Sort of a minor point but I wonder though if the quote meant prison rather than jail. Anecdotally I've heard that it is hard to get drugs in jail, but very easy in prison. This makes sense because people in jail are there for short stints and thus don't have time to make the connections required for a clandestine black market. A lot of people use the terms jail and prison interchangably, though they are technically different in the USA.

That is interesting. What is the distinction? Jail is usually a holding area while prison is for serving a sentence?

Yes, that's pretty much it. http://www.diffen.com/difference/Jail_vs_Prison

Jail is pre-conviction, prison post. (As a general rule, there are always exceptions)

Frequently, convictions under 1 year stay in jail for the duration.

The equivalent of your jail in my country (Fiji) is Remand Prison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remand_(detention)

Probably wouldn't make a difference. The guard searching the other one, would probably be in on it.

They search the other contractors (meals, etc) who still manage to smuggle things in.

Indeed they do, because the guards' union want to maintain their monopoly on the contraband smuggling business.

I agree with them. If LA county sheriff's deputies didn't smuggle cellphones in, how else would an undercover FBI agent get a phone to the FBI's witness that was being hidden in the jail by Sheriff Lee Baca?

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sheriff-jail-sca...

You have got to love America. The prison industry fleeces the inmates and their families as it is!

This prison union sounds more like organised crime, and what a big crime 'family', surely deserved of some RICO trial?

There is tremendous irony given the prison lobby for 3 strikes laws.