Contraband In Prison Research Paper

Smuggling contraband into prison sounds risky, yet many people including the jail guards themselves are guilty of doing it. Surprisingly, drugs are easier to obtain in prison than on the streets. Due to prices being ten times higher than street prices, the motivation to make a large amount of money in a short amount of time is very tempting. And many others do it because of their addiction to the drug. But regardless of the reason, the amount of smuggling that occurs in medium security prisons is on the rise, with smugglers finding new innovations and techniques to get past the prison security. The three most popular type of contraband being smuggled these days are drugs, weapons and cellphones.

So, how exactly does contraband make its way into …show more content…
Well, there are three key ways. It can either be tossed over the prison walls, smuggled in by visitors or through the unethical jail guards. Small packages are sometimes disguised as tennis balls or dead pigeons and are then fired over the prison walls by a paintball gun or homemade launchers into the exercise yards. Once in, the inmates stage a fight to divert the guards attention so that someone can “plug” the package (meaning to hide it in their butt). The person hiding the package in their rectum acts as a “mule” (which means he is just delivering the package). After the delivery is complete the “mule” is rewarded by either a share of the content or a promise of safety by the gang. The second and more dangerous method to smuggle is through the visiting sessions. Medium security prisons don't have glass walls between the visitors and inmates which allows for smuggling to take place. Even though the visitors are thoroughly checked and sniffed by the K-9 unit, narcotics can still enter undetected. Once past the security checks, the deliveries are made in several