DRUGS RAMPANT IN PRISONS

The law calls it "conspiracy to possess narcotics on prison
grounds."

The cops call them "drug mules."

The distribution of narcotics in prisons is a consistent problem for
law enforcement, especially in Kings County, which is home to more
inmates than any other county in California.

"You can get any drug you want in prison, anytime you want it," said
Kevin Cook, a Deputy District Attorney in Kings County. "We see it all
the time. It's almost impossible to stop drugs from coming in every
time."

Drug issues in the prison system accounted for at least 7 percent of
total statewide prison incidents in 2006, the most recent year
statistics were available. The total adds up to more than 1,000
drug-related offenses across California that year, according to a
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation report.

At the Kings County Jail, officials say drug incidents are an issue at
least once a month.

"Most people don't even realize we have these kinds of problems,"
Deputy District Attorney Ty Ford said.

The investigation begins with a phone call. Prison deals are often
brokered by families living outside of the jail, according to Ford.
When one inmate wants to make a purchase, he will contact his family
on the outside and ask them to transfer money to the family of the
seller. This family then puts the money in a trust account for the
inmate's use in prison, completing the purchase.

"One inmate may contact another, who contacts another, who contacts
someone on the outside, who gives the money to somebody else, so that
person can get the drugs, then give it to yet another person just to
transport it," Cook said. "It can get very intricate and
complicated."

It's standard practice for all state prisons to record calls between
inmates and their visitors. When an inmate is believed to be involved
in drug smuggling, investigators listen to their conversations,
searching for a code inmates often use to disguise conversations about
narcotics.

"You listen to them talk and watch for odd pronouns or ordinary words
used out of context," Ford said. "Usually, their conversation will
sound pretty weird. The codes they use tend to describe the drug in an
abstract way, so for instance, if they are talking about money, they
may mean marijuana, because they are both green. Black shoes is
another way of saying black tar heroin. Things like that."

The contraband enters the prison through a variety of methods. In some
cases, concealed bags of narcotics will be left out for inmate work
crews to discover in pre-determined locations. In other cases, crafty
parties will try to mail the drugs in with a care package. And, then,
of course, there are people who walk the drugs in themselves, known as
"drug mules."

"Often the drugs are secreted in their genital areas," Cook said.
"They'll hide it in their rectum, put it in their mouth, one lady even
hid the drugs in her extra skin rolls around her abdomen."

The trick to unraveling the case is to catch them in the act. Officers
who have cracked the code will check the visitor logs to see who came
to visit on what day, following a coded message. Then, when the "drug
mule" returns, officers are waiting to arrest them.

"Once we figure out the relationship, we can start establishing
connections between different groups of people," Cook said. "It's like
a big puzzle you piece together, trying to find out how the drugs get
from one place to the next."

State correctional officers are required to conduct at least three
searches in the prison complex during every patrol, according to Terry
Thornton, a CDCR spokeswoman.

"Contraband in the jails doesn't always refer to drugs," Thornton
said. "Any item off-limits to the prisoners is considered contraband
if it comes into their possession. This can include cell phones,
pornography, inmate-manufactured alcohol and even common items, like a
toothbrush, that have been modified to become something else, like a
weapon."

At the county level, the Kings County Jail experienced a large
reduction in the number of drug-related offenses when officials
removed in-person visitation.

"This used to be a huge problem for us," Sgt. Michael Burke said. "The
old jail was built back in '62, and people would actually drill small
holes through the dividing glass partition and slip drugs through.
They would even put drugs on their children, who were allowed to be
close to the inmate, to slip it by the guards."

New visiting procedures at the Kings County Jail limits inmate contact
to a phone with mounted cameras in separate rooms allowing the
visitors to communicate in real time, but without the risk of a drug
exchange.

Officials with the Department of Corrections are hesitant to use such
methods in the state prison system.

"Visiting is a privilege and we encourage it," Thornton said. "We want
the inmates to spend time with their friends and family in the
community, because many of them will be going home eventually.
Visitation periods are a good thing. It's part of the rehabilitation
process. We only have no-contact visiting when inmates lose their
privileges based on their behavior."

Meanwhile, the drug issue continues to be a problem. Officials say
narcotics are found in the prisons on a nearly daily basis, keeping
the officers busy trying to maintain the safety of prison staff, along
with the inmates themselves.

"You are not going to eliminate this kind of activity forever," Burke
said. "There will always be people secreting the stuff into their body
or coming up with some ingenious idea to sneak the contraband in here."

And for prosecutors like Ford and Cook, the drug issue shows no sign
of slowing.

"There's a lot of crime that goes on in the prisons," Ford said. "The
majority of the cases are possession of narcotics, but you also have
possession of weapons and assaults. ... I believe we have more inmates
here in Kings County than any other county in California and it really
shows in the number of criminal cases we have to deal with."