Vigilant staff at Christchurch Men’s Prison found cannabis in one visitor’s bra, and 37 grams of cannabis in another visitor’s underpants. A third visitor was detained after a package was found concealed in the gatehouse toilet.
“These visitors were found out by a combination of staff vigilance and the ever-present prison drug dogs. Once confronted all visitors handed over their contraband and were arrested by Police who came to the site,” says Christchurch Men’s Prison Manager John Roper.
Hawkes Bay Prison staff found 25 ‘tinnies’ of cannabis in the handbag of a woman who had come to visit a prisoner.
“Our staff thoroughly search visitors to the prison regularly. It is great they found this rubbish before there was any possibility of it entering the prison,” says Hawkes Bay Assistant Prison Manager Yvonne Fuller.
“We seized approximately 50 grams of drugs and detained the visitor until Police arrived to arrest her.
“Not only does she face possible charges she is excluded from our site for at least three months. We have zero tolerance
for contraband.”
Hawkes Bay Prison runs one of the Department’s very successful Drug Treatment Units. Prisoners who complete the Drug Treatment Unit programme are 13 per cent less likely to re-offend than an untreated prisoner.
0800 JAILSAFE (0800 524 572) is a free national phone line for anyone to anonymously phone in information relating to the trafficking of drugs or other crimes in our prisons.
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ISSN 1178-8453