High-tech body scanners thwart almost 50,000 attempts to smuggle drugs, phones and weapons into prisons
HIGH-TECH body scanners have thwarted almost 50,000 attempts to smuggle drugs, phones and weapons into prisons, the Sun on Sunday can reveal.
The airport-style security allows clothes to be drug-tested for the first time and picks up packages cons and visitors have hidden on themselves.
New figures show that 46,900 suspect items have been found by the 75 high-tech X-ray body scanners installed in all closed adult male prisons since July 2020.
Shocking images show how the scanners can look all the way through the body – and easily spot items including drug packages hidden inside people.
Ministry of Justice sources said prison bosses and ministers were “thrilled” with the success of a £100 million investment in prison security.
A source said: “This is a great result and people are thrilled with the success of this.
“Just think how many violent or dangerous incidents have been stopped because of this drive.
“It is not just drugs that officers are finding – it is also a lot of phones and weapons of all sorts.
“People hide things in all sorts of places – a lot of which don’t bear thinking about.
“Work now needs to be done as well on stopping drones, which are also being used to drop off at jails.”
New technology has bolstered efforts to cut violence, drug use and disruption on prison landings.
And – form this month – next-generation detection equipment will be used to test for traces of psychoactive substances including ‘spice’ embedded in clothing belonging to visitors or prison officers.
Previously only the clothes or materials of prisoners were able to be tested.
The multi-million pound investment has seen 95 prisons now equipped with ultra-modern trace detection equipment and 75 equipped with X-ray body scanners.
Other measures have included the deployment of more than 150 drug sniffer dogs plus recruitment of 140 counter-corruption officers.
In 2017, the state of prisons was branded “unacceptable” after more than 200kg of drugs and 13,000 were found in jails in England and Wales the previous year.
Then-Justice Secretary David Liddington said at the time: “I don’t dissent from the view of what the chief inspector of prison has described as an unacceptable state of affairs.”
Since then, toughened security has aimed to crack down on attempts at smuggling – which fuels violence, addiction and crime behind bars.
Prisons and Probation Minister Edward Argar said: “Our clamp down to stop drugs, weapons and phones from getting into prisons is working.
“The new tech we’ve brought in is making prisons safer for staff and ensuring prisoners focus on their rehab so we continue to cut crime.”
Anyone caught smuggling illicit contraband can have face up to ten years in prison.
TV star Ferne McCann’s acid attacker ex Arthur Collins – jailed for 20 years in 2017 for a club attack – had eight months added to his sentence the following year for using a smuggled mobile in jail.