Jail visits return with warning

Visitors to West Australian jails are being warned that tough new penalties will be in place ahead of social visits resuming this weekend. The new penalties will mean a visitor who tries to bring in contraband such as drugs will face a $12,000 fine and 18 months jail. Welcoming back visitors this weekend, Bunbury Regional Prison superintendent Kerri Bishop said the prison would recommence all security processes. “We use drug detection dogs and other processes for searching visitors and their property,” she said. “We also do joint operations with the police, all centred around stopping anyone that is thinking of bringing unauthorised items into the prison.” Visitors who enter or have left the prison can also be fined $6000 if they refuse a search, or they can face 12 months jail and $6000 for loitering around a prison or concealing an article for a prisoner. The new penalties introducing jailing as an additional punishment are the first changes in more than 30 years. “It has certainly been a long time coming,” Ms Bishop said. “In some instances these penalties have tripled and the fines are five times the amount that was enacted in 1987. “We did notice a considerably less amount of contraband during COVID, but if you reduce the amount of people coming through the prison, you’re going to reduce the amount of contraband.” Corrective Services Minister Francis Logan said the laws had been brought in to send a clear message. “I want to be very clear to anyone that is thinking of bringing drugs or other contraband that you will be risking significantly increased financial penalties and serious time in jail,” he said. “It would be naive to suggest that this is not a problem for prisons throughout the world. “With these tough new penalties in place, more drug dogs, better drug-detecting technology and increased resourcing for our intelligence areas, you would be extremely foolish to try and break the law. “Do not go from visitor to prisoner, you are not helping anyone inside and you could find yourself locked up.”