Ministry of Justice written question – answered at on 18 November 2014.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many packages of books delivered to HM Prison Drake Hall were found to contain drugs in each of the last five years.
The trafficking of drugs and other unauthorised items presents a serious threat to security in prisons and the National Offender Management Service employs a range of measures to deter and detect such activity.
There have always been controls on the sending of parcels into prisons; the revised Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) national policy framework, which came into effect on 1 November 2013, has simply ensured greater consistency across the prison estate. We now have simple rules that allow prisoners a parcel of items when they first arrive in prison, and then only further items in exceptional circumstances. The restrictions were introduced to enhance existing security measures and to prevent the IEP policy framework from being undermined.
Prisoners continue to be able to order books from reputable suppliers, which they can receive via the prison shop and they can also borrow books from the prison library.
Incidents of finds of illicit items prior to the introduction of the revised IEP arrangements are recorded on a central incident reporting system. A study of data reported by Drake Hall prison during the period in question indicates that there were no finds of illicit drugs in items sent in.
Yes0 people think so
No6 people think not
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