No presents for naughty birthday boy

No presents for naughty birthday boy

A belated birthday card and present sent to Auckland Prison last week never made it to the birthday boy, after it was opened and a point bag of methamphetamine was found inside.

“Staff regularly search people, property and post coming into the prison. On Thursday, an officer was examining a piece of mail, opened it and found the card and methamphetamine that had been destined for a prisoner,” said Prison Manager Kelly Puohotaua.

“Obviously drugs making their way into the hands of prisoners is extremely dangerous for other prisoners, our staff and in rare cases, the public. They are also illegal. This is unacceptable and the exact reason why we continue to be vigilant in our searches.”

“Intercepting items in the mail has now also become easier thanks to legislative changes. Staff now don’t need reasonable grounds to suspect a letter may not just be a phone card and chatty letter from mum,” says Mr Puohotaua.

Changes to the Corrections Act came into force on 1 April 2009. Among other modifications it authorised Corrections staff to screen incoming and outgoing prisoners’ mail for unlawful and harmful communications.

Recently the Government also announced its intent to build three additional Drug Treatment Units in prisons. A high proportion of prisoners have a long history of drug dependency and a significant amount of crime is committed by offenders who are affected by drugs or alcohol on the day of their offending.

“Giving prisoners the opportunity to beat their addictions and reduce the demand is one half of the battle” says Mr Puohotaua. “Keeping drugs out of prison and restricting their supply is the other half. Corrections facilities worldwide report that this is notoriously difficult with methamphetamine, but through staff vigilance, sophisticated intelligence gathering and drug dogs New Zealand is successful, with random positive drug tests at an all time low of just 10.5% nationally.”

“The message is clear to both prisoners attempting to get drugs sent in to them, and members of the public sending them. We will find them, we will give them to the Police, and you will get caught.”

ENDS

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