ILLEGAL DRUGS AND PHONES FOUND IN JAILS

MORE than 200kgs of drugs and 13,000 mobile phones were found in prisons last year as the Government admitted the situation was “unacceptable”. sim cards helped thwart efforts by in

The haul of contraband seized in mates to continue plotting further prisons, which also included 7,000 crimes from behind bars, the minismobile phone sim cards, illustrates try said. the scale of the challenge facing prisOfficials said a £2m investment in on officers, who have had to cope technology to detect phones and 300 with staff cuts and increased violence specialist dogs trained to find drugs over recent years. had helped recover the illegal items.

Prisons minister Sam Gyimah acBut Mr Gyimah acknowledged knowledged the issues would not be more needed to be done, including resolved overnight but praised the the recruitment of extra prison officefforts of staff toers.tackletheproblems and highlighted the government’s He said: “I have been clear that the recruitment drive to increase officer current levels of violence, drugs and numbers. mobile phones in our prisons is un

Figures released by the Ministry of acceptable. Justice showed 225kg of drugs were “We have put in place a number of recovered across the prison estate in measures to help disrupt this illegal England and Wales in 2016. activity as it is an issue I am absolute

The seizure of mobile phones and ly determined to resolve.

“These figures highlight the determination of prison staff to disrupt this behaviour, while at the same time sending a clear message that we will push to prosecute anyone who involves themselves in this kind of activity.

“The issues within our prisons will not be resolved overnight but we must make progress in tackling these problems. Bringing in more frontline staff is an integral part of that.

“The number of prison officers in post is on the rise, meaning we are on track to achieving the recruitment of 2,500 officers by 2018.”