Star comment: Jail safer after drug crackdown

Eleven people were arrested for either smuggling, or trying to smuggle, drugs into what is these days Shropshire's only prison. The previous year the number was zero, and if you think that that was because nobody was doing it or trying to do it, it must be nice to have fairies at the bottom of your garden.

There has been an increase in the number of checks to stop people getting drugs and mobile phones inside, and it would seem that this has reaped its reward.

However, we have to be realistic as well. The people who will have the best idea of the level of success in stopping contraband being smuggled into Stoke Heath are the inmates themselves, and they are not going to be rushing forward to tell staff that stuff is still getting through.

Take away somebody's freedom, and they will find clever and imaginative ways to get around the rules when they can, and will encourage others to do so on their behalf.

An example came in a recent court case when a visitor exchanged shoes with an inmate. You will never guess what was in the shoes. This was detected by the vigilance of staff. Yet there will surely be other smuggling attempts which raise the level of sophistication and lower the likelihood of detection.

What are they? Staff may not find out until somebody slips up, or perhaps a particularly experienced member of staff attuned to all the tricks of the smuggling trade starts to suspect and acts on the hunch.

Finding contraband during searches - and there is some hi-tech equipment nowadays to help the hunts - is an obvious indicator that attempts to stop it getting in are not being completely successful. This is an issue for all jails. In some cases drones have been used to get stuff in.

Drugs and mobile phones getting into jail give power and currency to the inmates who have them, which has a corrosive effect as it undermines the discipline of the jail regime. They are illegal privileges that they are awarding themselves, cocking a snoot to the management and society at large, as putting people in jail in the first place is meant to deny them the freedoms and privileges of the law-abiding.

These latest Stoke Heath figures are a dramatic leap in the number of smuggling arrests which will at least make anyone asked to do a "favour" for somebody inside to think twice.