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Top 10 contraband items of 2013

If there’s one thing that’ll never change in prisons, it’s that inmates will always be sneaking in contraband. We dug through our archives to bring you our top ten picks of contraband items that you should be keeping an eye out for in 2014.


More 2013 EOY coverage

A proper search is key to locating contraband, but some places are less obvious than others. After a drug dog notified officers that a woman sitting in a parking lot needed to be searched, officers took her into custody. She kept repeating that she needed to go to the bathroom, and officers quickly discovered the reason why – she had a gun lodged in her vagina and a bag of meth in her buttocks. Always be thorough?

This is a new one that officers might be seeing more of in the year to come – drones dropping contraband surreptitiously into prison yards. One Georgia facility caught one of the flying robots dropping marijuana, and followed it back to the culprits, who weren’t far outside of the prison. Guess it would have behooved them to fly the remote-controlled helicopter a little further away.

Hiding things in plain sight is often the way to go, and another reason to remain observant. Mobile phones designed to look like key fobs are making their way into prisons, though it begs the question, why does an inmate need a key fob at all?

We’ve seen this done with paper towels too, but a quick and easy way for an inmate to make a rope can also be to braid waste can liners and knotting one end with a rubber band. This creates a strong garrote, or part of another weapon when combined with other contraband.

Not all contraband is limited to weapons – sometimes inmates just get bored. One inmate at a Minnesota facility created this Jesus on the cross sculpture using only toilet paper and tooth paste.

Inmates often seek outside help when it comes to sneaking in off-limits items, but sometimes those schemes are a little harebrained. Or should we say cat brained? One feline was caught outside a Moldovan prison in October sneaking in two packs of marijuana. It wasn’t even the first time prison staff had caught a cat performing such a caper – in June, Russian officers caught a cat carrying a cell phone and chargers taped to its belly.

Another way inmates like to sneak things in is through the mail, though it must be less obvious. A greeting card mailed to an Ohio facility was found to contain 20 strips of Suboxone, a drug that was originally meant to help with opiate withdrawal. Underground demand for the drug has spiked in recent years.

Electronics and digital information are also in demand in prisons, and this USB shaped like a tampon is definitely something to keep an eye out for.

Remember that waste can liner rope we mentioned earlier? Here’s a good case study of such an incident, where in one facility COs found a 350-foot rope in an inmate’s bed. How long do you think he was working on that for?

And lastly we have one for all the probation officers out there. Make sure to keep a close eye on your parolees when it comes to drug testing, because a new prosthetic known as the Whizzinator might be helping them to cheat.

What kind of items have you found in your facilities throughout the year? List the best ones in the comments!

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