Justice Secretary to speak on Monday on "Delivering safer and more secure prisons: the roots to rehabilitation"

The speech ‘Delivering safer and more secure prisons: the roots to rehabilitation’ will cover:

-          The Justice Secretary’s approach to the first six months. Including, the introduction of the Urgent Notification process, The Private Members Bill, prison officer recruitment, improving staff safety measures.

-          Upgrading security measures. In a new move the Justice Secretary has urgently called international online retailers to ban the sale of “Beat the Boss” phones (See below)

The Justice Secretary, David Lidington, calls for urgent action from online retailers to ban the sale of mini mobile phones, that are designed to deliberately get around prison security measures.

The tiny mobile phones – no bigger than a cigarette lighter – are freely available online and are billed as devices that are capable of evading detection by specialist prison equipment.

Known as “Beat the BOSS” devices, these mobile phones are designed specifically to go undetected by the Body Orifice Security Scanner – or “BOSS Chair" – that are in place in prisons across England & Wales.

The easy availability of these tiny mobiles on major, international web retailers such as Amazon, Gumtree and Ebay, mean that for as little as £25 prisoners and organised crime gangs can take advantage, purchase and smuggle these tiny phones in to prisons, where they can sell for as much as £500.

Mobile phones are a scourge in prisons. They help to facilitate more crime and are used to intimidate victims from behind bars. Last year, prison officers recovered more than 13,000 mobile phones and 7,000 sim cards.

In a wide-ranging prison speech, today (MONDAY), the Justice Secretary will say:

“It’s pretty clear that these miniature phones are being advertised and sold with the purpose of being smuggled.

“That’s why today, I am calling on online retailers and trading websites to take down products that are advertised to evade detection measures in prisons.”

The Justice Secretary has already taken immediate action to prevent, detect and investigate criminal activity behind bars and disrupt the organised crime gangs that are driving this activity.

The Ministry of Justice is working with mobile network operators to deliver ground-breaking technology, which prevents phones signals and stop mobiles from working.

We have invested £2million in detection equipment, including hand-held detectors and portable detection devices so prison officers can find mobile phones.

The department is investing over £14million annually to build the HMPPS Serious Organised Crime Unit and enhance our intelligence and search capability, allowing us to better gather, interrogate and use intelligence to disrupt criminal activity at national, regional and prison level.

The Justice Secretary will add:

“Tackling the availability of drugs and mobile phones is as much about targeting the gangs and supply chains that operate beyond the prison walls as it is about detecting and managing them once they arrive inside the prison walls.

“Detection and seizure should be our last line of defence. Our first line of defence is taking the fight to the criminal gangs.

“That is why we have been boosting our intelligence-led operations: police officers are now working alongside prison officers to expose the criminal gangs, stop them in their tracks and bring them to justice.”