54 INMATES TEST POSITIVE FOR DRUGS

LEESVILLE - Fifty-four inmates at the Vernon Parish Correctional Center
tested positive for drugs this month, according to Sheriff Sam Craft.

The investigation began in March when corrections officers discovered
someone was sending cocaine to the jail through the U.S. mail, Craft said.

The two inmates involved were sent to other jails, he said, then he and
local corrections officers asked the state Department of Corrections for
help. The Vernon Parish Sheriff's Office supervises the parish jail.

All 209 inmates were subsequently tested for drugs, Craft said, and 54 of
them tested positive.

Of those 54, 19 who tested positive had been at the jail only two weeks to
three weeks and had tested positive when they were admitted, Craft said.
Most of the new inmates were parole or probation violators, he said.

The remaining inmates who tested positive were either assigned to outside
work crews or they regularly left the jail for a work-release program job,
he said.

Officials probably will charge the two inmates who obtained drugs through
the mail, Craft said. The incident still is under investigation.

The DOC convened a disciplinary board at the jail this month, and each
inmate who tested positive for drugs -except for those who previously
tested positive when admitted - had their "good time" stripped, he said.

Inmates can leave jail earlier than scheduled if they behave themselves, a
practice referred to as accumulating "good time."

The board decided that inmates who had work-release jobs and who had tested
positive for drugs would no longer be allowed to work, Craft said.

Work-crew supervisors also were told to watch for suspicious activity when
their crews are on the job, the sheriff said.

Corrections officers also plan to stop additional drugs reaching inmates
via the U.S. mail.

Craft did not specify how corrections officers will prevent drug shipments,
but those officers have the right to search, but not read, inmate mail, a
corrections spokesman said.

The Vernon Parish Correctional Center is not the only parish jail which has
had a drug problem, according to Johnny Creed, assistant secretary of the
state Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

The state's corrections centers are fighting drugs constantly, he said, so
jails consequently have one of the best drug-fighting records in the nation.

Corrections employees statewide test thousands of inmates for drugs each
month, and less than 1 percent of those inmates test positive, Creed said.

"We very aggressively stay on top of this," he said.

Louisiana has 36,000 inmates, Creed said, "and I would say that 54 testing
positive out of 36,000 is pretty good."

Inmates are tested for five different drugs: cocaine, amphetamines,
marijuana, PCP and psychedelics, he said.

Although officers search the incoming mail, Creed said, those searches do
not prevent people from sending little surprises through the U.S. Postal
Service.

"I'm always surprised when some family members keep calling and asking why
their relative is in jail," he said, "and then they send that inmate drugs."

A grandmother, in her 80s, once was arrested and charged with bringing
drugs into the jail.

"If she knew what she was doing, that's a shocker," he said. "And if she
was being used by the inmate, that will tell you what we're dealing with."

Fighting drugs in jail is complicated by work-release programs and work
crews, he said, pointing out that work-release inmates are going back to an
environment where drugs are available.

Once work crews exit the jail, he said, "they will continue to try to get
what they can, always have, always will."

"We have a screening process for work details," he said, "but there is no
guarantee you won't get drugs. ... You're dealing with people, and those
that already have a criminal history."