Pubdate: Sun, 18 Feb 2001
Source: Omaha World-Herald (NE)
Copyright: 2001 Omaha World-Herald Company
Contact:  World Herald Square, Omaha, Ne., 68102
Website: http://www.omaha.com/
Forum: http://chat.omaha.com/
Author: Robynn Tysver

NEBRASKA BATTLING DRUGS BEHIND BARS

LINCOLN  Drugs were a part of Robert Dickerson's life before he landed in a 
Nebraska prison, and they remained part of his life during his six years in 
tan prison drab.

Like inmates nationwide, Dickerson found out that prisons are hardly 
drug-free zones. That goes double in Nebraska.

Systemwide, an average of 7 percent of the state's 3,600 inmates tested 
positive for drugs in random tests conducted in 2000.

That was nearly twice the nationwide rate of 3.6 percent in 1999, the last 
year for which national figures were available. Nebraska inmates ranked in 
the Top 10 "Dirty Urine" list nationally that year.

"Drugs are an escape from reality, trying to forget about being there, a 
stress reliever," said Dickerson, 28, who is now clean, sober and working 
in Omaha.

He and other inmates say drugs flow easily into the system, past the 
barbed-wire fences and prison employees who have turned to smuggling for 
extra cash.

Drugs have been taped to arrows and shot into prison yards. Cocaine has 
been found in ink pens, and balloons filled with dope have been exchanged 
through a kiss. Marijuana has been found in the folds of an obese woman.

The alarming statistics have sparked a war on drugs within the Nebraska 
prison system. Correction officials are exploring ways to address the 
problem, including the possibility of tougher penalties for users and drug 
tests for prison employees.

Officials say the state-by-state rankings on drugs in prison are not 
entirely fair.

"That's kind of tricky. The sample size, frequency and how they're doing 
the test are all different," Correctional Director Harold Clarke said.

Nebraska, on average, randomly tests from 540 to 900 prisoners a month for 
drugs.

One solution to the problem is on the horizon. A 960-bed prison under 
construction near Tecumseh will go a long way in dealing with inmates who 
abuse drugs, Clarke said. The Tecumseh prison will offer more segregation 
units to punish inmates who violate drug laws behind bars.

The State Penitentiary's segregation unit - known in prison as the "hole" - 
is filled to capacity with violent, dangerous inmates. Other inmates 
understand they probably won't be put in the hole if they test positive for 
drugs; instead they are confined to their cells and lose personal privileges.

The state has negotiated with the employees' union to try to drug-test all 
prison workers, and Clarke said he would consider limiting contact visits 
for those inmates who test positive.

"If we are able to do these things, get these resources, you will see a big 
impact. I'm optimistic. I think it will go down," Clarke said.

Drugs in prison meet a basic demand within a population that has its share 
of addicts.

About 25 percent of the Nebraska inmates locked up in 1999 were for 
drug-related offenses. In Omaha, 62 percent of those arrested that year 
tested positive for drugs at the time of their arrest.

"If the person who went to prison is an addict, they're going to continue 
to use in prison," said Dickerson.

Dickerson and other inmates say it's not difficult getting drugs. "It's 
business. It's a way of making money," Dickerson said.

They say the problem is not taken seriously behind the walls by prison 
officials.

"They didn't seem real concerned with drugs coming in," Dickerson said. "I 
never saw them leaning on people and trying to find where they're getting 
their drugs."

Prison officials disputed that.

Complacency among workers is a problem, officials said, but most prison 
employees see drugs as a threat to their safety and act quickly to catch 
the culprits.

"The vast majority of our staff are superprofessional, highly trained with 
high integrity," said Steve King, director of planning for Nebraska 
Department of Correctional Services.

Richard Tewksbury, a criminal justice professor at the University of 
Louisville in Kentucky, said drugs are present in "practically all 
(corrections) institutions at all levels. Stopping all the drugs is 
difficult because there are so many portals for drugs to come into the system."

It will be hard, if not impossible, to stop the drug trade as long as 
inmates have time on their hands to think of smuggling ploys and as long as 
they receive visits from family and friends.

"They do have 24 hours a day to figure out how to beat the system," said 
Terry Ewing, security coordinator at the Nebraska Department of 
Correctional Services.

Ewing is the man on the front line of the prison drug war. Lately, he and 
his three teams of drug dogs and handlers have been focusing their 
attention on the State Penitentiary. The results have been encouraging.

The number of drug users in the penitentiary has been steadily dropping. 
About a year ago, the dogs concentrated on prison entrances. Visitors, 
delivery personnel and staffers all were subject to dog patrols.

