Female guard suspected of smuggling drugs into jail

A female prison guard has been stood down from the Spring Hill prison near Meremere for suspected drug smuggling.

Corrections Department chief executive Barry Matthews said police had been notified, but the woman had not yet been formally suspended from duty.

"The officer who was smuggling drugs into the prison will be subject to an employment investigation and if the investigation confirms the evidence she will face severe disciplinary action and almost certain dismissal," he said.

The news follows the arrest of a second staff member at Rimutaka Prison in Wellington for drug smuggling this week, after senior manager Jeffrey Mark Reid, 43, was arrested and charged with selling cannabis to inmates in June.

A 41-year-old man will appear in Wellington District Court today charged with supplying cannabis.

Mr Matthews would not go into detail on the allegations against the Spring Hill guard, saying, "I don't care if she's done it once or 10 times, once is one too many really."

In August, a female guard at Rimutaka was stood down for allegedly having an affair with a violent criminal.

She was one of five staff suspended at that time.

The action came two years after a spate of staff problems prompted a large-scale inquiry into corruption at the prison.

Mr Matthews said Corrections facilities had clamped down on drug smuggling since the Patten inquiry.

"We have set up investigative teams, have been establishing good intel direction and we think we are making considerable progress."

He said prison officers found smuggling drugs to inmates were seen as "traitors within".

"They are people who for greed are sitting in the office discussing what to do with drugs coming in at the same time that they're doing it," Mr Matthews said.

"The thing that makes everybody angry, including the public and our staff, is that we've got a small number of these officers who are undermining the efforts of others."

Mr Matthews said several other guards had been identified for corrupt behaviour and more arrests were imminent.

The Spring Hill Corrections Facility is a 650-bed male prison that was opened in 2007. It accommodates prisoners with low- to high-medium security classifications and employs 266 staff.