside of prison and bring it in. There really is no way to stop it all
together in my opinion. People will be people and you cant control what they do but you can try
to control how they think. These prisons are hiring people they think they can trust and yet some
of these workers are not so trustworthy after all. The prisons think they are on point keeping
these drugs out but little do they know someone is coming up with some new way to bring it in.
Can we ever be ahead of the game or will we always be behind? As of right now the facts and
information say we are trying to be ahead, coming out with new technology, finding ways to get
the attention of these inmates in counseling. Smuggling drugs inside prison walls will never
fully stop, the only thing we can do now is just hope it slows down with all the new
improvements that are taking place and that are coming.