Contraband in the Prison System
Contraband is referred to as any goods that are prohibited by law from being imported or exported. To prisons, anything that cannot be purchased in the commissary or that is not provided to them while at the prison is contraband (Moran 340). Contraband exists in various types that include weapons, drugs, homemade weapons, and whatnot smuggled into the prison in various ways. Contraband is a big issue behind prison walls and may be anything from a “homemade” shank by the inmate. The smuggling of these contrabands not only endangers the prison guards and other staff members, but also a threat to the other inmates in the prison. The existence of contraband in the prison poses some issues which include; how did contraband get inside the prison system, what are the approaches of preventing it amongst the prison, and what are the various forms of contraband found in the prisons? The essay will address these questions appropriately.
There are thousands of goods, objects, and other different things that are termed contraband when found in prisons. Assuming that one visits a certain prison and questions a correlational officer how many different kinds of contraband exist in the prison system, the question will sound humorous to the officer. Like defined above, contraband involves anything whose purchasing in the commissary is illegal and cannot be given to any person termed to be a prisoner on entering the prison’s premise. The most common prohibited objects, goods, and items in the prison include drugs, metal, weapons, jewelry, food items, and mobile phones. Also, excessive amounts of allowable property such as metered envelopes and postage stamps amount to contraband (Fitzgerald 1269). An altered item such as hollowed law book is termed as contraband in a prison environment. Also considered to be contraband are foreign items.