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Restricting family visits and removing a vending machine were among the actions the prison had to take to clamp down on drug transfers last year amid a spike in the number of inmates failing checks for illegal substances, it has emerged.
While independent assessors deemed the security situation within HMP La Moye to be “strong”, with few serious or dangerous incidents, there was an uptick in the number of positive drug tests.
Released this week, the Jersey Independent Prison Monitoring Board's 2023 annual report explained that drug testing takes place regularly on both random and intelligence-led bases.
586 tests were conducted last year – a rise of more than a third on the previous year when 430 were undertaken.
Pictured: The vending machine was removed from the Visitor Centre in 2023 due to "suspected drug passing".
Of those, 7.9% of drug tests were positive – an increase from 4.8% in 2022.
The rate of positive drug tests has steadily increased throughout the last four years, with just 2.5% of tests being positive in 2020, and 3% in 2021.
The methods for bringing drugs into a prison environment are diverse – and some more sophisticated than others.
The 2022 IPMB annual report pinned the increase in positive drug test results was due to "the passing of drugs during visits from family and friends".
Last year, Shane Derek Lloyd was jailed for giving cocaine and cannabis resin to a prisoner for onward supply.
Some of those drugs had been thrown in over a wall, while others had been carried in by a female visitor to the prison.
The previous year, Elias Benyoucef also landed himself in HMP La Moye for transferring a drug to a prisoner, who then put it in his mouth. The transfer between Benyoucef and the inmate was spotted on the CCTV camera and the drug was removed from the prisoner when he left the visiting hall.
Measures were taken to address this issue in 2023, the IPMB said.
Family visits were limited to only prisoners with children under the age of 18 in 2023 due to security concerns relating to suspected drug passing in the less formal environment.
Pictured: Family visits were limited to only prisoners with children under the age of 18 due to security concerns relating to suspected drug passing in the less formal environment.
The board said that this change caused "anguish" among prisoners who had previously enjoyed family visits with adult relatives.
However, they said that "prison management advised that the new arrangement is in line with eligibility for family visits in the UK".
A vending machine was also removed from the visitor centre in 2023 due to "suspected drug passing" at the machine.
Actions have also been taken to address drug movement inside the prison.
The 2023 annual report also said that liquid medication was also introduced as an alternative to capsule form last year to "reduce the possibility of it being concealed and then 'traded'" among prisoners.
These measures appear to have been "successful in reducing illegal drugs in the prison", according to the IPMB.
While members of the IPMB conduct regular checks and monitoring visits, they also considers individual applications from prisoners in relation to all elements of their experience of La Moye.
One prisoner last year made two applications challenging the drug testing regime – these were investigated but the prison found "no evidence" to suggest swabs had been "contaminated or not done properly".
It prompted two members to visit the prison to learn more about the process of drug testing, the report said.
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