Drug smuggeling

There is a constant struggle between the guard and inmates to keep drugs out of prison.  Unfortionatly however drugs still make their way into prisons right in front of cameras and even before the eyes of guards without them even knowing about it.  Sadly enough there are also prison guards and administration that sneak drugs into prison walls for inmates for certain exchanges.  Prisoners offer money, drugs, as well as protection for prison guards who offer to smuggle drugs into prisons.  This has lead to many problems with prisons and the states don't know how to keep the corruption out of prisons when their own men are in on much of the crime and drug trafficking that is happening.  Drugs also get into prisons through visitors who smuggle them in through letters, post cards, hide them under their clothes, and also sneak them in by putting the drugs in their rectums.  There are so many stratigic moves that prisoners as well as officers and visitors have of getting drugs into prisons.  With the process being so easy and the rewards being so high prisoners have no reason to stop.

fishing

Prisoners will find ingenious ways to communicate with one another and they will do so right in front of prison guards without them even knowing it. Prisoners also communicate with individuals on the outside through coded and encrypted letters that cannot be deciphered by prison guards and specialists. The Aryan Brotherhood and MS13 gangs are experts at using encoded dialects as well as symbols and hand gestures that law enforcement cannot decipher to communicate with each other. One way the prison inmates use to communicate with each other is a tactic called fishing in which inmates will tear out elastic lining from state issued bed linens or boxer shorts and use that line of elasticity to pas notes to other cells that they can drag and push in and out of cells. Prisoners also know to never discuss any sort of what thy deem to be a business matter in front of prison guards and they are also aware that if they do discuss anything secretive with a prison guard and become an informant that they will most likely become a gang target. this is something called putting a hit out. If one inmate becomes and informant and reveals information about they gang that they are affiliated with the gang will automatically put a hit out on that individual, which means that as soon as the opportunity arises they will be killed. Often times when this happens inmates are moved to the special needs unit to avoid a violent outburst.

Prisoners are constantly developing ingenious ways to not only communicate with each other, but also to communicate with people outside prison walls as well as ways to develop weapons with the little material that they have available to them. Prisoners often make weapons in their cells made out of whatever they can find and sharpen down to be able to do damage to someone else. They take the ends of toothbrushes and file or melt them down to a sharp point and if there is enough force behind it they can possibly kill someone and/or cause extreme puncture wounds. The weapons made in prison can be just as deadly as kitchen knives and inmates show no mercy when using them. These weapons, called shanks, have also been made from highliters, state issued razor blades, and pieces of furniture that can be found in the prison cell itself. Prisoners also fin ingenious ways to hide these shanks, including putting them inside their own bodies. Prisoners have been known to store shanks inside their rectums, which is dangerous to themselves and to the prison guards and inmates. Prison guards often have inmates squat and cough when they are entering of leaving the yard to be sure that inmates don't have shanks hidden inside their bodies, they are told to squat and cough because if they do have a sharp object in their rectum they will be stabbed internally if they cough.

Pelican Bay State Prison

Pelican Bay Sate Prison is one of California's most dangerous and most over populated super max prisons.  The prison holds some of the countries most dangerous offenders and from the shows that I've seen that go inside prison walls these offenders seem to only get worse after their time spent in Pelican Bay.  Most of the criminals don't seem to care that they're in there and are often times just as violent if not more violent then they were out on the streets.  The prisons over population problems are so enormous that the gym of the prison is now serving as an area for inmate housing and the gym is lined from wall to wall with three layer bunks.  The prison was designed to hold 2,280 people, and currently holds 3,461.  The gym is segregated into different sections according to race and gang affiliation, a section for Mexicans, a section for Blacks, a section occupied by Whites, and another for Asians.  All inmates know not to ever walk through a section of the gym not occupied by their own gang.  Several killings and many assaults have taken place due to inmates walking through areas of the gym that they do not belong in.  This is a code of ethics that the prisoners have with one another and they all respect the designated space.  They even go so far as to designate shower stalls, vanity tables, and toilets according to race and gang affiliation.

 Typical American prison cell.

The other day I was watching a show on the national geographic channel about the prison system in America called Lock Down.  I always find myself watching these shows on tv about prisons and, my favorites being Lock Down, and Lock up Raw on MSNBC.  I can't believe my eyes when I see the things that actually go on behind prison doors.  The amount of crime that goes on in the prison system, both from the guards, and the inmates, is compatibly the same as the crime that goes happens on the streets of America.  There are so many gangs that are fully functioning in the prison system and the y seem to have no problems what so ever contacting their other gang members in the outside world.  There is a whole set or codes, rules, and ethics that prisoners must follow and they really live in their own little world and sometimes seem as though they'd be happier behind bars then they would if they were free.  I also heard a startling statistic stating that 32.2% of young Black men and 12.3% of young Latino men are either in prison, jail, or on probation or on parole.  That is a scary statistic and I don't quite know how to understand this or why this may be however when I watch these shows on tv I do notice that the majority of the prison inmates, no matter what prison the show is filmed at, Black and Latino males.  I'm curious to know why this may be however I don't think that there is a concrete answer.