Prisons: Drugs

(asked on 17th December 2014) - View Source
Questioner
Andrew Griffiths Portrait
Andrew Griffiths
(Conservative - Burton)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) visitors, (b) staff and (c) prisoners were caught attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into each prison in England in each of the last four years; and what steps have been taken in respect of those so caught.

Answered by
Andrew Selous Portrait
Andrew Selous
Second Church Estates Commissioner
This question was answered on 7th January 2015

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) takes the issue of all contraband in prisons extremely seriously and deploys a comprehensive range of robust searching and security measures to detect items of contraband both at the point of entry to the prison and concealed within the prison. We do not tolerate drugs in prison and anyone caught with them will be punished and could face further prosecution.

Table 1 below shows the number of visitors who were arrested by the police after being caught attempting to convey drugs into custody. NOMS does not hold any information on any criminal justice outcomes for those individuals. NOMS’ policy is to refer all visitors to prisons found in possession of drugs to the police. In addition, closed visits, where the prisoner and visitor are prevented from physical contact, are used as a measure to deal with visitors and prisoners who smuggle or are suspected of conveying drugs through visits.

Table 2 below provides the number of staff who have been dismissed, excluded and convicted as result of being caught attempting to convey drugs into custody. Please note that some of the outcomes may be as a result of multiple allegations, for example conveying drugs and mobile phones. The data has not been provided by individual prison, as to do so could lead to identification of individuals.

No information is held on the number of prisoners caught attempting to convey illegal drugs into prison. Table 3 below shows the number of prisoners caught in possession of drugs whilst in prison. Any prisoner found attempting to convey drugs can be referred to the police for prosecution and also charged under the prison rules, which could result in restrictions to the facilities that they can access in prison and added days to their sentence.

Please be aware that all figures have been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended at any time. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. The data are not subject to audit.

Table 1. Number of incidents where visitors were arrested by the police on suspicion of conveying drugs into prisons1 in England, April 2011-March 2014

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

Total2

268

229

248

296

Acklington

6

1

Altcourse

1

2

2

Aylesbury

2

2

1

1

Bedford

1

1

0

1

Belmarsh

1

1

0

1

Birmingham

1

0

7

Brinsford

2

6

Bristol

2

3

2

1

Brixton

15

14

6

2

Bronzefield

4

1

1

1

Buckley Hall

6

5

3

6

Bullingdon

6

1

0

5

Canterbury

1

Castington

1

4

Channings Wood

2

3

Chelmsford

2

3

1

1

Coldingley

1

1

2

Cookham Wood

0

1

Dartmoor

1

Deerbolt

4

2

3

0

Doncaster

7

1

11

15

Dorchester

1

1

1

Dovegate

1

7

5

12

Dover

2

1

3

0

Durham

10

4

4

Eastwood Park

0

1

Edmunds Hill

2

Erlestoke

2

2

1

Everthorpe

7

1

3

7

Exeter

2

1

2

2

Featherstone

2

2

4

2

Feltham

3

6

3

2

Ford

0

1

Forest Bank

2

5

7

3

Foston Hall

0

1

Frankland

4

2

4

2

Full Sutton

1

0

Garth

6

8

7

2

Gartree

1

2

0

Glen Parva

1

3

3

3

Gloucester

3

Guys Marsh

2

1

5

2

Haslar

1

Haverigg

2

1

7

Hewell

10

9

6

9

High Down

1

0

2

Highpoint

3

1

8

6

Hindley

4

2

1

4

Holloway

1

0

1

Holme House

2

2

3

4

Hull

1

5

Isis

3

0

2

Isle of Wight

2

1

5

1

Kennet

2

1

Kirkham

1

Lancaster Farms

2

2

1

1

Leeds

1

3

2

Leicester

2

1

5

0

Lewes

2

2

0

3

Lincoln

3

2

3

3

Lindholme

12

12

7

9

Littlehey

2

1

1

1

Liverpool

4

7

4

3

Long Lartin

0

2

Low Newton

1

2

1

3

Lowdham Grange

5

11

Maidstone

1

0

1

Manchester

2

2

1

0

Moorland

2

4

3

3

Morton Hall

1

Mount

17

14

6

5

New Hall

1

0

Northumberland

6

12

Norwich

1

2

Nottingham

2

2

0

4

Oakwood

1

10

Onley

2

2

5

2

Pentonville

13

17

9

6

Peterborough

2

5

0

Portland

1

0

Preston

5

6

2

0

Ranby

6

3

5

3

Reading

1

Risley

7

6

5

2

Rochester

2

1

3

2

Rye Hill

5

1

2

2

Sheppey: Elmley

4

1

5

4

Sheppey: Swaleside

7

8

2

3

Standford Hill

1

Stafford

4

2

0

Stocken

2

1

1

2

Stoke Heath

1

1

0

Styal

1

0

Thameside

12

33

Thorn Cross

1

The Verne

4

1

Wandsworth

1

2

2

0

Wayland

3

2

1

1

Wealstun

1

1

5

8

Wellingborough

1

2

Werrington

1

0

Wetherby

1

1

2

1

Whitemoor

2

0

4

Winchester

1

2

0

Wolds

3

1

0

2

Wormwood Scrubs

7

2

5

3

Wymott

3

7

4

1

1. No visitors were apprehended at establishments not listed above

2. Refers to the number of incidents and not the number of visitors arrested.

Table 2. Number staff convicted, dismissed and excluded in relation to conveying drugs into prisons1 in England, April 2011-March 2014

