CALIFORNIA’S PRISON POTTY-WATCH

Contraband is found on 41 percent of prison inmates put on “potty-watch”

By Richard Krupp, PhD

PACOVILLA Corrections blog
July 16, 2015

From what I remember, smuggling contraband during visits was a common method for inmates to get drugs, weapons, etc. A common occurrence is the exchange of a kiss between an inmate and his girlfriend or wife when departing the visiting room.

The drugs would be swallowed and eventually come out the other end. Recently the Sacramento Bee ran a story about this practice, but of course focused on the poor inconvenienced inmate.

The Bee appears to be a sympathetic to the crime-tolerant positions taken by the State of California. Many of their articles seem to evoke pity for our unfortunate criminals.

I found the most recent scoop somewhat amusing.

From the Bee, buzzing around to shock your sensibilities:

California’s invasive ‘contraband watch’ often yields little

California uses a controversial method to recover contraband from inmates believed to have swallowed it or concealed it in body cavities: “potty watches” where inmates are handcuffed and shackled for days or even weeks while guards watch around-the-clock until nature takes its course.

Prison officials say the watches are necessary to recover weapons, cell phones and notes passed among inmates to coordinate illegal gang activities. Some recovered items seem truly bizarre: a can opener, hearing aids, and an entire electric tattoo kit. The watches have been used 1,200 times in the last 2½ years, yet state reports show that they produced results less than 41 percent of the time.

“It was the worst two weeks of my life,” recalled Raymond Kidd, who was on contraband watch at Folsom State Prison for 13 days in 2011 that found nothing. “I had to be duct-taped and gift-wrapped and shackled, 24-7, even while I slept.” Kidd said his girlfriend was chewing gum when he kissed her in the visiting room; guards watching on a video screen suspected she had passed him a balloon full of drugs that he swallowed during the kiss.

Suspected smugglers are strip-searched, then placed in an isolation cell in which the toilet has been covered and the water turned off. Their clothing is taped shut at the waist and legs to prevent them from physically reaching body cavities, their hands are cuffed to a chain around their waist and their legs may be shackled. If they fight back, they can be strapped down by the arms and legs. What are known as “hand isolation devices” — similar to oven mitts — can be used with a warden’s approval.

There they stay for at least 72 hours or until they complete at least three closely watched bowel movements and a guard searches through the results. Something is recovered from about four out of 10 inmates. “It’s a fairly low percentage and people who aren’t guilty are being put through torture,” said Laura Magnani, an American Friends Service Committee program director who sits on a committee that mediates between the prison system and inmates. “I mean, people are shocked when they hear of this.”

“We still have to have some way to determine if inmates have something in their bodies or they don’t,” Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard said in an interview. He said the department has reduced the number of watches in recent years and is exploring scanning technology that could one day replace them. The watches were upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year…(for the full load read http://tinyurl.com/nzhryrg.)

Actually, a 41% success rate for potty-watch contraband is very impressive. A professional baseball player with a .410 batting average would be leading the league. This tells me that the Correctional Officers are doing a great job identifying the smugglers. Keep up the good work!

Of the 1200 potty watches over the 30 months reported in the above article there must have been almost 500 packages of drugs that were kept out of the prisons. Even the crime tolerant media thinks allowing drugs to enter a prison is bad. It interferes with all of those rehabilitation programs, not to mention facilitates prison violence.

I’m not sure why the Department of Corrections would want to reduce the number of potty-watches given that they are keeping drugs and gang communications out of the prisons. Besides, it has the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from the Court of Appeals. Perhaps Jeff Beard can’t tell time on his potty-watch—something about the movement I suspect.

I don’t think the Department is overly concerned about the can openers so much, unless they are used as weapons (or to bust out of the can.) I don’t know what to say about keistered cell phones, absent the obvious crappy reception.

There may be a lot a intrigue involved. Secret kisses, unseen exchanges, and surreptitious surveillance seems exciting to the general public, but in the end all is revealed.

Imagine being a correctional officer assigned to potty-watch. You really can’t tell the spouse and kids at the dinner table what you did all day at work.

The media should be more concerned about the correctional staff who have to endure this ordeal. They have to do the real dirty work.