The prison officer who had a tracking device fitted to his private vehicle has called on the justice minister to publish the report into alleged illegal surveillance in prisons without delay.

The Prison Service has admitted it needs to do more to tackle the flow of contraband into jails after another rise in the seizures of phones, drugs and weapons.

The prison service expects fewer than 1,000 phones to be confiscated in jails this year, with figures also indicating that fewer people are smuggling drugs in to inmates.

A PRISON officer caught trying to smuggle a “selection box” of drugs into Mountjoy Prison yesterday also had a second quantity of drugs seized from his car.