Express & Star comment: Discipline must be restored at prisons

The Express & Star today reports shocking figures that indicate the amount of illegal drugs getting to convicts is out of control.

While the prison authorities may say that the increases in seizures at Featherstone, Birmingham and Drake Hall jails is a good thing, the worrying reality is that there are more drugs awash in the prison system than ever before.

There is also a disturbing culture of drugs, mobile phones and SIM cards being easily smuggled in to those behind bars and even drones being used by criminals to drop in drugs over the prison walls.

While we feel sympathy for the prison staff in this impossible situation, it is about time that the Government really got to grips with what is going wrong and put strong discipline back into the prison system.

We need our prisons to once again be places where criminals fear to be incarcerated rather than being happy to return to the 'holiday camps' they seem to have become.

There is evidence that many prisoners actually acquire a drug habit after being jailed and that must be addressed with better measures being put in place to stop illegal drugs getting in.

If there are not enough prison officers being employed then the Government must seriously look to put the resources in to ensure more can be recruited and trained.

The Ministry of Justice insists it is already taking action to bolster security, including training 300 dogs in drugs detection, investing £7 million in measures such as airport-security style scanners and phone-blocking technology.

It says it is strengthening the frontline with an additional 3,111 prison officers, but the rates of pay must be attractive enough to ensure that the right calibre of people are in the new generation of warders coming into the prison service and they are properly trained to utilise new equipment that is promised.

Proper control and discipline must be quickly established to eliminate the scourge of drugs in the prisons of the West Midlands.