Ireland - Security drive in prisons nets 1,800 phones

[coffeeseven]

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/security-drive-in-prisons-nets-1800-phones-1557661.html?from=dailynews

PRISON staff have seized almost 2,000 mobile phones held illegally by inmates so far this year.

A breakdown of newly compiled figures show that prisoners detained in Mountjoy jail are easily the worst offenders, followed by those held in Limerick and Wheatfield.

Staff recovered a total of 1,844 illegally held phones for the first 10 months of the year, compared to an annual haul of 2,117 for 2007.

Disclosing the finds, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said cell and area searches for contraband such as mobile phones took place in all prisons on a daily basis.

These included random, targeted and intelligence led searches, many of which were now carried out by the recently established operational support group -- a unit dedicated to unearthing contraband behind bars.

Mr Ahern said he understood that those searches had been particularly effective.

He added that local intelligence had indicated that the availability of mobile phones had decreased throughout the prison system.

He pointed out that airport style scanners and x-ray machines were now in operation at the entrances to most of the closed prisons in the country while similar measures would shortly be installed in the rest of the prisons nationwide.

But he admitted that mobile phone use in prisons was a major challenge for the authorities worldwide.

The statistics revealed that 588 phones had been recovered in Mountjoy alone from January to October, while another 244 were found in Limerick jail and 215 in Wheatfield.

Possession

Young offenders in St Patrick's Institution were found in possession of 129 mobile phones while there were 114 in the Midlands jail, 111 in Cloverhill remand prison, 98 at the Training Unit in the Mountjoy complex, 86 in Castlerea, 61 in Shelton Abbey open prison, 60 in Cork, 52 in Loughan House open prison, 47 in the women's Dochas centre, 38 in the top security Portlaoise jail and one phone in Arbour Hill, which mainly houses long term prisoners and sex offenders.