Categorical Differences in Contraband Smuggling in Georgia Prisons

• In Event: Carceral Surveillance and Population Monitoring: Tools, Tensions, and Impacts

Abstract

Contraband smuggling causes a myriad of issues for prisons, however, there have been
few studies on the smugglers who bring in the contraband, and how a smuggler’s relationship to
the prison may impact the category of contraband that they are introducing. Using a Fisher’s
exact analysis with data from official press releases published by the Georgia Department of
Corrections (N=788) on persons caught smuggling contraband, this paper aims to close that knowledge gap.
The author found that when dividing accused smugglers into four categories:
officer, visitor, civilian, and other/unknown - across five contraband groups: cellular phones,
marijuana, tobacco, alcohol/other drugs, and other/unknown contraband - each group, except for
marijuana, had at least one statistically significant result, indicating that there are differences in
smuggling habits among different categories of smugglers and across smuggled items. Officer
smuggling behavior is examined in depth using a chi square test. This second sample utilized a
database of arrested and terminated/quit during investigation officers from the Atlanta Journal
Constitution (N = 226). Policy implications are also discussed.

Author

• Daniel Goldberg, University of New Mexico - Institute for Social Research