When Michael Williams was charged with possessing a controlled substance last week, he was already at the jail.
He was arrested for having methamphetamine in the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, a crime that carries a felony charge whether possessing the controlled substance outside the jail is a felony or not.
Jail employees found a misdemeanor amount of the substance in his wallet as they processed him following an arrest on another charge, according to Archie Williams, a narcotics captain with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office. The meth never made it back to the cells.
“It wasn’t like he was trying to, say, sneak something in,” Archie Williams said. “I mean, he had a little bit of meth in his wallet, and he was warned ahead of time of course after some other things were found that anything taken inside the facility would be a felony and then while he was being booked in there, the meth was found in his wallet.”
Still, that’s no where near the strangest case of inmates having contraband on them at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, said jail administrator Rick Jones.
Contraband — objects and substances inmates are not allowed to have in the jail — include not only illegal substances, but also knives, razorblades, other weapons, lighters, tobacco products and cell phones, Jones said.
Family and friends sometimes try to sneak contraband during visits, Jones said. Other times, they hide contraband in the spines of books or hide narcotic strips behind stamps or in the glue of envelopes when letters are delivered.
“They’re pretty ingenious,” he said.
Of course, the inmates don’t always have outside help. They sometimes hide contraband in their own clothing. Jones said one inmate hid a cell phone in his own ankle bracelet.
Some methods of smuggling contraband are more uncomfortable. Jail employees have discovered a cellphone inside a woman’s body and a lighter inside a man.
“We (make) every effort to keep it out of the jail, but sometimes it’s either brought in or it slips in,” Jones said. “Knock on wood, we haven’t had a major problem with a lot of drugs coming in or stuff like that, but we have had it before. People may drop it off or they may pass it off during contact visitation.
“It kind of makes it hard on family members having contact visitations,” he added.
Still, contraband is most commonly found, as in the case of Michael Williams, when deputies at the jail are processing new arrestees. They often discover whatever contraband is on the suspect in the intake area, the part of the jail where deputies take suspects’ information and property. The suspects are warned beforehand that having even a misdemeanor amount of a controlled substance is a felony once it gets into the jail and that they have to tell deputies about whatever they have on them before they get there.
“We afford them, as a courtesy, an opportunity to turn over anything they’ve forgotten or may have tried to conceal from the police officers,” Jones said.
Sometimes they forget, Jones said. Once a man had forgotten about a little bit of marijuana in his sock until deputies found it stuck to his foot.
Technically, it’s still a felony if they forget, Jones said, and deputies turn over contraband to the arresting officers. The contraband often ends up with investigators who determine penalties. The severity of those penalties often depends on the circumstances under which jail employees found the contraband in the first place.
It’s important that contraband stay out of the jails, Jones said. Inmates can use the illegal objects to barter with others, and inmates under the influence of an illegal substance can be a danger to officers, other inmates and themselves, he said.
“Plus, you got somebody who has a drug addiction, the last thing they really need is having more drugs (while) incarcerated,” he said.
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