KAT BURGLARS
Zoo critters doing time to help lags
PRISON bosses are using animals including meerkats to provide therapy to dangerous criminals.
Mobile zoos containing creatures such as snakes and lizards are visiting nicks.
Young offenders spend time learning about the animals and how to handle them.
The zoo days at HMP Isis, south-east London coincide with family visits to encourage inter-personal skills.
John O’Connell, boss of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Interacting with snakes and lizards hardly sounds like the best way to encourage interpersonal skills and many taxpayers will wonder who came up with this bizarre idea.
“Families who work hard, pay their taxes and abide by the law will wonder if this is the best use of their money.” A report into conditions at HMP Isis has revealed that although the jail has cash for the mobile zoo visits, it doesn’t have the money to stop drugs like Spice entering the nick.
A study by the Independent Monitoring Board into conditions at the jail revealed: “The prison has had 10 family days including one involving a mobile zoo.
“These are well attended and well received by both prisoners and families.”
But the visiting group went on to reveal that Spice was rife in the prison
– as well as bullying and violence due to drug debts.
The IMB said: “The use of illegal drugs, particularly Spice, continues to be a problem for the prison.
“During
2017 there were 98 recorded incidents on the national IRS (Incident Reporting System) involving drugs. But many situations go unreported on a formal basis.”
Visitors said drugs came in via staff and prison visitors, and also via the mail, but the prison didn’t have the workers to cope with the problem. The IMB added: “Work is under way across the prison to stem the flow of drugs into the prison involving intelligence-targeted searches of staff, prisoners and cells, and continuous CCTV monitoring of the Visits Hall. “However, the overall effectiveness has been hampered during the year because of the lack of trained dogs to identify illegal substances in the post or coming in through visits.
“Staffing shortages have also meant it has not been feasible to photocopy incoming post, often the source of Spice which has been sprayed on to paper.” Prison officers also found scores of mobile phones last year.