New figures show officers at HMP Haverigg made 84 seizures at the Category C site near Millom – a rate of nearly 20 for every 100 prisoners serving time at jail.
The number is a drop from five years earlier in 2012. Statistically at that point, almost half of all prisoners were found to have a smuggled-in mobile phone or sim card, with 291 seizures from a population of 629.
The figures – uncovered by the BBC and shared with CN Group – show a total of more than 15,000 mobiles and sim cards were found and taken from inmates nationally in 2017, a 56 per cent increase since 2014.
Possession of a mobile phone or sim card is banned in prison.
Organisations campaigning for the fair treatment of prisoners claim some inmates are prepared to risk a conviction simply to stay in touch with their families.
Speaking about the national picture, a Prison Service spokesman said: “These statistics show that we are successfully stopping contraband from entering the prison estate.”
Cumbrian MP Rory Stewart is the Justice Minister. He has stated there are only a number of ways in which contraband can be smuggled into prisons. The service says it is taking steps to tackle these, revealing some of the measures.
“We’ve addressed flying contraband in by tackling drones, the throwing over of items by the use of nets and searches, the dragging in of items by identifying wires and the posting of drugs by photocopying letters,” added the spokesman.
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