Gadgets get into prisons

Samsung watch phone. Photo / Supplied

Move over James Bond - the latest must-have gadgets for prisoners are watches concealing mobile phones.

Corrections staff recovered one such device when a prisoner's family tried to slip it to the inmate after a Parole Board hearing.

The department is now considering a prison-wide ban on watches, possibly leaving prisoners to do their time with no way of counting it.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Karen Urwin said staff were fighting a "war of technology".

"We have a lot of prisoners who are very smart cookies."

Corrections shared information with police and Customs, who also alerted them to new technology coming into the country. Items found overseas included a wedding ring that concealed a key capable of unlocking handcuffs.