Drugs at Matt & Sweat’s New York Prison

CNN has reported that the FBI is now investigating drug use at the infamous New York Clinton  prison. The FBI has alleged information about employee corruption, drug trafficking, and heroin use by the inmates. The pundits are apparently shocked at the allegations of the availability of drugs for inmates. Wolfe Blitzer was in disbelief today at the wide spread use of drugs among inmates.

On the Wolfe Blitzer show today, a  former correctional officer, blamed almost all of the drugs in prison from smuggling by inmate’s visitors. He pointed out that the officers cannot frisk the visitors for drugs. The former correctional officer, failed to discuss the search of inmates after visitation. In almost all prisons with medium security and maximum security,the inmate after visitation is completely strip-searched for illegal contraband by correctional officers. Based on my personal experience in state prison, it was extremely difficult to bring drugs or any illegal contraband into the prison by an inmate after visitation after a complete strip search– unless the correctional officers conducting the search were involved in a smuggling scheme.

The outside world does not have a realistic understanding of the prison environment. Illegal drugs are available at many prisons and jails in the United States. The Washington Post, in 2014, revealed that approximately 85% of the 2.3 million inmates  incarcerated in the United States were either addicted to drugs or were arrested for drug related offenses. With so many addicts incarcerated, is it really shocking that drugs were available and were sold to a “captive market.”

The Washington Times reported in,  2010 that “in many large state prison systems, a mix of inmate ingenuity, complicit visitors and corrupt staff has kept the level of inmate drug abuse constant over the past decade despite concerted efforts to reduce it.”California state prisons has about 1,000 drug incidents reported each year. During the years of 2006-2008, 44 inmates died in California from drug overdoses. Random drug tests in Florida, during 2008-2009, had 1132 positive test results.

Prisons are a reflection of their society. It is simply naive to think that inmates would not have access to illegal contraband.

By: Bradley Schwartz
Founder of prisonpath.com