KEY POINTS:
The Government is to introduce legislation to crack down on prisoners' drug and cellphone use, making it an offence for visitors to bring them in to prisons.
Cellphone use in prisons, which is banned, is on the rise with the number of phones and components confiscated up from 250 in 2003 to 1047 in 2005.
Critics say cell phones are allowing prisoners to organise crime and intimidate people from behind bars.
Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor today said the Government had more than halved the level of drug use in prisons - down from use by 27.2 per cent of inmates to 13 per cent - but the smuggling of drugs into prisons remained a problem.
As a result the Government would push for a law change to combat contraband smuggling. It hoped to introduce the legislation to Parliament in August.
The proposed Corrections Amendment Bill would include:
* a new criminal offence for non-prisoners possessing drugs, mobile communication devices, or weapons in prisons without permission
* giving prison staff greater search powers
* making it an offence for an inmate to possess or use an unauthorised electronic device in a prison, punishable by up to three months in prison and a $5000 fine
* making it an offence to tamper with a drug test and allowing prisoners to be re-tested if a sample is suspicious
* extending existing provisions so that Corrections Department staff who pass contraband to prisoners outside the prison are also punishable by up to a year's prison and a $5000 fine
Mr O'Connor said significant funding had gone into upgrading prison security, but contraband was still getting through.
"The presence of drugs and mobile phones lead to standover tactics and assaults and allow prisoners to subvert prison controls and organise illicit activities outside prisons."
Eliminating smuggling was a huge challenge, especially when small cellphones and drugs like methamphetamine were relatively easy to conceal, but the Government was committed to doing so, he said.
- NZPA
