When Mike (the Mayor) hits the tennis ball over the wall and an inmate picks it up and hands it to another he opens it up with some kind of knife. He shouldn't have needed to do that as he should have used the same opening as whomever used to put the drugs into the ball.
(The opening may have been sealed in case he was stopped and checked.)
Michael Beach's character is referred to as "Captain" and is clearly a supervisor, but he is not wearing captain's bars or any other insignia indicating rank.