Total failure to control Prison drug trade in Wandsworth ..and probably in all prisons

Spyblog identifies the continuing problems of drugs in our largest prison and the failure to tackle to import and usage of mobilephones which sustains the prison drug trade. 2007 - 2008 Independent Monitoring Board annual report for Wandsworth prison

Section 10.5 Access to Drugs

1. Drugs continue to be widely available within the prison. This is supported by the high level of positive MDT’s. As of June 07 this was 12%.

2. Increased drug availability is fuelling bullying, intimidation, prisoner debts and a gang culture.

3. Mobile phone usage is increasing as demonstrated by the number of phones being found.

In their comments on the current position they reveal ...

Phones are not just used to drive the drugs trade in Wandsworth. We have seen a phone seized by Security which had the most graphic and violent images taken in another prison, including forced sex and stabbings. With the possession of mobile phones within prisons now being a criminal offence we look forward to the Police taking a more active role in arresting and charging those found with mobile phones in prison. We had very high hopes last year that the BOSS (Bodily Orifice Security Scanner) chair would be used to try and detect more phones being brought in by prisoners. Unfortunately it has hardly been used at all.

"BOSS is a unique, fast, non-intrusive, inexpensive, high sensitivity detector designed to etect metal objects hidden in body cavities. It is commonly used in corrections facilities to scan inmates for weapons and contraband objects hidden in anal, vaginal, oral and nasal cavities. At some sites visitors are also screened.Suggested Retail: US$8275.00 (website)see pic

It is evident that there is no serious attempt to control the prison drug culture, nor to attack the problem of corrupt prison staff or block the usage of mobile phones nor track their usage by readily available technology such as Path Intelligence , who supply FootPath™, that provides retailers an automated measurement technology that can continuously monitor the path that your shoppers or passengers take from their mobile phone signal.

They can of course listen to MP's interviewing their constituents....REPORT ON TWO VISITS BY SADIQ KHAN MP TO BABAR AHMAD AT HM PRISON WOODHILL , REPORT OF INVESTIGATION BY THE RT HON SIR CHRISTOPHER ROSE, CHIEF SURVEILLANCE COMMISSIONER, February 2008. ..." The conversations between Mr Khan and Babar Ahmad on 21 May 2005 and 24 June 2006 were monitored. The monitoring was carried out lawfully under the legislation. It was properly authorised and fully documented."

UK legal poppy production grows as Afghanis farmers feed worldwide illicit demand

We have long been a supporter of the Senlis Council (Friday, April 18, 2008 Senlis Council produce yet another despairing report on poppy cultivation, heroin production and trafficking in Afghanistan and here )who promote the idea of legitimising the growing of Afghanistan poppies for the commercial production of morphine - for which world demand is growing.

This picture illustrated a story in the Daily Mail and was wryly brought to our attention by the headline "The painkilling fields: England’s opium poppies that tackle the NHS morphine crisis" at Aftermath News . last June.

One wonders however how the crop this year has fared with the summer and wet autumn.

Apparently pharmaceutical company Macfarlan Smith ( a subsidiary of Johnson Matthey plc (JMAT:L) -"world leader in the production of alkaloid opiates and other controlled drugs."), one one of the world's oldest pharmaceutical companies, have a licence from the Home Office to harvest the poppies, which now bedeck fields across Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. Who knows they may be feeding it directly into our prisons to maintain the obedience of inmates ?

Evidently they are doing a fine job and on 1st September 2008, Macfarlan Smith was officially granted ISO 14001 certification. Johnson Matthey plc shares had a nasty turn today closing down 8.5% (134p) at 1,441p.

Lockerbie, lies, deceit, dishonesty in the legal system and Lord Denning's shameful epitaph on Truth and Justice

The Herald today "This could open a can of worms for the entire Scottish justice system"

So what now for the forces of law and order in Scotland? Once the full facts of
the SCCRC's 800-page statement are known, those involved in the prosecution of
the case will undoubtedly come in for criticism for failing to secure a
conviction which could stand up to scrutiny.

Yesterday's report had been expected to level barbs in varying degrees at the trial judges, the Crown prosecutors, the police, and not least Megrahi's original defence team, but so far the reality of the SCCRC's public statement does not quite match
expectation.

Can we ever forget Lord Denning, dismissing the Birmingham 6's 1980 civil action against the police, who said,

“If the six men win, it will mean that the police were guilty of perjury, that they were guilty of violence and threats, that the confessions were involuntary and were improperly admitted as evidence, and that the convictions were erroneous …. this is such an appalling vista that every sensible person in the country would say: it cannot be right these actions go any further.”

"We shouldn't have all these campaigns to get them released".