Prison visitors smuggling drugs

This week I also spoke to The West Australian journalist Ben Harvey about the promising results from recent drug tests in prisons.

The ban on visitors has seen widespread sobriety in the state’s prisons, with the vast majority of samples from a recent urine test coming back clean.

WAPOU welcomes these results as proof that visitors are the source of drugs in prison, not Prison Officers.

However, we understand that visitors must be allowed to return eventually, or it will lead to a jump in riots.

In light of this evidence on the role they can play into the supply of drugs to prisons, WAPOU is calling for changes to inspections when visitors are allowed to return to prisons after COVID-19 passes.

Laws passed last week to increase the penalties for smuggling drugs into prisons are a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done.

We are calling for the installation of full body scanners that are in use at airports to complement existing drug-detecting measures.

We believe this is the most effective and reliable way to screen visitors and severely limit the influx of drugs into prisons.

WAPOU maintains that a cautious, measured approach to slowly rolling back restrictions in prisons is required and expect to be consulted on how this can be achieved.