Smuggled items continue to find way into prisons
MoJ says investment will drive issue down
Staff in Kent jails have dealt with more than 1,400 smuggling incidents involving anything from drugs to distilling gear and cigarettes to SIM cards, according to government data. Phones were Maidstone Prison’s most problematic issue with 316 mobiles found between April 2019 and March 2020 - 151 more than the previous year. It comes just a month after the KM reported how an external stairwell at County Hall had been identified as a place for packages to be thrown into the prison grounds.
Rochester prison had the highest level of incidents involving tobacco, with 106 finds recorded. Cookham Wood,a young offenders institution, recovered 141 weapons, compared to 49 in the previous year.
Staff at East Sutton Park – a women’s open prison – dealt with just four drug finds.
HMP Swaleside, one of three prisons on Sheppey, recorded 486 separate incidents where illicit substances were found. The year before, there were 334 times when drugs were found in the jail.
It also had the second highest number of incidents where weapons were discovered at 373, behind only Wetherby jail in Yorkshire which had 374. The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) reported part of the prison’s engineering workshop was closed after a search in October 2019 found weapons were being made there. A total of 124 were found and 14 prisoners had to be sent to other facilities as a result.
Swaleside also had the highest number of mobile phones at 370 compared to 364 the year before. Data collated by the Ministry of Justice shows it also had the highest level of finds of mobile phone SIM cards, alcohol, distilling equipment and weapons compared to other prisons in Kent in the same year.
In its latest report on the jail the IMB noted there was “minimal contraband coming into the prison”.
It said there had been additional training for staff and a “greater awareness” of trafficking within the prison and during outside hospital visits.
Elmley, the Island’s remand prison, recorded 388 incidents where drugs were discovered. In January, it was selected as one of 16 prisons in the country to get high-tech body scanners as part of a crackdown on weapons and drug smuggling. An MoJ spokesman said: “Our £100 million investment in prison security, including x-ray body scanners, will help continue to tackle the contraband which drives prison violence.”