Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser has described multiple finds of items in inmates’ cells at Perth Prison as “an eye opener” and stated it “shows the lengths” criminals will go to.
The politician was commenting following the release of data by the Scottish Prison Service to the Scottish Conservatives through Freedom of Information which reveals a huge array of items that were found in inmates’ cells at Perth Prison between 2021-24.
Staff at HMP Perth discovered that the largest find was SIM mobile phone cards – 880 in this timeframe – followed by tampered prison issue mobile phones, which numbered 796. However, other searches in the cells at Perth Prison found a variety of items, including homemade alcohol, a homemade replica gun, metal bars, a metal pole with a 20-metre line attached, syringes, a hollowed-out book to conceal a phone, a kettle with exposed wires, scissors, X-boxes, a Wi-fi router, USB sticks, a pornography DVD and a Freeview box.
It was recently revealed that convicted Gleneagles Hotel armed robber Liam Richardson, who helped steal watches worth more than £500,000, was caught with a Wi-Fi enabled X-box in his cell at Perth Prison. And a recent academic study carried out by Dundee University showed that some criminals in Scotland’s prisons have resorted to soaking a children’s painting in illicit substances to get them past prison security.
The research found that illegal drugs were most often smuggled into prison either by visitors or thrown over a fence/perimeter.
Commenting, Mr Fraser said: “The vast array of items found in Perth Prison during these three years is a real eye-opener and is deeply concerning. I’m sure staff at the prison will be doing all they can to try to clampdown on items being brought in but the amount of finds just shows the lengths some inmates will go to in order to have these items.
“Of course, some of these items could well have been passed on from inmate to inmate but it seems they will still have been smuggled into Perth Prison at some point.”
He continued: “I’m not surprised that the highest find was SIM cards and tampered prison issue phones, which could partly be as a result of the SNP Government’s move to issue prisoners with mobile phones at the start of the Covid pandemic. This plan was well intentioned but it led to the devices being misused more than 7,000 times, with prisoners inserting illicit SIM cards to make unapproved calls.
“I am also alarmed to see details of the other items found such as a hollowed-out book to conceal a phone, a homemade replica gun and astonishingly a metal pole with a 20-metre line attached. That must have been put together for the purpose of being used as a weapon. These finds demonstrate the difficulties faced by prison staff in dealing with this issue.”
