DRUGS GETTING INTO PRISONS DESPITE INTERDICTION EFFORTS

The state Department of Corrections is using sniffing dogs, random
shakedowns, drug tests and strict visitation policies to crack down on drug
use in prisons.

But illegal substances still are making their way behind bars in Oklahoma,
officials and former prisoners said.

Drugs are brought into prisons in body cavities by visitors, carried in by
staffers and put in the false bottoms of shoes and on the back of stamps,
state Correction Director Ron Ward told the Tulsa World.

"Just about anything imaginable can be done," said Ward, former warden at
Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. "Obviously, we haven't found all
the sources."

During fiscal year 2000 -- the most recent period for which complete
information was available -- the department reported conducting 16,442
random drug tests systemwide with 1,423, or 8.7 percent, positive results.

Marijuana was detected in 74 percent of the positive tests. Cocaine was the
second most detected drug.

Some former inmates say the drug culture is thriving inside Oklahoma's
prisons, but Ward disagrees.

"It really isn't rampant," Ward said. "We probably, I would say, do as good
a job as anyone in drug interdictions, based on the resources we have
available."

Ward said a visitor tried to smuggle drugs in a six-pack of soft drinks
that had a false inside. Drugs also have been found on the backs of stamps
and adhesive on envelopes.

William Foster, 43, who served about five years for cultivating marijuana
in Tulsa County, laughs when asked how drugs get into prisons.

"The guards," he said. "I mean, come on. Let's be realistic. We are in a
fenced environment and have to go through three fences, with numerous
checks. Who do you think brings it in? Who are the only people that can
walk through those check points and not be searched?"

He said visitors also bring drugs into prisons, but on a limited basis.

"It is very, very hard to bring in any type of dope that way," he said. "It
is very small quantities, usually for personal use."

Some visitors pass drugs to an inmate by swallowing a balloon or condom
filled with drugs and regurgitating it in the rest room, officials said.
But the larger quantities of drugs come in through staff, Foster said.

"When you can match the money they are going to make for 15 minutes of work
for as much as they are going to make in two weeks, why wouldn't they?"
Foster said.