Thread by @myldn

How do drugs really get inside prisons? 💊

[THREAD]

bit.ly/34glO5d

📺The topic of supplying drugs in prison is back in the public eye once again as drug smuggling features heavily in a new Channel 4 show about prison officers called Screw.

The drama, starring Derry Girls' Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, is set at fictional men's prison, Long Marsh.

💰A year’s salary can be earned in a matter of months through a guard involvement in the drugs trade, and officers doing it on a regular basis could make as much as £100,000 in a year.

🦠For the past 18 months, the fees guard-smugglers have been able to charge was even higher as coronavirus restrictions shut down other channels for trafficking.

My London spent months tracking down sources with intimate knowledge of the drug trade in prison.

One key finding is surrounding the popularity of the drug spice ⬇

📰Spice can be soaked in paper, which is then broken up into pieces and smoked.

Paper isn’t being outlawed in prison anytime soon so there are ample opportunities for smuggling in spice, from reading books to legal papers.

📚Guards have the ability to bring in large innocent-looking books soaked in spice and leave them in cells. One example, given to MyLondon, was of a Harry Potter book a guard was pretending to read.

A 600-page Harry Potter book has a potential value of £15,000.

🔍All our findings were presented to the Ministry of Justice and a spokesperson said: "It is impossible to verify these anonymous and vague allegations but we know, for instance, there is no evidence to suggest that officers at HMP Swaleside are smuggling in ‘spice’."