New high-tech X-ray scanners thwart 28,000 attempts to smuggle
contraband behind bars.
- even more jails deploy cutting-edge baggage scanners for
prison visitors
- measures part of £125 million strategy to clamp down on
prison rule breakers and cut crime
Game-changing X-ray body scanners have foiled more than 28,000
attempts to smuggle drugs, phones and weapons behind bars as the
war on prison rule breakers picks up speed.
Over the last 2 years, more than 90 new advanced scanners have
been installed in all closed male jails, producing
high-resolution images of concealed contraband so staff can stop
more dangerous items from getting in and causing havoc on prison
landings.
This tough new security has captured and confiscated illegal
contraband concealed on prisoners including mobile phones, vapes
and improvised weapons.
Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, , said:
Our tough new security measures in prisons are putting prisoners
back on the straight and narrow. Allied to our renewed drive to
get prisoners off drugs for good, we are cutting crime and
keeping the public safe.
This new development comes just days after the government
announced plans to roll out cutting-edge baggage scanners to 45
prisons across England and Wales. These will check bags brought
in by the thousands of staff and visitors who enter prisons every
day – cutting off another route of smuggling. Together these
measures have kept mobile phones, drugs and improvised weapons
out of the hands of prisoners where they would fuel violence and
disorder.
The government’s investment of up to £125 million in
next-generation prison security measures has also seen the most
challenging prisons kitted out with new handheld and archway
metal detectors, and more than 150 specially trained drug sniffer
dogs.
This investment has created a new team of specialist
investigators to clamp down on the small minority of corrupt
staff who have no place in the Prison Service.
And to clamp down on the pernicious smuggling of drugs via prison
mail, jails have installed over 135 drug trace detection machines
that can detect microscopic smears of new psychoactive substances
such as ‘spice’ on letters and items of clothing.
These advances deliver on the government’s commitments outlined
in the Prisons Strategy White Paper. This will also see the
rollout of abstinence-based treatment for prisoners addicted to
drugs or alcohol and tougher sentences for terrorist prisoners
who break the rules behind bars.
Notes to editors
- Since July 2020, 28,626 suspicious items were identified by
new prison X-ray body scanners
