Editor’s note: This is part five of a series of five excerpts from CorrectionsOne contributor Joe Bouchard’s book “Wake Up and Smell the Contraband: A Guide to Improving Prison Safety.”
Staff should never overlook the obvious hiding places when searching for smuggled goods. I once witnessed a prisoner leave the library with the dictionary in his right hand. As he stood for a search, the dictionary remained in his hand. The hand was a very obvious place. Fortunately, I spied the institution’s marks on the dictionary and the proper misconduct report was filed. I certainly do not profess to be foolproof. I wonder over the years how many things have passed right under my nose because they were obvious hiding places. This is something that all corrections staff should consider.
Established contraband empires are challenged by three groups. They are prisoners new to the business that aspire to obtain a slice of the illicit trade pie, unscrupulous staff looking to earn some illegal money, and by honest staff who locate contraband to derail trade for the sake of safety. As mentioned in an earlier law of contraband, holding onto an illegal trading empire is not easy.
Foiling unauthorized commerce enhances security. Perhaps, this is the simplest law of all. The fewer goods there are economy, the fewer fights there may be over that good. The fewer weapons that are in circulation, the safer the facility will be.
Once an empire is dissolved, staff must fight to keep other would-be traders from filling the vacuum. It bears repeating that there’s always someone waiting in the wings to reap the benefits of illegal trade despite the many sanctions. The vacuum left by traders taking temporarily off the market will be filled. The comfort, power, and prestige that comes with being an illegal trader are too great. The sanctions are unlikely to dissuade those who seek power.
There are at least 5 different mercantile paradigms. They are:
- Monopolist - Almost everyone has heard of the board game Monopoly. That is an activity in which all players compete in real estate transactions with the goal of bankrupting adversaries and controlling all resources. In the prison economy, the monopolist dominates all trade in an area.
- Oligopolist - This is an inmate who has just a handful of competitors. No single inmate in this paradigm has the undisputed advantage or larger share of the market. Two or more economic powerhouses are in the same facility in this case. Often, as a matter of pragmatism, oligopolists operate as colleagues
- Inside Traders - Unfortunately for official operation of prisons, some staff members take a wrong turn in their vocation. This is what prisoners known as inside traders need in order to operate.
- Multinational - Sometimes forces outside a prison control commerce. This is usually in the form of organized crime providing services to those incarcerated. The largest and most successful multinationals have commercial tentacles in all facilities in a corrections system.
- Chaotic - This type of agent is not a good planner, and is diametrically opposed to the monopolist in business strategies. The goal is to make money and acquire power quickly. There is little long-term structure to the chaotic’s plan.
Truly, contraband is much more than a serendipitous discovery by custody staff. The very laws point to the complexity of the concept of illegal trade by prisoners. By considering the intricate of nature of forbidden prisoner economies, staff is in a good position to mitigate one of the biggest challenges in corrections. Remember the 23rd law of contraband, “Foiling unauthorized commerce enhances security.”
For more information on this, please consult the following, chapter 2 in particular. Bouchard, Joseph. Wake up and smell the contraband: A Guide to Improving Prison Safety. (2nd edition) Horsham, PA: LRP Publications, 2005.
