COLUMBIA (WACH) - Most savvy shoppers can get a good deal on a cell phone, no such luck for people living behind bars.  Black market prices for phones and cigarettes could be several hundred dollars.

"It's all about money and power behind the walls of most institutions," South Carolina Department of Corrections Spokesman Clark Newsom said.

Inmates work with people on the outside to deliver contraband over prison walls, by way of duffel bags, even stuffing it into footballs.

"You don't want them to be communicating with anyone on the outside, to make any kinds of plans if they were trying to cause problems within the prison or outside," adds Newsom.

Officials have tightened security at the entrance to state prisons by adding metal detectors; but Newsom says there's simply not enough guards around prison fences to keep contraband out.

"It's always going to be a problem, no matter how many people you've got, because the criminal society has a lot of time to look into these things."

Those caught smuggling contraband into prisons could end up on the other side of the bars for no less than a year, or face a $10,000 fine.