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By Richard Ford, Home Correspondent FOURTEEN prison officers were suspended yesterday in a corruption investigation involving the alleged smuggling of mobile phones and drugs into an overcrowded jail. The men and women suspended from duty at Pentonville prison in North London are also alleged to have had “inappropriate relations” with inmates. The prison told the courts that it would accept no new inmates for 36 hours.
The prison governor suspended the officers amid allegations that cannabis and mobile phones were being brought in by staff who had become too close to inmates, or had come under pressure from inmates’ families.
The allegations will be investigated by governors from other London prisons.
A spokeswoman for the Prison Service said: “If any alleged or otherwise suspected criminal activity is uncovered during the investigations, relevant information will be passed to the police.” She added that the service was determined to “root out corruption”.
Phil Wheatley, the directorgeneral of the Prison Service, said: “I will not tolerate staff corruption of any sort. Allegations of corruption will be investigated thoroughly and where evidence is found to support those allegations the appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.”
Colin Moses, chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “It is vital for the security and safety of prisons that all allegations are fully investigated. However, it would appear that these allegations are so serious that the Prison Service were left with no option but to suspend the staff.”
Pentonville, built 150 years ago, is one of the country’s oldest and largest jails. On average, it accepts 672 new prisoners each month. It normally employs 379 officers, with about 129 on duty at any one time.
The corruption allegations come only two months after the jail’s Independent Monitoring Board expressed concern at the amount of drugs and the number of mobile phones in the jail. Drugs valued at more than £140,000 were seized there in the 12 months to the end of March.
Last year the Prison Service held 1,360 investigations into alleged staff misconduct and dismissed 40 staff for unprofessional conduct.
A report into the Prison Service leaked last month said that more than 1,000 officers were believed to be involved in corruption. It followed a year-long investigation by police and the service’s anti-corruption unit.
The report stated that corruption often started with “inappropriate relationships” between prisoners and staff and that there were currently nearly 600 such relationships.
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