WOMEN'S PRISON BOSS CALLS FOR HELP TO END DRUGS NIGHTMARE

The boss of Scotland's only women's prison last night claimed
shoplifters and fine dodgers are being paid to smuggle drugs into the
jail.

Kate Donegan took over at troubled Cornton Vale after it was hit by a
series of suicides among drug addict inmates.

Last night, she admitted it was impossible to stop drugs flooding into
the prison.

And she claimed petty offenders - including fine defaulters - facing
short spells in prison were being recruited as "mules" to get drugs
inside.

Donegan, who was giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Justice
and Home Affairs Committee, meeting in Stirling, called for the
filling of "a yawning gap" between prison and non-custodial sentences
to stop so many young women being caged.

And Labour MSP Gordon Jackson, QC, went some way to agreeing with her
when he told the committee he felt certain petty criminals should not
be in jail at all.

The leading criminal advocate said: "I'm interested in the scale of
the problem, in terms of the numbers of prisoners who might be
accommodated in a different way.

"I accept there should be serious offenders in prison. But my own
view, for example, is that fine-default people should not be in jail
at all."

Donegan continued saying there was little the jail authorities could
do to prevent hard and soft drugs being smuggled into the prison
without "draconian" measures.

She said: "The reason there are drugs in Cornton Vale is because the
vast majority of women smuggle the drugs into prison by hiding them
and we are not permitted to search body cavities.

"It's well-known among prisoners that if you're expecting a remand or
a prison sentence then you come prepared.

"Women are either coming with drugs hidden internally for their own
use, or to sell to others.

"We do not have the technology to detect if someone is carrying drugs
internally."