HOME Secretary Jack Straw today launched a crackdown on people smuggling drugs to relatives in prison - after being told about the problem by a Blackburn drug enforcement officer.
The Blackburn MP was holding one of his regular surgeries when an officer on the enforcement side told him the ways convicts' relatives took in drugs.
Mr Straw promptly launched an investigation and today unveiled tough new measures.
Revealing that drugs were sometimes hidden in the clothes of young babies, he said that in future anyone taking in drugs would face a visiting ban of at least three months and on future visits could only allowed to see inmates behind a glass screen.
Mr Straw said: "It is absolutely outrageous that people should smuggle drugs in, for instance, hidden in the clothing of babies.
"The effect of drugs in prison is far more acute than it is outside - it leads to gangsterism, intimidation, bullying and criminality within prison - the very things that we are trying to stop them from doing outside."
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