The Scottish Prison Service has hailed its “robust” security measures after new statistics revealed the number of drugs confiscated from visitors to HMP Grampian.
Inmates and cells at prisons across the country are routinely searched for contraband, be that narcotics, weapons or communication devices.
While some items get into prisons by way of increasingly high-tech ways – including small drones – less sophisticated attempts include visitors brazenly bringing drugs into jail then slipping them to inmates.
Earlier this month The Press and Journal reported how a man was jailed for trying to sneak drugs to a prisoner at HMP Grampian in Peterhead.
But now, figures have revealed that was not an isolated incident, with drugs seized from visitors to HMP Grampian on multiple occasions.
Prison officers’ senses had been ‘heightened’
Figures obtained through a freedom of information request show that in 2020 there was just one recorded incident of “illicit substances” being seized from a visitor at the prison and zero incidents the following year.
But in 2022, there were six incidents recorded, with drugs seized on each occasion.
Meanwhile, at HMP Inverness only one incident was recorded in the last three years, with a SIM card confiscated from a visitor earlier this year.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) emphasised how seriously the organisation treats the smuggling of items inside jails.
She said: “We have a range of robust security measures in place to detect the introduction of contraband to our prisons.
“We monitor intelligence related to any potential security breaches and work with partner agencies to safeguard the security of our prisons, the people in our care, and the communities we serve.”
Murder threats made to police officers
At the start of this month, Paul Chalmers threatened to “murder” police officers after being seen slipping a package of drugs to a man he was visiting at HMP Grampian.
Prison officers’ senses had been “heightened” because they were familiar with the 47-year-old and were aware that he did not know the man he was visiting very well.
Chalmers had been “told” to deliver the package, containing cocaine and etizolam, by people he owed money to, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard.
Chalmers, by the time he appeared in court a prisoner of HMP Barlinnie, pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and etizolam, assaulting the prison officer and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
He was jailed for 22 months.
Previous prison seizures
Between May and August 2019, HMP Grampian’s mail room staff blocked 25 items from reaching inmates, on suspicion of being drugs.
The seizures, at a rate of more than one per week, dwarfed the whole of 2018’s mail room confiscations which totaled 20.
More than 2,000 pieces of contraband were found by Peterhead prison officers between 2014 and the end of June 2019.
During that period, there were almost 1,000 drugs and drug paraphernalia seizures, previous official figures revealed.
In 2015, well over a third of all the cocaine recovered from Scotland’s 15 prisons was recovered at HMP Grampian.
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