Monday, February 01, 1999
Drugs bedevil Lebanon prison
Inmate use tops in Ohio
BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — Inmates at Warren County's Lebanon Correctional Institution (LCI) tested positive for drugs more often than those at any of Ohio's 30 other prisons last year, records reviewed by The Cincinnati Enquirer show.
Despite a crackdown, prisoners, visitors and even some employees are finding more creative methods of slipping drugs through LCI's security net.
“The Titanic is not unsink able. Obviously, there are ways to get stuff in,” LCI Warden Harry Russell said Friday, a week after Corrections Officer James Earl Smith was arrested and accused of bringing 4 ounces of marijuana onto prison property.When drugs get into penal institutions, officials said, prisoners are harder to manage, and they are more likely to commit new crimes once they return to society.
Ohio's 31 prisons randomly test inmates' urine every month. Five percent of each prison's inmate population is tested 11 months a year, with a 15 percent sample taken the other month.
Records show LCI had the worst showing in the system in 1998: 5.8 percent of all urine samples tested positive for illegal drugs, affecting 87 of the 1,436 inmates who were randomly selected.
The positive test rate in most other prisons was below 3 percent.
“There's really no rhyme or reason to it,” said Reginald Wilkinson, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
“You have ups and downs at all prisons at all times,” Mr. Russell added.
State records show LCI and other Ohio prisons have gained ground in their war against drugs. In the past five years, LCI's average percentage of positive drug tests has been cut in half — as has the statewide average.
Still, positive drug tests reached 22 percent at LCI in one month, according to records from the past five years.
Like other states, Ohio has invested large sums to deter the drug trade behind bars, but that has not stopped the flow of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and various types of pills.
“These inmates have seven days a week, 24 hours a day to lay in their bunks and think how they can beat the system,” said Butler County Sheriff's Col. Richard Jones, who formerly worked at LCI.
In one well-known method of drug smuggling, a visitor transfers a drug-laden balloon to an inmate's mouth during a kiss. The inmate swallows the balloon, then later retrieves it from his feces.
Officials also have found drugs hidden in babies' diapers, paint cans, snack pies, food cans, cassette tape cases, soles of slippers and tennis balls bounced over prison fences.
There also was the case of a summer sausage, sent in one of two food boxes inmates can receive annually. Prison officials found a bag of marijuana, three needles and hundreds of pills mashed into the meat.
The state also has to deal with corrections officers who contribute to the drug trade.
On Jan. 22, Mr. Smith, an LCI guard since August 1997, was arrested after police said they watched him accept $250 to deliver a marijuana package intended for an inmate. Authorities said he had 4 ounces of marijuana, which has a street value of $600 to $800.
A Butler County sheriff's sergeant said Mr. Smith admitted smuggling drugs into LCI before.
Mr. Smith has been charged with a fourth-degree felony for conveying the marijuana onto the prison property. If convicted, he could spend six to 18 months in prison and pay a $5,000 fine.
State officials employ numerous methods to detect drugs.
LCI Corrections Officer Ed Sauer uses an X-ray “fluoroscope” to see whether packages addressed to inmates contain contraband. As the intended recipient watches, Officer Sauer scrutinizes each item for tampering.
In an adjacent room, two officers open all the mail — about 400 pieces a day. They run their fingers along each envelope's inner seams and leaf through each page.
Then there are the random urine tests. As of last year, prison employees are subject to the tests, too.
Intelligence officers monitor phone conversations. Drug-sniffing dogs sweep the prison at least once a month. Corrections officers keep a close watch on visitors and search inmates and their cells regularly.
Prison officials also recently established a confidential, toll-free line — (888) TIP-ODRC — to help snare contraband.
And the state prisons department may use one of its two “ionizers,” a $50,000 piece of equipment that can detect particles of drugs on or around an item.
Still, drugs get in — but not much, Col. Jones said.
“People really have a misconception. They think the prisons are overrun with drugs. It's not in there by the bales. It's by the teaspoon,” the colonel said.
