17 April
Staff at Mt Eden and Auckland Central Remand Prisons are currently working hard operating two prisons and accommodating a busy construction site, and all this isn’t enough to distract them from their work though.
Staff operating a Prison Check Point at the site last week noticed that the driver of a car visiting the prison was a recently released prisoner. On searching the vehicle, staff found cannabis and other drugs.
“The occupants of the car were immediately detained by staff,” says Assistant Regional Manager Northern Grace Smit. “Police were notifed, and when they arrived to investigate the drug find they informed staff that the car they had stopped and searched had been reported stolen.”
Staff at ACRP followed up this good work with another drug find – this time in between the pages of a tabloid newspaper destined for a prisoners.
“Staff were conducting a routine mail search on items coming into the prison when they noticed that there was an irregularity with one of the pages in a newspaper. On closer inspection, they discovered that a quantity of methamphetamine had been concealed under a picture,” says Ms Smit.
“People are constantly trying to get drugs and other contraband into our facilities, and our staff work incredibly hard to stop the flow of contraband. It’s always a good result for us when we intercept attempts to introcude drugs into our prisons, and it shows that the security provisions the Department has in place are working,” says Ms Smit.
“Nationally, the Department is seeing the lowest percentage of positive drug tests returned since random drug testing was introduced in the lates 1990’s. It is great for me to know that my staff are playing a key part in the reduction of drug use in our prisons.”
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