UK: Prison anti-corruption unit established
01 August 2008
A specialist unit is to be sent into prisons to root out corrupt prison officers. In 2006, 68 prison staff were suspended for trafficking drugs and other banned items. Senior Metropolitan Police sources estimate that one in 10 prison officers - about 1,000 in total - are corrupt. The "ghost squad" will target these "rogue" officers in an attempt to stem the "apparently limitless" supply of drugs and mobile phones within prisons. Earlier this year, a former jail chief said more than £100 million worth of drugs is traded in prisons each year, most of it smuggled in by guards.
In 2006, the last year for which figures are available, 68 prison staff were suspended for trafficking drugs and other banned items. In the same year, a female prison officer named 30 allegedly corrupt colleagues at Pentonville Prison, north London (Pentonville was rated the worst performing prison in Britain last year). The whistle-blower said officers had helped to plan escapes, supplied and taken drugs and smuggled a gun into a prisoner's cell. It led to 14 guards being suspended.
The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) at Wandsworth Prison criticised the "apparently limitless" supply of phones in Britain's biggest jail. It said inmates were using phones to order drugs, to continue running their criminal activities and to plot escapes. Just under 250 mobile phones were found at the jail in south-west London, in the first five months of last year.
Earlier this year, the government appointed David Blakey, a former senior police officer, to conduct an inquiry into disrupting the supply of drugs to prisons. He is due to report this month. Hussain Djemil, the former head of drug treatment policy at the National Offender Management Service said the majority of drugs in prison - estimated to be worth about £100 million worth a year - was smuggled in by prison officers. David Jameson, the chairman of the Wandsworth IMB, backed his comments.
The new anti-corruption unit was launched on 6 May and is still assessing intelligence on London's nine jails. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We can confirm that the Prison Service and Metropolitan Police Service are working together on a new unit to investigate corruption within London prisons."
A Prison Service spokesman said: "The vast majority of Prison Service staff are honest, hard-working and professional. We do not tolerate staff corruption of any sort."
Daily Telegraph 26/05/08