In order to prevent prison guards from entering jail with illegal substances, airport security scanners may be used.
In all new prisons, biometric identification will be required for visitors and X-ray body scanners will be used in response to a massive Government crackdown on drug use.
Staff members at the frontlines of prison who are vulnerable to corruption may have to be stopped from bringing in contraband using scanners.
Prisons will be given individual targets on the number of drug tests they should carry out, and will be held to account on drug rehabilitation – with results published in a league table.
The proposals will be published today in the Prisons Strategy White Paper which aims to deliver modern jails with the ‘right conditions to reform and rehabilitate offenders’.
Government’s major crackdown on illegal drugs includes X-ray body scanners as well as biometric identification (File image).
Frontline staff members in vulnerable prisons who might be susceptible to corruption could have to use scanners to stop contraband shipments (File Image).
Last night Boris Johnson said that the Government is delivering ‘tougher sentences and 20,000 more prison places’ but said prisons ‘need to play their part in cutting crime and preventing future victims’. The Prime Minister added: ‘That is why – with a zero tolerance approach to drugs and more autonomy for governors to maintain good order – our reforms will clamp down on the causes of reoffending and make sure prison pays.’
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said: ‘Our plan will improve the security of our jails to help cut off the flow of drugs, knives and mobile phones, and allow effective rehabilitation to take place.’ Over recent years, there has been intense scrutiny over the ease with which prisoners have smuggled narcotics into jails despite Government measures to tackle the issue.
More than 10,000 people have been stopped from attempting to enter prisons with drugs, weapons, and phones since last summer.
The Government announced £100million of extra investment to improve prison security in 2019 – which has been used to install X-ray body scanners at all closed male prisons, showing whether prisoners are smuggling contraband within their bodies.
According to 2018 figures, 341 of the prison personnel were fired, excluded or convicted for bringing contraband into their prisons during the preceding six years.