CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A new report which found numerous overdoses in the state’s regional jail and corrections facilities is prompting action. Military Affairs and Public Safety Secretary Jeff Sandy, in the wake of the report, ordered immediate action to halt any and all drug activity behind bars in the state.
Carrying out the order has required some creative thinking. Deputy Corrections Commissioner Mike Coleman said the first order was to all wardens and security personnel to tighten up on the basics of corrections security. Each inmate is undergoing a more thorough search each time they move within the facility, especially those who are out of the jail or prison environment for a period of time for work release or similar reasons and return.
Those measures are limited in their impact, the bigger task is overcoming the creative thinking of inmates and outsiders who have found a lucrative profit smuggling drugs into the prisons. Coleman said the northern West Virginia drug task force recently broke up a drug ring which was buying the chemical components of “liquid K-2” from China, spraying it onto paper, and then mailing the drugs into the lockup.
“They made over $250,000 smuggling that paper they coat with the substances into regional jails, prisons, and even federal prisons here in West Virginia,” said Coleman on MetroNews Talkline. “So there’s a huge return on investment and a financial incentive involved to get people into that kind of drug trafficking.”
Prison officials discovered mail coming into the prisons and regional jails was coated with the drugs and disguised as innocent material with letters and even children’s’ drawings or pictures.
“We received last year 300,000 pieces of mail in the Regional Jail System. Yes, some of it was getting through,” said David Farmer Executive Director of the Regional Jail Authority. “But, we took the initiative to put in a new policy starting March 6 that we now photocopy all mail.”
The change cut down on the import of the coated pages, but Farmer and Coleman both admit the inmates are always thinking of something else.
“They’re very creative,” said Farmer. “We’re going to continue to fight to keep drugs from coming in. This is just phase one.”
“What the inmates call ‘suitcasing’ where they secrete it in body cavities,” said Coleman. “They also do drive-by drops and drive-by throw overs.”
Both men acknowledge limiting the drug smuggling is only half the problem, the other half of the equation is killing the demand and that requires drug treatment and rehabilitation.
“Forty-three percent of our intakes had to be on some sort of protocol,” Farmer said. “That’s driven up our medical costs over 43 percent in the last three years.”
The problem led to a partnership by the Division of Corrections and the Regional Jail Authority to create the first ever in-jail treatment center in West Virginia. A section of the Southwestern Regional Jail in Logan County is designated as a treatment facility with an area for male and female inmates to detox and get treatment for addiction.
Both Farmer and Coleman believe these are the first steps toward getting the epidemic which permeates the walls of the jails and prisons under control.