Crackdown on contraband in Doncaster prisons

Historically, all of South Yorkshire prisons - HMPs Doncaster, Moorlands, Hatfield and Lindholm - have put a strain on local police

A crackdown on drugs, mobile phones and other contraband being smuggled into prisons has begun in South Yorkshire.

Police and prison staff will be at HMP Doncaster, Lindholme and Moorland, searching for items that are being brought in or are already inside.

All three prisons have had problems with drug-taking, violence and mobile phone use.

Det Insp Steve Smith of South Yorkshire Police said officers would target any illicit items coming in.

He said: "Any member of the public or member of staff, if you bring illicit items to the prison this week, we will catch you, we will convict you and we will put you in prison because this is serious organised crime."

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Jerry Spencer, custodial operations director at HMP Doncaster, said: "Unfortunately, we do have a small number of staff who do get corrupted.

"We have decent intelligence systems in the prison, and we are working with the police to detect these staff and we set up operations to catch them."

HMP Lindholme is one of three Doncaster prisons taking part in the week-long crackdown

Lindholme and Moorland were among 10 prisons given government help to fight drugs and boost security last year.

The extra help given to them in the £10m scheme included providing new scanners capable of detecting packages inside bodies, and sniffer dogs trained to detect new psychoactive substances.

Last month, South Yorkshire Police said new tactics to deal with crimes inside the prisons had seen offences "cut by half".

Items banned in prisons

It is an offence to send or give a prisoner any of the following:

• Illegal drugs

• Alcohol

• Weapons

• Cameras

• Mobile phones

Items that are indecent or obscene, written in code or that might threaten the security of the prison are also banned.

Source: www.gov.uk