THE Joint Services, on Saturday, seized a large number of prohibited itemsitems during raids conducted at the Timehri, Georgetown, Lusignan, New Amsterdam, and Mazaruni prisons.

The items seized include chargers, cannabis, razor blades, cutlery, cigarettes, cards, nails and earpieces.

Police in a release said, the searches were conducted by over 200 ranks from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) and lasted for about six hours.
In recent times, various items have been smuggled into the prisons and the authorities have since been working to fix this dilemma.

The items are claimed to be transported to prisoners by officers in the system.
Other officers, who witness these actions, are usually tipped off, so the acts never reach the authorities and the perpetrators are never caught.

The prison system is currently working to curb these practices, apart from using the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). These procedures have been proven to be less effective because there is bribery along the process.

About a year ago, scanners were introduced to provide added security, but this has since seen little to no improvement because of officers who do not comply with orders.
The Guyana Prison Service (GPS) intends to, further improve its security measures and to closely scrutinise its officers, in the coming year.