Prison Drug Smuggling: The Visiting Room

Over two million people are currently locked up in the US, and many of them are right now scheming ways to smuggle drugs into prison, ensuring they remain widely-available inside. And the most tried-and-tested method of getting drugs in is through the visiting room. "When I get that VI [visitation] and I'm out on that dance floor, I'm trying to cop," one prisoner tells The Fix. "All the homies are." Although the formats vary, all prisons allow some kind of contact visits, and prisoners take advantage to obtain drugs from marijuana to meth—and just about anything else you can think of. Prior to a visit, a prisoner's girl will put several grams of pot or heroin into a balloon or condom. Before her man arrives in the visiting room, she'll put the balloons in her mouth—and then transfer them from her mouth to the prisoner's mouth when they kiss. The prisoner swallows the balloons, only to throw them up or retrieve them after defecation later.

"When my girl comes to visit, I always try to get her to bring some balloons," another prisoner says. "Not too many, just a couple she can slide in my mouth when we kiss. I like to smoke me some weed—but if I get some heroin, I'm selling that." Due to the widespread use of this technique, many prisons have rules in place to limit kissing, hugging and touching. Authorities also employ measures including strip searches, dry cell detention, surveillance cameras, patrolling guards and random pat searches with drug detection devices. But despite these efforts, the drug flow hasn't stopped, and there's always another approach to try. "If I don't swallow the balloons when she kisses me, she can put them in the hot dog she buys me from the vending machine," the second prisoner says. "Or she can hand me the balloon and I can stash it in my boot or underwear." Prisoners are also known to hide duct-taped or plastic-wrapped ounces of marijuana or heroin in their anal cavity—any extremes to get the drugs they want.