COUNTY prisons are becoming awash with hundreds of smuggled mobile phones.

Figures released by Ministry of Justice show that 425 mobile phones or SIM cards were confiscated in Guys Marsh and Portland prisons last year, equivalent to one for every six inmates.

Of the figures, 242 were at HMP Portland, one of the highest in the country, along with 183 at Guys Marsh near Shaftesbury.

Meanwhile, The Verne, which was an Immigration Removal Centre before it closed in March 2018 had 24.

It will reopen later this year as a prison for sex offenders.

The Ministry of Justice says that the phones are used by some prisoners to order drugs and coordinate criminal activity inside and outside jail as well as smuggle in other contraband.

Nationally, the number of mobile phones discovered in prisons has hiked by more than 56 per cent from 9,640 in 2014 to 15,082 in 2018.

However, the lowest figure was just three mobile phones which were discovered in Foston Hall’s women’s prison last year.

Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “Knowing how many phones are seized is an important part of the story, but what’s unclear is how many of the calls made on illegal mobiles in prisons are by people trying to stay in touch with their families.

“When a person can spend their entire week’s prison wage in just 30 minutes on a prison phone and has one hour a day when they can join the queue to do so, it’s not surprising that the demand for illicit handsets is high.”

“So prison officers continue with a needle in a haystack search for illegal phones that are being used by the drug barons rather than the lonely sons, daughters, mothers and fathers.”

“A progressive programme of installing in-cell ICT, including phones, has been halted almost before it has begun. Restarting it is an urgent priority.

“It would undercut the market for illegal phones, and deliver a wider range of benefits for resettlement and safety.”

Frances Cooke, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform stressed that the best way to tackle the issue was to drill into the causes of the problem.

She added: “If prisoners had better access to phones, the massive trade in smuggling them in would stop and staff could concentrate on stopping the inflow of phones being used for crime.”

Lewes MP Maria Caulfield, whose Bill to empower prisons to block mobile phone signals in prisons across England is working its way through the Commons, said the figures showed the new law was desperately needed.

Her Prisons (Interference with Wireless Telegraphy) Bill will give mobile phone operators the powers to block mobile phone signals to prisons across England, meaning that even if mobile phones make it into prisons they will be useless at contacting the outside world.

In response, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said work was underway to tackle the issue.

They added: “It must be clear that it is a criminal offence to bring a mobile phone into prison or transmit sounds or images from within a prison using a mobile phone. These offences carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison.”

“These statistics show that we are successfully stopping contraband from entering the prison estate. Better intelligence and improved security measures are allowing us to catch more illicit items than ever before.

“However, we acknowledge that more must be done and as Minister [Rory] Stewart has previously stated, there are only five ways in which contraband can be smuggled into prisons and we are taking steps to tackle all five.”

“We’ve addressed flying contraband in by tackling drones, the throwing over of items by the use of nets and searches, the dragging in of items by identifying wires and the posting of drugs by photocopying letters.

“We are also taking decisive action to find and block mobile phones, including a £2m investment in detection equipment. “We have legislated to stop phones from being used in prisons.”