MORE than 200 SIM cards, almost 70 phones and 62 phone chargers were recovered during a raid at Westville Prison last Friday, 29 May.
The Department of Correctional Services said the raid followed their aim to stamp out the illicit use of cellphones in cells, with plans for signal jamming under consideration.
According to reports, the head of Correctional Services in KwaZulu-Natal, Nombuso Mkhize, said signal jamming was already operational at the Umzinto Correctional Facility and the national department was looking at a wider roll-out. Mkhize said not even warders were allowed cellphones inside prisons.
Of the SIM cards recovered, 128 were taken off one offender. Some of the chargers recovered in the cells were still plugged into illegally connected power points siphoning electricity from the ceiling light fixtures.
Four wings in the B and C blocks were targeted in the joint operation with the SAPS. For the first time, nurses assisted the police to verify whether offenders were using certain drugs as medication. The raid yielded 933 ‘slopes’ (single portion packets) and seven money bags of dagga, as well as 34 mandrax tablets, of which 32 were found in one bag.
The most unexpected find was almost 50 litres of home-brewed beer. Some of the brew was in an open bucket brewing under a bunk bed in a cell shared by more than 60 men.
Mkhize said this suggested that there was a lot of unauthorised activity happening at Westville Prison and security measures needed to be intensified.
The offenders among whose belongings the mandrax and SIM cards were discovered were immediately moved to the Kokstad Prison and will remain there during investigations. She added that the investigations would also involve a careful look at warders who go in and out of the facility frequently, and those guilty of transgressions would face disciplinary action, dismissal or criminal prosecution.
DA spokesman for Correctional Services, James Selfe, said jamming the cellphone signal would be easy and cost-effective. He added that warders did not need to use their cellphones during work hours and said signal jamming ‘can and must be done’.
