New Zealand: Drugs Fly Into Prisons In Dead Birds

[Thirdedge]

The drug P is flying high over prison walls, stuffed inside dead birds thrown from the outside by accomplices of desperate inmates.

Corrections Department national security manager Karen Unwin said yesterday that in one of the more unusual methods of smuggling drugs into prisons, people had started throwing dead birds stuffed with methamphetamine, or P, over prison fences.

"A great number of our prisoners are quite cunning and people underestimate their ingenuity. Some are quite desperate, so will resort to any wacky measures," she said.

Urwin said drugs had previously been found stuffed into tennis balls or fruit and thrown into exercise yards.

The main method of smuggling drugs into prison was inside body cavities, but prison officers frequently uncovered other methods.

These included, for those who had lost eyes in fights, stuffing drugs into eye sockets.

On other occasions, people put them inside bubblewrap around presents posted to inmates, Urwin said.

"The prisoner grapevine is more efficient than Bill Gates's network.

"You can guarantee if one person figures out a way to get drugs in, it will spread like wildfire," she said.

Urwin said that despite the department clamping down on contraband smuggling, it was a battle.

"Drugs are becoming more prevalent in the community and so we will see that reflected in the prison community."

Tighter security prompted prisoners to be more devious.

Drugs more commonly used today, such as P or LSD, were smaller and easier to hide than substances popular in the past, such as marijuana or hashish.

Babies visiting inmates were issued prison strollers and checks were done of the contents of their nappies after several people were caught secreting drugs inside their infants' pants and prams.

Inmates who tested positive for drugs were put on a special regime that included dressing in an orange all-in-one jumpsuit with a zip that could be opened only by a special key so drugs could not be concealed.

Inmates had to be drug-free for two tests before they had privileges restored.

Howard League for Penal Reform spokeswoman Kathy Dunstall said she had heard of inmates throwing tennis balls over prison walls, particularly at Christchurch Women's Prison and Mount Eden Prison, where it was easier to lob objects over certain fences.

Drugs were a major problem in prisons, but a lack of rehabilitation programmes was equally disturbing, she said.

Source: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n053/a11.html?305069

[Micklemouse]

Add Yorkshire (England) to that!

From The Yorkshire Evening Post

• Published Date: 25 November 2006
• Location: Leeds

Lags on a high



"Drugs thrown over jail walls in dead birds and tennis balls as extent of smuggling revealed"




Exclusive
By Tom Mullen
HOME-brewing kits, heroin and cannabis have been seized from prisoners in Armley Jail.
The drugs and booze were among the haul found at the prison between January and October this year.
Home Office figures have revealed that there were 195 drug finds and 20 stashes of alcohol uncovered in that time.
Smuggling over prison walls is now so serious that wire mesh fencing has been rigged up above the prisoners' exercise yards to stop drugs being thrown over in tennis balls and even dead birds.
But drugs and home brewing kits are still being smuggled in during visiting times with friends and relatives.
Inmates have been found with home-brewing kits made from plastic squash bottles which together with heat from water pipes, starts the fermentation process.

Crafty

Prisoners' daily rations of fruit and veg are mixed with sugar and yeast from bread to make booze which is then hidden around the prison.
A spokesman for the prison said: "These are very ingenious people, and they are very good at hiding things. There are thousands of hiding places in a 150 year-old Victorian prison.
"The prisoners hide alcohol in ordinary squash bottles – it's only when you look very carefully that you realise it's actually fermenting. Drugs found ranged from cannabis and amphetamines through to crack cocaine and heroin."
The spokesman said: "We do have a continuing drive to remedy the situation, and we work in co-operation with the police outside the prison. We have halved the number of drugs findings over the last two and a half years."
He added: "Unfortunately, drugs are a part of prison life."
Around 80 percent of prisoners test positive for drugs when they first arrive and regular random testing is carried out, the prison said.
Police and prison chiefs announced a clampdown on drug smuggling at Armley Jail earlier this year.
Five visitors have already been convicted and sentenced for possession with intent to supply drugs to inmates.
Last February, two women visitors aged 20 and 28 were given 18 month jail sentences for attempting to supply heroin to the prison.