Prison staff will be checked into work through airport-style scanners in a clampdown on gangs feared to be infiltrating the service to smuggle contraband into jails.
Prisons minister Rory Stewart today said it would help staff resist temptation or pressure from organised criminal networks to sneak drugs, mobile phones and other illicit materials in to inmates.
It follows claims by Assistant Chief Constable Jason Hogg, of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, that gangs are getting associates or relatives jobs in prisons to bypass tough checks on visitors.
Mr Stewart, who has staked his job on cutting violence and drug use in jails, told the BBC’s Today programme: “The vast majority of our prison officers are incredibly dedicated public servants but you will occasionally have people who are tempted into this.
"It’s not just in terms of finding a bad apple, but also if you have very good search procedures in place it’s much more difficult for a prisoner to put pressure on a prison officer.
"They would be able to turn around and say ‘I can’t do it for you because I am searched so aggressively at the door I just can’t get the stuff in.’”
An X-ray body scanner has been trialled at HMP Leeds, one of 10 prisons identified by the minister for improvement in a £10 million programme.
Mr Stewart said he would eventually like to see scanners installed across a further 30 prisons with significant drug problems.
Asked why the machines had taken so long to be introduced, he said the body scanner technology had to be thoroughly tested.
He added: “Obviously putting someone through an X-ray 50 times a year does have serious health implications, so we had to get the technology right.”