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

Total

11

16

9

25

Convicted

11

11

5

13

Dismissed

0

1

2

1

Excluded

0

4

2

11

1. No visitors were apprehended at establishments not listed above

2. These figures include directly and non directly employed staff. The data is in regard to the number of staff removed from service, not the number of dismissals, exclusions and convictions, as this could result in counting one member of staff more than once.

Table 3. Number of incidents where drugs were found in a prisoner's possession1 in prisons2 in England, April 2011-March 2014

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

Total

1,163

1,211

1,545

1,694

Acklington

18

6

Altcourse

59

26

64

41

Ashfield

1

1

1

Aylesbury

6

2

2

7

Bedford

12

5

6

3

Belmarsh

6

8

1

1

Birmingham

1

2

38

73

Blantyre House

1

Brinsford

5

5

18

Bristol

19

10

6

9

Brixton

6

2

10

5

Bronzefield

10

1

11

35

Buckley Hall

14

35

55

43

Bullingdon

27

23

22

24

Bure

1

1

Canterbury

2

Castington

12

25

Channings Wood

13

9

13

7

Chelmsford

8

18

26

31

Coldingley

1

4

Dartmoor

1

1

1

Deerbolt

2

6

6

10

Doncaster

22

11

59

100

Dorchester

9

12

10

2

Dovegate

33

15

45

58

Dover

8

6

4

Downview

1

Drake Hall

1

1

Durham

4

95

76

15

Eastwood Park

21

Edmunds Hill

1

Erlestoke

5

23

13

7

Everthorpe

9

1

14

14

Exeter

31

45

46

29

Featherstone

9

18

20

38

Feltham

3

10

6

Ford

22

25

14

34

Forest Bank

96

52

113

154

Foston Hall

1

2

3

1

Frankland

1

2

2

Full Sutton

2

4

Garth

8

7

18

9

Gartree

1

1

1

Glen Parva

3

5

6

1

Gloucester

4

1

3

Guys Marsh

9

15

12

11

Haslar

1

Hatfield

1

8

Haverigg

11

13

9

7

Hewell

16

27

31

21

High Down

3

7

1

4

Highpoint

9

11

21

22

Hindley

7

1

3

4

Hollesley Bay

1

Holloway

2

2

3

Holme House

34

45

39

29

Hull

2

2

3

3

Huntercombe

1

4

2

Isis

7

7

Isle of Wight

2

8

1

Kennet

4

9

6

4

Kirkham

9

6

4

3

Kirklevington

6

6

7

Lancaster Farms

3

3

1

3

Leeds

8

15

35

29

Leicester

41

24

19

25

Lewes

10

5

8

8

Leyhill

12

7

11

8

Lincoln

15

12

8

11

Lindholme

2

6

7

4

Littlehey

2

Liverpool

8

2

5

1

Long Lartin

1

1

Low Newton

27

28

15

15

Lowdham Grange

10

13

35

12

Maidstone

1

2

Manchester

44

42

30

57

Moorland

5

4

2

2

Morton Hall

1

2

3

4

Mount

15

17

22

7

New Hall

2

2

North Sea Camp

9

9

19

7

Northallerton

2

3

8

4

Northumberland

39

36

Norwich

1

4

2

Nottingham

12

43

40

17

Oakwood

7

47

Onley

27

25

20

24

Pentonville

30

26

24

31

Peterborough

7

5

20

41

Portland

1

1

2

1

Preston

51

30

53

47

Ranby

2

2

2

Reading

1

Risley

18

10

4

3

Rochester

2

1

3

31

Rye Hill

15

7

24

30

Sheppey: Elmley

38

28

19

10

Sheppey: Standford Hill

24

15

14

11

Sheppey: Swaleside

4

2

2

2

Shepton Mallet

1

Spring Hill

1

Stafford

10

18

7

4

Stocken

5

5

2

11

Stoke Heath

4

2

5

Styal

2

1

10

5

Sudbury

30

88

61

88

Swinfen Hall

2

2

Thameside

22

61

Thorn Cross

2

2

Verne

5

1

3

Wandsworth

4

1

5

Warren Hill

1

2

Wayland

3

1

4

Wealstun

1

8

7

Wellingborough

5

2

1

Wetherby

10

11

3

Whatton

2

Whitemoor

1

1

1

Winchester

1

1

1

Wolds

28

11

21

18

Woodhill

1

1

Wormwood Scrubs

10

6

2

13

Wymott

4

5

2

1. Includes drugs found in the prisoner's cell

2. No prisoners were found with drugs at establishments not listed above.

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