It's one of the toughest jobs prisons face. How do you stop banned items such as drugs and mobile phones being smuggled inside?
An inquest into the death of an inmate at Forest Bank in Salford shed some light on some of the bizarre ways contraband is brought in - and what steps are being taken to try and stop it.
The hearing was told that some offenders were choosing to get locked up so they could get drugs inside - using the time as free men to collect drugs, before breaching parole in a bid to get sent to jail with the supplies.
Read more:
Marie Durning, head of security and operations at Forest Bank, told the inquest in Bolton criminals 'will try every way imaginable to get illicit substances in'. And Forest Bank, as a 'local prison' where most of those locked up are from the north west and Greater Manchester region, faces a bigger problem than most.
"Every prison will have issue with illicit articles, but it's greater in the local prisons," Ms Durning said. "The extent of conveyance into prisons is huge."
Inmates use associates, friends and family members to smuggle drugs and mobiles by lobbing them over the perimeter walls or fences, which are then picked up during exercise. Drones are also also being used to fly packages direct to cell windows, Ms Durning said.
In recent months the prison has fitted new windows and put up tougher, higher netting over the exercise yard to combat the practice. But to try and breach the security the smugglers have taken to throwing flaming missiles onto the meshing, she said.
Letters to inmates are also soaked in drugs, often psychoactive substances such as Spice. The paper is then crumbled up and smoked, or soaked in water to extract the drugs, Ms Durning said.
But now prisoners at Forest Bank get a photocopy of their mail and they've also been given access to email. Another common method of smuggling is to hide the items in a bodily orifice, Ms Durning said.
Prison officers don't have the power to conduct body cavity searches, but now Forest Bank has a scanner, similar to the ones at airport security, which can detect items which have been secreted inside the body.
Another method being deployed involves criminals - especially those facing short term sentences - deliberately breaching the terms of their parole in order to get sent back to jail so they can smuggle drugs in.
"In effect it's almost a business for some prisoners to keep that running," said Ms Durning. "A lot of prisoners have committed crimes around substance misuse so there is a need and demand for people to keep supplying these substances."
Visiting times are also a common smuggling route, with some inmates even stooping to using their children to hand over contraband. Family and friends are subject to X-ray checks and the visiting room at Forest Bank is now covered by CCTV which closely monitors contact between inmates and visitors.
Anyone suspected of attempting to smuggle is banned from visiting, and inmates can be forced to receive visitors behind a Perspex screen.
Ms Durning said organised crime gangs also try to 'corrupt' members of staff into smuggling items into jail. "Over the last 12 months we have focussed a lot of our efforts so that staff feel supported and they feel safe," she said.
"We do have OCGs on the outside who will target staff and approach them to get them to bring things inside. Staff are aware of that and there is a large focus of stopping corruption."
And one method of smuggling doesn't involve sneaking anything inside. Inmates prescribed legitimate medication, such as methadone or anti-depressants which are taken in the presence of a health worker, have been known to later regurgitate the drugs and sell them on.
The huge scale of the issue means there's no way of knowing exactly how much contraband is getting past the perimeter. But, by one measure at least, it appears the steps taken at Forest Bank are starting to work.
When asked by inspectors earlier this year 40 per cent of prisoners said it was still 'easy' to get drugs inside the prison. But that's down from the 60% who replied with the same answer three years ago.
For more of today's top stories click here.
READ NEXT:
