THE government has branded the issue of drugs in prisons as "unacceptable" as a woman has been spared a term behind bars for smuggling tablets and cannabis into a jail facing escalating drug use.
The sentencing of Levi Middleton, of Penrith Street, Hartlepool, for taking drugs into Holme House Prison, in Stockton, came as Ministry of Justice figures revealed 225kg of drugs and 13,000 mobile phones were found in prisons last year.
The haul of contraband seized in prisons, which also included 7,000 mobile phone sim cards, illustrates the scale of the challenge facing prison officers who have had to cope with staff cuts and increased violence over recent years.
Rachel Masters, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said Middleton, had been visiting her then partner in the category B jail - inmates for whom the Prison Service says escape "needs to be made very difficult" - on December 20 when the pair were watched on CCTV by staff.
The inmate was subsequently taken to a private room at the jail, which houses up to 1,200 inmates, and initially refused to open his mouth or talk, but then spat a plastic package on the floor.
The item was examined and found to be a mixture of cannabis and a handful of tablets.
The court heard 22-year-old Middleton acknowledged her guilt after being charged with supplying class B and C drugs.
Andrew Teate, mitigating, said the defendant had been put under pressure to take the package into the prison.
He said: "When she attended the prison to see her partner he was black and blue, having been given a good roughing up by fellow prisoners.
"He indicated it was because of a deal he had not complied with while he was at large on the outside."
The barrister said Middleton later received a number of threatening calls and individuals "targeted her house".
"They were clearly being directed from a custodial establishment," he said.
Middleton was said to the primary carer for her mother, who suffered from epilepsy, and Mr Teate urged Judge Tony Briggs to suspend any jail sentence on her.
Judge Briggs spoke about the "rife nature" of drugs in jails and gave Middleton an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for two years. She will carry out 80 hours unpaid work in the community and was given a 20-day rehabilitation requirement order.
There have been numerous recent cases relating to drugs at the Stockton prison, which mainly serves communities of the Tees Valley, South West Durham, East Durham and North Yorkshire.
An inquest into the death of Christopher Hope, of Crook - who was found hanged in a cell at the jail, having taken the psychoactive drug Spice in July 2015 - is set to conclude this week.
Last month, a court heard Stacey Alderson, of Tenth Street, Horden, had acted under "extreme duress" and had received threatening phone calls when she smuggled 24 tablets of buprenorphine into the prison in her bra. The drugs were detected by staff using CCTV cameras.
In January, Teesside Crown Court heard Melanie Kemp, 51, claim she had been ordered to hand cocaine and a designer drug which triggers hyperstimulation, paranoia, and hallucinations to her son, David in the jail or her car would be burnt out and home targeted.
Judge Morris told Kemp, of Pipeknowle Road, Stockton: "The prison officers have a tough job, and it is tough enough without you adding to the crime going on in our prisons. The public are rightly aghast and amazed that drugs get into prison, and when drugs get into the prison system, they are used as currency by inmates."
Last September, the court heard Sarah Boylan, 45, of Brierton Road, Middlesbrough, took Subutex tablets into Holme House, in Stockton, during a visit to her boyfriend.
It was announced in December that Holme House, which gained the status of a Reform Prison last year, would receive £9m over the next three years to enable prisoners to be drug-free in prison and on release.
In April, the prison's Independent Monitoring Board stated in its annual report: "Due to overall pressure of numbers in the prison an increasing number of prisoners who have no desire to give up drugs are being housed on the wing. This is having a detrimental effect on the wings original function, ie to encourage prisoners to come off drugs."
Prisons minister Sam Gyimah acknowledged the issue of contraband being smuggled into prisons would not be resolved overnight, but praised the efforts of staff to tackle the problems and highlighted the Government's recruitment drive to increase officer numbers.
He said: "I have been clear that the current levels of violence, drugs and mobile phones in our prisons is unacceptable. Bringing in more frontline staff is an integral part of that.
"The number of prison officers in post is on the rise, meaning we are on track to achieving the recruitment of 2,500 officers by 2018."
Peter Dawson, of the Prison Reform Trust, said the figures were "eye-watering" and called on the Government to tackle the demand for drugs in prisons.
"Life in prison for many many people is simply too idle, it's enforced idleness, it's boredom, there's no hope," he said.
"Some people are going into prison with a drug problem, and some people are starting to use drugs as a way of coping."
Source: Woman smuggled cannabis and tablets into Stockton jail facing escalating drug problem
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