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By Joe Bouchard One can easily compile a list of contraband items. Contraband could be almost anything: tobacco, stamps, food, pornography, weapons (prison made or otherwise), drugs, gambling paraphernalia, etc. But, there is a range of principles that apply to all categories of bootleg. Regardless of what the item is, all laws generally apply, from the innocent pencil eraser to a prison made zip gun. Click here for fundamentals 11 through 15. Numbers 16 through 20 are below. Personnel will find a depressingly low number of all of the illicit items in a facility. Prisoners simply have ample time at their disposal to compose concealment ideas. That is neither fatalism nor defeatism, but realism. Facilities with alert, committed employees and proactive contraband control processes can improve on success ratios. Balanced realism is an important tool for the engaged corrections professional. It takes a lot of maintenance, patience, foresight and luck for a prisoner to hold on to a 'business.' Security is important to prisoners. Everyone wants comfort that come through power. Competition is large. It seems that there's always some unauthorized entrepreneur waiting in the wings to take a slice of the underground market. It is usually a seller's market. Scarcity will dictate price. Imagine that you're in a small community with only one gas station. That gas station has higher prices than outlying area gas stations. Still, one would have to travel some 25 miles to reach the nearest gas station. Because of convenience and proximity, the local gas station with the higher gas prices may keep those prices high. At the risk of committing a pun, captive audiences are involved in the gas station and correctional facility scenarios. Opportunists and the more imaginative and daring prisoners are typically successful, particularly in the short-term. Those who think outside the box, are likely to reap immediate awards because of their audacity. The undaunted will take risks and carve out a larger slice of the pie.These are the sprinters. Often they are hard to catch off of the starting line. But they tire easily and are not built for the long term race. Conservative and unobtrusive traders have extended commerce longevity. They characteristically are not easily detected by staff. Unlike the opportunist in law number 19, the conservative and unobtrusive traders do not take unnecessary risks, even if the reward is great. These traders are in it for the long haul. For more information on this, please consult the following, chapter 2 in particular. Bouchard, Joseph. Wake up and smell the contraband: A Guide to Improving Prison Safety. (2nd edition) Horsham, PA: LRP Publications, 2005. Click here to buy the book.
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