Drugs and Pruno - Very Much Available Behind Bars

My friend Mary Grace is in deep emotional pain; her 29 year-old son, Mack, is going to prison. MaryGrace tried everything to help Mack, from “tough love” to drug rehab. He always returned to using drugs, and his last arrest was for selling crack cocaine as well as using it himself.

Since I’ve been a corrections officer in the state prison for almost 20 years, MaryGrace asked questions about what Mack would be dealing with “inside.” I was honest with her about harshness of prison life, but I didn’t know how to respond when she said, “At least he’ll have this chance to get clean, since there are no drugs in prison.” Maybe I should have, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her what I knew would break her heart.

There are Lots of Drugs in Prison

There are lots of drugs in prison. Forensic research tells us that, per capita, drugs are as available in jail as they are on the outside. Inmates of correctional facilities – city/county jails, prisons, boot camps and pre-release centers – must make the same choices and decisions as “regular” people about whether or not to use during their time on the inside.

Mack was looking at serving between five to seven years in prison; with good behavior, maybe he’d get paroled in three years. If, however, Mack was caught using drugs, his chances of making parole would virtually disappear. He’d serve out his full sentence and emerge from prison exactly as he went in – a drug addict who was sure to make prison a regular home. MaryGrace would lose her son to a world of violence and addiction.

How Do Drugs Get Into Prisons

Since prison is a closed society, how is it possible that drugs are so plentiful? In the academy for correctional officers I learned that I would be outnumbered about 25 to one by the inmates. Since modern prisons are overwhelmingly escape-proof, my job wouldn’t really be in escape prevention, but would be monitoring the inmates’ lives to make sure they followed the facility’s rules. No violence, no weapons, attendance in educational and vocational training, working in the prison’s industries, doing what they’re told when they’re told to do it – and absolutely no drugs. One of my duties would be to monitor inmates’ visits with the friends and relatives on their “approved” list. I learned that no matter how careful COs are, this is primarily how drugs get into prison. Smuggled by visitors in every conceivable (and inconceivable) way, COs catch most drugs when inmates and/or their cells are searched after visits. Drugs sent through the mail are a main conduit to inmates as well. Enough drugs get by undetected to make using and trafficking a real problem. Drugs are bought, stolen, bartered, and traded for sexual favors among inmates. If it comes in a pill or a powder, a drug is a valuable commodity in prison. This includes drugs prescribed by a facility’s physicians; if it can be abused, it will be abused. 

Pruno

And then there’s prison-made alcohol, called pruno. This is nasty stuff made by inmates who sneak fruit from the chow hall or the commissary into their cells. Making pruno is a serious art among inmates and recipes are closely guarded secrets. Basically, take some fruit, some sugar, and some bread, let it ferment for a couple of weeks and there it is – horrible tasting but with enough of an alcohol content to keep an inmate drunk for a few hours. Although COs search cells and other areas of the prison regularly, there aren’t enough of us to keep prison pruno-free.

When I began my career in corrections, an inmate told me that it was their job to find ways to break the prison’s rules, and it was my job to catch them. He was correct, and so it goes. My friend MaryGrace, like most people, view prison as a drug-free break away from street life, where inmates are forced to be sober and then, magically, continue this abstinence when they’re released. The reality is that there is nowhere on Earth –certainly not prison -- where sobriety is guaranteed. No matter where you go, there you are.