Is what cigarettes are bringing in some prisons now. I had a conversation yesterday with a guy that works for one of the local state prisons. He said that they stopped all smoking and the guards can't even smoke now inside the fence. No cell phones for the guards either inside the fence. I hadn't heard of this but the law was passed over a year ago. http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2009&BillID=S167
$500 for a carton is pretty cheap. How they hook officers is they quote some very high prices, thousands of dollars, and then when you stupidly fall for it they drop the price and you can't back out because they will snitch. For all the talk about not snitching criminals as a group are the biggest snitches in the world. And yet officers constantly fall for it like idiots. No matter how many times you tell them about the trap.
with smokes getting priced and ran out, prisoners are turning to a new currency http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/os-honey-buns-prisons-florida-20110108,0,775068.story
You'd be amazed what inmates can "cook" up using commissary items like Honey Buns, chips and other items. Cakes, cookies, pizza, you name it they can make it. While I've never eaten their own made food I will say that it can smell good. Real good. And in prison and jails commissary separates the "rich" from the poor. Which is why all commissary turns into a form of money. Some things are more valuable then others.