Prison security - Budgies in jail is almost laughable

THE discovery of not just one but two budgies in the country’s maximum security prison would be laughable if the underlying situation was not so serious.

It has long been suspected that prisoners, including hardened criminals, have been using mobile phones to run their business from jail, a suggestion corroborated by the discovery of an astonishing array of contraband in Portlaoise Prison.

An investigation is under way into how an inmate was able to contact RTÉ’s Liveline programme from his prison cell to launch an attack on a journalist.

In a wider search, prison officers have found 15 mobile phones, 11 chargers, three Sim cards, eight batteries, plus alcohol, ecstasy tablets, syringes and cocaine, not to mention the budgies.

While the birds are not a huge issue, how they got there is the question. Perhaps they arrived as an egg and were hatched in the cell?

It is illegal to have a phone in prison and the offence carries a sentence of up to five years. The need for automatic detectors and scanners in a top security prison is so obvious, it beggars belief they are only now being installed.