“In an institution, a teaspoon of marijuana probably goes for $60 to $100 — and it would probably be worth only 50 cents on the street ... Inmates will kill for this stuff.”
Explaining LCI's problems
Mr. Russell, the warden, has identified some factors that might push LCI's percentages above average.
First and probably foremost is the type of inmate housed at LCI. As a “close-security” prison, LCI probably draws more drug abusers, Mr. Russell said. Violent inmates go to maximum-security prisons and better-behaved inmates go to medium-security ones.
However, another close-security prison, Warren Correctional Institution (WCI), which is literally next door to LCI on Ohio 63 in Warren County, has usually ranked near the state average.
“I guess it's puzzling in one way, because I don't know of any distinguishing policies, procedures or characteristics that would make the difference,” said Peter Davis, executive director of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, which monitors prisons for Ohio lawmakers.
WCI Warden Anthony Brigano said his prison has no magic formula and is vulnerable to the same problems LCI faces. “If you get a dirty employee (who smuggles drugs), they can hurt you real bad for a long time with your tests,” Mr. Brigano said.
Another factor is prison layout, Mr. Russell said, adding that LCI often inherits medium-security prisons' disciplinary problems because it has 300 isolation cells for misbehaving prisoners vs. just 70 at WCI.
“Because of who we have, we have to try harder,” Mr. Russell said.
LCI houses about 2,300 prisoners, 1,000 more than at WCI — and that means more visitors, more pieces of mail and more chances for drugs to get in.
Treating inmates
Because about 80 percent of Ohio inmates have documented substance-abuse problems, Mr. Wilkinson, the state prisons director, said, “We can't just do interdiction and detection without treatment.”
According to the Criminal Justice Institute Inc., a non-profit organization that researches national corrections data, Ohio's percentage of positive urine tests among inmates was one of the lowest in the nation in 1996. But as of January 1997, the state had involved 4.8 percent of its inmates in drug treatment, far below the national average of 13.6 percent.
State Rep. Jack Ford, D-Toledo, and Ohio Senate President Richard Finan, R-Cincinnati, say they want to see that change.
Mr. Finan applauded Mr. Wilkinson's success in decreasing the percentage of inmates testing positive for drugs, but he wants to add treatment programs in prisons.
Mr. Ford, who ran a large drug treatment center in Lucas County for 15 years before he became a legislator four years ago, intends to reintroduce a bill calling for “full-tilt” treatment programs in all state lockups for both juveniles and adults.
The programs, he said, would be well worth their estimated $20 million cost and could be funded from the state's $1 billion rainy-day fund.
“If you don't treat (drug offenders) while you have them as a captured audience, when they come back out on the streets, they relapse — and you've wasted your tax dollars,” Mr. Ford said. “We're at a point where we need to intervene.”
You can put your stamp on the quarter
McAlpin's vacancy strains downtown
Drugs bedevil Lebanon prison
Census officials can't find any takers
Ditch collapse victim in serious condition
Heart attack likely caused inmate's death
Black history still ignored in school
Hopewell third-graders imitate King's dream
Indian Hill students set Black History events
Mason classes fight intolerance with mosaic
Mount Healthy school group promotes diversity
Other school events for Black History Month
Underground Railroad museum has $25M toward its goal
Cincinnati's Century of Change: February
Gov. Patton sitting pretty
High-speed train proposal excites rail buffs
Newport native enters presidential race
Online college virtually ready
Rookwood Pavilion to expand
State rep seeks more money for libraries
Blink may help identify gunman
Critics back off opposition to school tax hike
Drug sweep sends warning
'98 tax breaks land 9 companies
Big plans riding on school tax vote
Catholic schools celebrate tradition
Money woes dull Corwin's rural charms
More on death row want to die
Retail hopes fading into quaint notion
Students discover new kind of class
Super Bowl coach amazes bypass patient
TRISTATE DIGEST head,14,11p8 Man killed, two hurt in Butler Co. crashes
