THE five prison wardens under surveillance were charged departmentally and their dismissal has been recommended following an investigation, acting Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels said.The wardens were caught smuggling contraband into the prison and their cases were dealt with from December 2016 to January 2017.

As recent as Tuesday, the Camp Street Prison was searched and prison officers seized cellphones and chargers, cigarette lighters, scissors and improvised weapons.

The Guyana Prison Service has increased monitoring and security at the prison in the wake of several contraband items being discovered in prisons countrywide.

Investigations revealed that some prison officers have been colluding with inmates to get illegal items into the prison confines. Marijuana was also found.

A search at the Lusignan Prison Wednesday also found cellphones, improvised weapons and lighters.

Several prison wardens were previously charged and placed before the courts for smuggling contraband items into the prisons.

In October 2016, a female prison wardress at the New Amsterdam Prison was taken into custody after she was allegedly found with a quantity of cannabis at the New Amsterdam Prison.

She had 14 years of service to that penal institution. Investigators said the 35-year- old woman was arrested by her colleagues for allegedly smuggling in 298 grammes of marijuana into the prison.

After the prison officer allegedly collected a package from someone in a car, she took it into the penitentiary and placed it in the area where inmates would usually collect items.

Her efforts were short-lived because another prison officer saw when a prisoner uplifted the package and intervened.

Meanwhile, the Guyana Prison Service is expected to procure a device later this year that will detect items hidden in body crevices as it seeks to stem smuggling of weapons and other prohibited items into the country’s penitentiaries.

The National Security Committee had noted that inmates are becoming bolder and were aggressive towards prison officers since the March 3, 2016 prison riot in which 17 inmates died.

Since the fire, several raids have been conducted to rid the prison of prohibited items.