21 May
Christchurch Men’s Prison has had three more significant drug finds so far this week. Most recently a visitor on Tuesday was found with what appeared to be cannabis in her bra, on Wednesday another visitor was found with 37 grams of cannabis in his underwear and on the same day another 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.
“My staff have continued to show their professionalism and dedication in successfully preventing these drugs from coming into our prison.
“These finds are a warning to other visitors who are thinking about bringing this junk to our prison. It is not worth it, if you try you will be caught and you will face the full consequences of your illegal actions.
“Not only that, you will be banned from visiting the prison for up to 12 months,” says Mr Roper.
“The demand for drugs in prison is high and unfortunately prisoners put a lot of pressure on their friends and family to smuggle it in for them. It is our job to keep it out.
“Our drug test results are showing just how effectively we are performing our job. Currently our positive random drug test results are approximately 10.5%, the same as the national average. This is a fantastic result and one of the lowest we’ve ever had.
“As well as keeping drugs out of prison the Department is working to reduce the demand for them with our six Drug Treatment Units and other drug and alcohol rehabilitation.”
Note to reporter:
The Department’s 10.5% positive random drug tests is the lowest since drug tests began in 1998
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