Shanks, Phone Found During Prison Search

JACKSON – Cell phones, shanks, and Green Dot cards were among the contraband found during a shakedown today at East Mississippi Correctional Facility in Lauderdale County.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol assisted the Mississippi Department of Corrections in checking all of the six housing units without incident before daybreak.

“Ensuring that staff and inmates are safe is of utmost importance,” said Corrections Commissioner Marshall L. Fisher. “While I know we won’t ever get rid of all the contraband in prisons, shakedowns like these will serve as a wake-up call to the inmates as well as any staff aiding in the introduction of contraband. We will be aggressively tackling this issue.”

Other contraband found included cellphone chargers, cellphone batteries, tobacco, tobacco products, Sim cards, cash, improvised metal clubs, wooden clubs, and a homemade crack pipe, a bag of white crystal substance, suspected pills, a guitar, jewelry, and tattoo material.

Fisher, appointed as the state’s prison chief on Jan. 1, said the agency will try to determine, if possible, how the contraband got in the hands of inmates at the privately operated facility.

Introduction of contraband into a correctional facility is punishable by three to 15 years in prison, a maximum $25,000 fine, or both. Conspiracy to introduce contraband carries up to a $5,000 fine, five years imprisonment, or both.