28 September
While reading is encouraged in prisons, hiding drugs in books and attempting to supply them to your friends or family inside prison is not.
However, this did not stop one woman attempting to introduce contraband hidden in a book she had delivered for her partner currently held at Spring Hill Corrections Facility.
“A prisoner’s partner dropped the book off last Friday and the excellent work of staff conducting a routine search of delivered property resulted in the find. The prison drug dog indicated the presence of contraband and on further inspection staff found a item concealed in the book,” says Prison Manager Gavin Dalziel.
The item was removed and is suspected to be around 0.8 grams of methamphetamine. The woman was prohibited from visiting the site and the find will be handed over to Police who may press charges.
“We know prisoners can put pressure on friends and family to supply them with drugs. Ironically, the book the woman bought in was titled ‘Absolute Friends’. The sad truth is that some people who conduct this type of activity think they are being a great friend by taking such a risk. The reality is however, that you are not much of a friend if you are supporting drug addiction, conducting illegal activity, getting yourself prohibited from the site and potentially facing Police charges."
In addition to this incident, 23 vehicles and 44 individuals were also searched on the same day by staff at the site. The searches were part of a routine prison check point operation and only resulted in staff issuing a warning for one visitor carrying a knife in their car.
“We view this as a good indication that the message we will not tolerate visitors bringing contraband on site is getting across.
“The first thing any visitor to a prison site should do is making sure they and their vehicles are clear of contraband. This will ensure they gain entry to the site and that they get to see the prisoners they are visiting.
“We have a number of initiatives in place to prevent drugs and other contraband entering the prison including vehicle checkpoints like these, visitor searches and the use of drug detector dogs, which means the chance we will find it just isn’t worth it.”
For further information contact the Communications Services Desk:
Copyright © Department of Corrections | Feedback and queries email: webmaster@corrections.govt.nz