Hello!
Today I wanted to blog about the shear number of items that were seized from prisoners in welsh prisons. In the last year alone more than 200 unauthorised items were seized by prison officers with the greatest number (128 items) seized from prisoners at Bridgend’s HMP PARC prison run be private security firm G4S, the next largest hoard was confiscated by prison officers at HMP Cardiff (59 items) and then the bronze medal goes to the prison staff at HMP Swansea with a total of (46 items).
These items ranged from Class A drugs, Pornographic DVD’s and believe it or not a plastic broken hand GRENADE!
A GRENADE! how the hell did that find its way into the prison? I mean I wince at the thought!
Drugs of all types and categories were found by staff at HMP Cardiff including Heroin, Cocaine, Meth amphetamine and cannabis, also found last year were a number of ‘legal’ highs that although are perfectly legal outside of prison are considered contraband beyond the walls.
Also found in Welsh prisons last year were 79 mobile phones and charging devices that the prison staff say could have been used to run the prisoners criminal empires from the inside!
Sounds very ‘Hollywood’ movie if you ask me! I mean really? does each and every prisoner have an empire to run on the outside, so that young chap that has been arrested and thrown in prison for having one too many drinks and driving home, or that other guy that was thrown in jail for possessing some cannabis, they have ’empires’ to run do they? Perhaps they are referring to the 40ish year old gentleman that had to decide whether or not to pay his council tax as due to the increase in energy costs and food price increases literally had the choice to
A) Freeze,
B) Starve,
C) Default on his council tax bill!
Is that the guy that has the ‘criminal empire’ to run!
The truth of it is most…..yes most not all fair enough, but most mobile phones that are used illegally in prisons are used by the prisoners doing what they are told will help them to cope once released and keep in touch with friends and family in an affordable way!
If you are a reader of my blog or are familiar with the company in which I work for ( prison Phone Ltd) you will already know that the cost of staying in touch is astronomical! I mean come on in some prisons its as much as 63p per minute to call a mobile! 63p!! do you know how much it is from a mobile on the same network?
ITS NORMALLY FREE!
Making these illegal mobiles worth a small fortune within prison!
However this does come with an even heavier price tag if caught with one 🙁
up to a further 2 years inside
At Prison Phone we do our best to reduce the calls from the prison pay phones to a mobile bringing them down to as low as 6p per minute
with no chance of any extra time added on!!
Allowing the prisoner to affordably keep in touch with their friends and family whilst following the rules set out within the prison!
Well this has moved slightly off topic :/
sorry where were we,
oh yes the items seized.
So we have a GRENADE! 6 pornographic DVDs drugs of all descriptions some legal some not (all contraband however) steroid pills, tattooing equipment (how the heck did that get in!) and a whole host of homemade items that could be used as weapons.
Now this all sounds like a lot and it is! but when you consider back in 2011 there were over 373 of these types of items confiscated from the inmates of welsh prisons it does seem to be moving in the right direction, however with all these cut backs and cost cutting measure’s perhaps the tally will start to increase again,
Only time will tell
Well that’s enough ranting and raving for one blog post
as always feel free to comment below, share on Facebook, twitter, Google plus, etc etc
stay safe
x Claire x
