FEDERAL PRISON NO BAR TO DOPE SMUGGLERS

WASHINGTON - Using everything from a baby's diaper to burritos, smugglers
regularly get illegal drugs to federal prisoners, even at the
highest-security institutions, Justice Department investigators said
Wednesday.Inmate visitors are the major source of drugs. But Justice
Department Inspector General Glen Fine found mail and prison staff also
bring in marijuana, heroin, cocaine and other drugs at the 102 Bureau of
Prisons facilities, showing a need to upgrade interdiction efforts.

Prison personnel are of particular concern, Fine said, because they tend to
bring in larger amounts that spread to more inmates. There are few
restrictions on personal items prison staffers can bring to work, and
there's no program for drug testing or random searches.

At one prison, a so-called "burrito caper" occurred in which a visitor
smuggled in a burrito filled with balloons of heroin, bought an identical
one at a vending machine and then switched the two.

In a response, Bureau of Prisons Director Kathleen Hawk Sawyer criticized
the "lack of statistical support" for some of the report's conclusions.