Criminal gangs in UK sending recruits to train as prison officers, union warns
Exclusive: POA says corrupt officers are then used for sole purpose of smuggling in drugs and phones
It’s concerning when criminal gangs start planning in the long term.
Wasn’t this the plot of one of the Line of Duty seasons?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A POA spokesperson said: “Organised crime groups realise that there’s a lot of money to be made by smuggling contraband into prisons.
People can be recruited as a prison officer and go into [the jail] with that sole purpose of bringing contraband in, to make a lot of money.
The POA said staff shortages across the prison estate had prompted a cut in the training time from 10 to seven weeks.
Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, said it would be reasonable to assume younger officers could be more susceptible to corruption.
Taylor pointed to a case earlier this year at HMP Berwyn in north Wales, where 18 female guards were fired and three were jailed for having relationships with prisoners.
The Ministry of Justice says it has made a £100m investment in airport-style security in prisons, buying 97 X-ray body scanners that as of October 2022 had foiled more than 28,000 attempts to smuggle contraband into jails.
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