Phones, alcohol and weapons were all confiscated from prisoners in jails across Merseyside and North Wales in 2022.
The ECHO asked the Ministry of Justice for a list of forbidden items found in inmates' cells in HMP Liverpool, HMP Altcourse and Wrexham prison HMP Berwyn - where a number of Liverpool inmates are serving time. We asked the government body to provide figures for the last three years.
Prison Service spokesperson, from HMP Liverpool and Berwyn, said: "Our recent £100 million investment in airport-style security has already blocked more than 20,000 attempts to smuggle contraband into prisons and recent inspections have praised the steps we are taking to tackle drugs at HMP Berwyn and HMP Liverpool."
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While a HMP Altcourse spokesperson said: "Staff at HMP Altcourse continue to work hard to detect and confiscate illicit items being brought into the prison. We are pleased to see that our investment in searching for contraband items has lead to significant reductions in the number of weapons, mobiles and sim cards entering the facility."
The data we’ve been sent by the MOJ includes findings in the year leading up to March 2022. This is what we found from the Ministry of Justice's response:
Altcourse
At Altcourse, a Category B men's prison in Fazakerley, figures shared with the ECHO reveal that from April 2021 until March 2022 incidents with psychoactive substances (including drugs sometimes known as Spice) decreased from 69 to 59, when compared to the same time period of the previous year.
There were however also a staggering 194 recordings of cannabis being found, 12 of cocaine, eight for heroin, seven for steroids, and 37 that are described as an unknown/other substance. Amphetamines, pregabalin, methadone and buprenorphine also made the list of finds.
Worryingly, as a whole, there were more recorded incidents than in the previous year with 329 incidents compared to 309 the year before. However, the same time period uncovered 116 mobile phones, down from 161, and 52 sim cards, down from 75.
By the end of March 2022, prison officers also unearthed 71 weapons including blades, compared to 89 in the same period in 2021. Instances where alcohol was found to be in use was up from 26 to 30.
A HMP Altcourse spokesperson said the prison uses a number of methods to disrupt illicit items being brought into the prison, including Airport style body scanners, x-ray machines, drugs testing machines and drugs dogs.
They said comparing 20/21 and 21/22, there has been a 20%, 28% and 30% reduction in weapon, mobile and sim card finds respectively.
HMP Liverpool
In HMP Liverpool, the Category B/C facility located in Walton, incidents involving drugs were up to 283 from 214 in the year leading up to March 2022. Of these 283 in HMP Liverpool, police recorded a whopping 171 cannabis recoveries which is up from 98 in the same time period the previous year.
Other finds include 20 incidents of cocaine, two of LSD, 25 psychoactive substances, two reports of steroids and two of tramadol.
There were 30 instances where alcohol was found within the prison in this time period. By the end of March 2022, figures revealed the uncovering of 238 mobile phones and 140 sim cards (which is almost double the previous year).
A staggering 65 weapons were found, compared to 56 the year before.
Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons said in the most recent HMIP report that in HMP Liverpool that there had been a sustained improvement at the prison, and that this had created a platform from which to take the prison forward with confidence.
HMP Berwyn
Wrexham prison HMP Berwyn is where a number of Liverpool inmates are serving time for their crimes. Reported drugs incidents were down from 344 to 230, in the year from 2021 to 2022. Higher than both Altcourt and HMP Liverpool, however, Berwyn has recorded 109 instances of psychoactive substances.
There were two cases of amphetamines being confiscated, 30 for cannabis, 13 for cocaine, two heroin, six for steroids and 66 other or unknown substances.
HMP Berwyn recorded 141 incidents where weapons were found, which is more than HMP Liverpool and Altcourse. Figures also revealed a massive 409 episodes with alcohol in the first three months of the year, up from 359 in the last year.
In the previous 12 months until March 2022, 71 mobile phones were found in comparison to 147 in 2020/2021 and 26 sim cards were found.
A spokesperson for the prison added that the most recent HMIP report noted that the strategy to reduce the supply of drugs into HMP Berwyn had improved with the introduction of a good, well-coordinated supply reduction plan and that a dedicated drug strategy custodial manager had been appointed, supported by 12 newly introduced substance misuse officers who were based on the wings. Together they were able to identify prisoners in need of support and follow up on intelligence reports relating to substance misuse.
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