Pulaski County jail, again, fights smuggling

Siding replaces enclosures’ fencing to keep out contraband

Pulaski County sheriff’s office Lt. Cody Burk and Lt. Derrick Freeman (left) look at one of the newly enclosed exercise areas at the Pulaski County jail on Friday in Little Rock.
Pulaski County sheriff’s office Lt. Cody Burk and Lt. Derrick Freeman (left) look at one of the newly enclosed exercise areas at the Pulaski County jail on Friday in Little Rock.

To Maj. Matthew Briggs, the recently installed metal siding at the Pulaski County jail is another move in the never-ending chess game between inmates and jail employees.

The back and forth revolves around contraband -- oftentimes drugs. Inmates find new ways to smuggle them in, Briggs said, and the jail adjusts to prevent it.

"They're incredibly creative," Briggs said, recalling the lengths to which inmates go to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the jail.

The metal siding, installed last month, now covers the sides of six outdoor activity areas located near the west end of the jail, Briggs said.

Before the siding was installed, the sides of outdoor activity areas were enclosed by a chain-link fence, something that Briggs said allowed inmates to smuggle in contraband and communicate with people on the outside.

"And we [had] to come up with a plan on how to deal with it," he said.

Inmates were able to bat drugs off the top the enclosed pen, knocking them to the ground, where the inmates could get the contraband through the fence, sometimes using a pole made of tightly rolled paper, he said.

"We had to find a way to stop the smuggling," Briggs said.

With the chain-link fence, inmates were also able to communicate with people on the outside, another factor in the decision to install the metal siding, Briggs said.

Briggs said inmates were known to harass jail visitors and employees, and they were able to talk with loved ones outside of visiting hours. Newly released inmates would also taunt inmates in the outdoor activity areas, he said.

While the outdoor activity areas are now shielded from the outside world, the tops of the pens remain open to sunlight, he said. The siding cost about $3,200, he said, and the barrier was installed by the inmates to reduce the cost.

Besides the siding, he said the jail is also conducting foot patrols between the outside activity areas and the jail fenceline to search for contraband drugs.

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Lt. Cody Burk, spokesman for the Pulaski County sheriff's office, said the jail also does perimeter patrols.

Preventing drugs and other contraband from entering the jail is a daily battle, Burk said, mentioning that people constantly try to mail contraband into the jail.

Burk said people have been known smuggle drugs into jail through a painting. He said people have mixed drugs into the paint, then an inmate smokes the paint once it's in the jail.

"They are really crafty" he said, recalling another time when jail employees found drugs hidden in shoes provided by an inmate's family.

The metal siding is not the only step the jail has taken this year to prevent smuggling into the jail.

The agency instituted a new procedure that requires an arrestee to be searched outside the jail in the sally port, an enclosed area connected to the jail where a person is taken from a patrol vehicle to the jail facility, Burk said.

The installment of the metal siding comes after a March incident in which drugs smuggled in through an outdoor activity area sent at least two inmates to the UAMS Medical Center for treatment.

The inmates were able to get the drugs through the top of an outdoor activity area at the jail, according to a sheriff's office report. To get the contraband, one inmate was boosted to the top of the pen with the help of three others, an image captured by a surveillance camera.

The inmate on top was able to squeeze the drugs through barrier, and within seconds the inmates had dispersed and began filing inside.

The report said that authorities later found an inmate with what they suspected was synthetic marijuana, also known as K2. Multiple inmates were "overcome" with the drug, according to the arrest reports.

To prevent it from happening again, Burk said there is now a fine-mesh fabric that covers the activity area to prevent an inmate from squeezing contraband through the barrier.

"I don't think it would be possible at all, the way it is," he said.

Metro on 06/05/2017

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