With the increased surveillance, the number of inmates who tested positive 
dropped from a high of 19 percent in March to a low of 6.7 percent in November.

Ewing said he does not think the drug problem in Nebraska prisons involves 
a huge quantity of drugs. Only small quantities have been found during cell 
searches, conducted at least twice a month. He said that indicates only a 
small, but regular, amount of drugs is flowing into the system.

It doesn't take much marijuana to have an impact on a large portion of the 
state's 3,600 prisoners.

"You may be able to roll a hundred cigarettes or more out of an ounce of 
marijuana," Ewing said.

Ewing and other prison officials acknowledged that some of the drugs are 
getting in through the mails and through corrupt staffers, including cooks, 
janitors, other support personnel and guards.

Staff members sometimes become friendly with prisoners, who then coerce or 
blackmail them into smuggling drugs.

An inmate may talk a staffer into giving him a piece of gum, knowing it's 
against the rules. Once the gum is exchanged, the staffer is beholden to 
the inmate, who will threaten to expose the staffer's poor judgment if he 
doesn't make the deliveries.

"They (staffers) see it as a quick fix - 'I'm going to do this one time and 
get out of it quick,'" Ewing said.

However, he thinks only a few staff members turn into drug dealers. "It is 
much higher than we want it to be, but much lower than the public's 
perception."

In the past 10 years, four prison employees have been reprimanded for 
bringing drugs into the system or being under the influence.

The low number of staffers who are convicted and sentenced for drug crimes 
does not tell the whole story. In most cases, employees become aware they 
are under scrutiny and leave before they are fired.

Dickerson, who served six years for armed robbery, said he began to think, 
as time went on, that prison staffers were bringing a lot of the drugs inside.

"The guards that do it are pretty smart and they're dealing with one 
person," he said.

Two former corrections officers, who spoke only on condition their names 
not be used, said they think drugs come into the system through prison 
staffers. But, they said, most are eventually caught, or they come under 
heavy scrutiny and quit before they are caught.

"I think it is more the staff than inmate visits because, you know, when 
those inmates come in there for a visit, they have to get strip-searched 
afterward," one former officer said.

As with drug dealing on the outside, money is the main motivation.

"Drugs in prison (cost) four times more than what their street market value 
is," said Dickerson.

Inmates say a marijuana joint the size of a toothpick can cost $10. But how 
do inmates make the purchase when cash is not allowed inside prison?

Inmates say they either trade goods such as pop, cigarettes or candy, or 
they do "send-outs."

Send-outs are when inmate drug dealers set up outside bank accounts. The 
customer-inmate then has a family member or friend send money to the drug 
dealer's outside contact.

"I refused to do send-outs. They cause more problems because they say, 'I 
didn't get the money,'" Dickerson said.

Drug kingpins do exist in prison - men who specialize in the trade and 
control a large chunk of the market. But, like on the outside, it isn't 
always easy to make a bust.

The inmates ultimately in charge of dealing drugs rarely store, sell or 
receive the contraband. They have other inmates, who owe them favors or 
whom they protect, manage the risky side of the business.

"This is all about greed. It's all about selfishness. It's using other 
people," Ewing said.

Some inmates, he said, are targeted for surveillance but their operations 
are tough to penetrate.

"Many times we find that the organization looks like a spider web. You have 
tentacles and runners going out to every place," Ewing said.

A bill now before the Legislature would stiffen the penalties for bringing 
drugs and other contraband into prison.

One way to limit the influx of drugs would be to stop all face-to-face 
visits between inmates and their families. But few within the prison system 
believe that would be productive.

Visits are important in keeping up prisoner morale. Should all inmates be 
penalized for a few?

Clarke said, however, he would consider limiting contact visits for those 
inmates who test positive for drugs.

He also would like to have more dog-handler teams. The three current dogs 
are spread too thin to cover all of the state's 10 institutions.

"It is my wish we had at least one dog per institution," said Clarke, 
noting that would require money from the Legislature or, possibly, a 
federal grant. It costs about $64,000 to maintain one dog-handler team.

Clarke also wants to test all prison employees for drugs, saying it's a 
safety issue. A majority of states, 33, test prison employees before they 
are hired or after they are hired.

Nebraska attempted to negotiate drug testing for all state employees this 
fall but the proposal was not included in the final contract agreement. 
Clarke said he hopes that is pursued again when the next contract is 
negotiated.

The state workers' union does not oppose drug testing for prison employees, 
if it is done properly, said Bill Arfmann, executive director of the 
Nebraska Association of Public Employees.
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