Last year, the Texas prison system unwittingly started a controlled experiment. The main source of the drugs, according to more than a dozen people who lived or worked in Texas prisons over the past year: low-paid employees in understaffed facilities. … It’s so easy to get it in.”She asked not to be named for fear of retaliation from the prison agency. Texas prison officers start at a salary of about $36,000; the maximum is less than $45,000. AdA perennial problemFrom shanks to phones to drugs, contraband of all types has been a perennial source of consternation for Texas prison officials.