New crackdown on dangerous legal highs in prison

26 Jan 2015 12:54 PM

Offenders found abusing so-called ‘legal highs’ in prison will face a new crackdown by prison authorities as of this week.

Prosecution, additional days in prison, segregation, ‘closed visits’ and a range of other potential penalties, are all on the cards for those who flout the rules.

New, additional powers in the Criminal Courts and Justice Bill will give powers to specify non controlled drugs (including so-called ‘legal highs’) which can be tested for as part of the Mandatory Drug Testing Programme.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said:

Go onto any prison wing, and staff will tell you that whilst we’ve made good headway on drug misuse in prisons, there’s a new phenomenon they are increasingly seeing in the form of so-called ‘legal highs’. What we’re also hearing is that these substances seem to be part of the problem around increasing violence in our prison estate.

No one should be under any illusion how dangerous the abuse of any drug is. We are determined to make sure governors have every power at their disposal to detect supply, punish those found using or dealing, and enforce a zero tolerance approach.

Prisoners should be very clear – if they think they can get away with using these substances, they need to think again. And the same applies to those who are the suppliers, whether they’re inside or outside the prison gates.

Next week, prison governors will receive new guidance from the Ministry of Justice which sets out clearly for the first time the measures available to them to deal with New Psychoactive Substances (NPS /‘legal highs’). This will reinforce the prison estate’s zero tolerance approach to contraband.

Any prisoner who is suspected of being involved in smuggling prohibited items, including legal highs, through visits can face:

In addition, the Ministry of Justice is embarking on a raft of measures designed to beef up the existing security and prevention measures including:

Notes to Editors

  01/01/2010-31/12/2010 01/01/2011-31/12/2011 01/01/2012-31/12/2012 01/01/2013-31/12/2013 01/01/2014-31/07/2014
Mephedrone 0 0 0 3 2
BZP 0 1 0 0 0
Spice 15 86 133 262 430
Ketamine 1 3 5 2 4
Total 16 90 138 267 436