Prison officers seize 17,000 mobile phones in two years
MORE than 20 mobiles phones are confiscated from prisoners every day in jails in England and Wales, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Prison officers seized a total of 17,672 handsets that had been smuggled into jails between January 2016 and March this year, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
The devices are banned in prisons, in part because inmates have been found using them to arrange revenge attacks or contact and abuse victims. Access to mobiles has also been associated with the spread of synthetic drugs because prisoners are able to contact organised criminal gangs to arrange to get substances like “Spice” inside.
Some prisoners have even posted videos and photographs of themselves on social media accounts taking drugs while on prison landings.
HMP Altcourse, a privately run jail in Liverpool saw the most phones – 1,139 – seized during the 27-month period. Forest Bank Prison in Salford had 1,100 phones confiscated. The Prison Service has invested £7million to provide incell telephones and digital kiosks for inmates in an attempt to reduce the demand for illicit mobiles.
A spokesman for the Prison Service insisted that the discovery of more than 17,000 phones was proof that they were stamping out the use of the handsets. He said: “Better intelligence and improved security measures are allowing us to catch more illicit items than ever before. We are taking decisive action to bolster security, including investing £7million in new measures such as airport-security style scanners and phone-blocking technology.”
The extent of the deepening crisis in jails emerged last Monday when a damning report by the prisons watchdog highlighted how HMP Birmingham was the worst prison inspectors had ever visited, with those perpetrating violence acting with impunity.
Announcing the government takeover of the G4S-run jail, ministers revealed that as many 20 prisons were facing similar problems to Birmingham. Rory Stewart, the prisons minister, has promised to resign if a £10million investment programme fails to deliver improvements.