Welsh jails blighted by drugs and illegal mobile phones
MORE than 20% of random drug tests carried out in Wales’ four largest prisons were positive, new figures have shown.
Cardiff Prison led the field with a 28.5% positive result in the 12 months to March this year, with around half of them psychoactive drugs.
In Swansea prison, 20.2% of tests had a positive result – the lowest of all four jails in Wales, while 21.6% of drug tests at Wrexham’s Berwyn Prison, which opened in February last year, were positive.
Parc Prison in Bridgend, which is run by private contractor G4S, recorded a 21.5% drug positive result.
Psychoactive drugs were more prevalent in Parc Prison and Berwyn Prison compared to the likes of cannabis, methadone and cocaine.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said it was taking “decisive action” to tackle the problem.
The statistics released by the Prison Service and Ministry of Justice also showed that prisoners appear to be keeping in contact illegally with the outside world by phone more and more.
There were 154 incidents where mobile phones were discovered in Parc Prison compared to 102 the previous year.
Swansea Prison (36) and Cardiff Prison (52) also had more mobile phone discoveries, while there were 72 incidents at Berwyn Prison where mobile phones were found.
Parc Prison has the most inmates of the four facilities – averaging 1,725 in the 12 months to March this year – compared to 734 in Cardiff Prison, 658 in Berwyn Prison and 427 in Swansea Prison.
But overcrowding rates tell a different story. Just under 75% of Swansea’s prisoners are deemed to be held in overcrowded conditions, far more than Parc Prison’s 17.2%. Berwyn Prison is yet to reach its 2,106 capacity, while overcrowding affects 62.8% of Cardiff’s prisoners.
However, overcrowding has declined at Swansea and Cardiff in recent years from a peak – in Swansea’s case – of 90.7% in 2012.
There were 276 and 400 members of staff at Swansea Prison and Cardiff Prison respectively as of March 31 this year, making the staff-to-prisoner ratio slightly higher in Swansea.
Berwyn Prison had a workforce of 609. A figure for Parc Prison was not available.
Campaigners have argued that prison officer numbers UK-wide have fallen since 2010 due to large numbers leaving the profession outstripping the number of new recruits.
The Prison Service spokeswoman said: “We are taking decisive action to bolster security, including training 300 prison dogs in drugs detection and investing £7m in new measures such as airport-security style scanners, digital categorisation tool and phone-blocking technology.
“We also have robust plans in place to ensure we always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts.”
She added: “The measures are part of a much wider strategy to tackle the most pressing threats to security in prisons and backed by a strengthening of the front-line with an additional 3,111 prison officers in place by the end of the summer.”
G4S was asked to comment but did not respond at the time of going to press.