Pubdate: Tue, 07 Jul 2015
Source: Citizen, The (Auburn, NY)
Copyright: 2015 Auburn Publishers Inc.
Contact: http://www.auburnpub.com/services/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.auburnpub.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1491
Author: Joyce Hackett Smith

TRUTH COMING OUT ABOUT PRISON CONTRABAND

Prison inmates are masters at manipulating their guards into bringing 
them drugs, according to Seth Ferranti, whose article "Prison Drug 
Smuggling: The Old Fashioned Way" appeared in the New York Times 
(7/18/12). Seth writes that "although part of a new guard's 
orientation is meant to teach how prisoners may try to prey on staff 
members to gain favors or leverage, guards still fall victim and with 
all the avenues available and all the conniving drug addicts 
incarcerated  prisons are clearly incapable of denying prisoners their drugs."

It's been long overdue but the Federal Bureau of Investigation has 
finally stepped in! They've opened a corruption inquiry at the 
maximum security prison in northern New York where prison workers 
smuggled in tools that helped two convicted murderers to escape last month.

According to a New York Times article (7/5/15), "the escape, from the 
Clinton Correctional Facility, shows how easy it is for guards and 
workers to bypass screening systems that are supposed to keep drugs, 
weapons and other contraband out of jails and prisons. However, this 
problem goes far beyond one horribly mismanaged prison in New York."

As recent as Nov. 6, 2014, a Times article quoted a Correction 
Department's report, asking that "steps to bolster screening, such as 
using drug-sniffing dogs at employee entrances, be instituted to 
curtail the bringing in of drugs and other contraband into prisons by 
prison guards" but it hasn't happened because the powerful correction 
officers' union continues to oppose any searches!

Since the state apparently has its hands tied because of the union, 
it is indeed a necessity that the FBI step in! It is obvious that 
when a prison is so porous that it can allow in tools, more lucrative 
contraband can find its way in as well.

The July 5 article says "It makes sense for federal officials to look 
beyond the circumstances that led to the Clinton escape and beyond 
Clinton itself to other prisons in the system. These kinds of 
failures are not limited to New York. After all, it has often been 
shown nationally that when jails and prisons are awash in drugs, it's 
because prison guards are at the root of the problem."

For years it's been the visitors coming in to see their loved ones 
who have been blamed for most of the drug traffic but at last the 
truth is now being told!

Joyce Hackett Smith

Auburn
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom