Drug smuggling a federal prison problem.

Officials at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons failed to adequately search visitors, lacked cameras, monitors and staff to properly supervise inmate-visiting sessions, and had taken "insufficient measures" to prevent drug-smuggling by staff, according to The Washington Times. The findings are from a 123-page report by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General released earlier this year.

The report indicates that the use and trafficking of drugs have become significant problems in the federal prison system. Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said interdiction activities common in state prison facilities--such as random drug searches and tests of staff--were not used by federal prison officials. He also said that an insufficient number of federal inmates received treatment for their addictions. "The vast majority of BOP employees have high integrity, but a few corrupt staff can do enormous damage to the safety and security of an institution," Fine said. "When staff smuggle drugs, the amounts are often large and they reach more inmates."

The report noted that between 1997 and 2001, inmates testing positive for drugs averaged 1.94 percent, but said statistics varied widely among federal facilities. It said the high-security federal penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas, posted a positive inmates drug-test rate of 7.84.

BOP spokesman Dan Dunne said prison officials "recognize the harm drugs can do" and the agency will "closely review" recommendations in the report to determine how they can be used to ensure the safety of both inmates and staff, and prevent the introduction of drugs into the federal prison system. Dunne noted that testing this year of 80,000 federal inmates showed a positive return for drug usage of 0.9 percent, compared with a 3.2 average among 42 other correctional systems.

The report's recommendations included random drug testing of staff and additional nonresidential treatment programs for inmates in the general population. "We believe the BOP should make the changes, given the importance of reducing the availability of drugs in federal prisons," Fine said. "The BOP's failure to implement additional interdiction activities has resulted in significant gaps in the BOP's drug-interdiction efforts."