ARARAT’S Hopkins Correctional Centre has seen a 246 per cent increase in the rate of weapons seized inside the prison, but officials believe that is a good sign.
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Last financial year, Hopkins staff confiscated 26 edged weapons from prisoners for an average of just under 2.2 weapons found per month.
In the first two months of 2017-18, prison staff found 15 edged weapons for an average of 7.5 weapons found per month.
Hopkins Correctional Centre general manager Scott Jacques joined the centre about four weeks ago after managing Langi Kal Kal Prison at Trawalla.
Mr Jacques said the increased weapons seizures were a result of improved surveillance and prison intelligence, as well and better relationships between inmates and staff.
“I think what the figures are demonstrating is the relationship we have with the prisoners here,” he said.
“We are striving hard every day to foster relationships with we have with the prisoners.
“What that is enabling us to do is have a community approach where people are giving us information, which is a benefit to everybody.
“We have progressed rather than retracted. The relationships are telling us what is going on in the prison. We have made progress with the prisoners.”
During targeted drug urine tests, 11.63 per cent of prisoners tested positive for drugs at Hopkins in July and 8.33 per cent in August.
Hopkins recorded no positive tests for those months during last year.
If the prison outside Ararat continues to see this level of positive tests throughout 2017-18, then its average positive rate will end up double that of the two previous years.
Corrections Victoria Commissioner Jan Shuard said targeted results were expected to be high as the tests were performed on prisoners who were suspected to have been abusing drugs.
Ms Shuard said the random drugs test positive rate at Hopkins remained low compared with the rest of the prison system.
“A random test of five per cent of the prison population tells us what sort of drugs are coming into the prison and whether they are increasing or not increasing,” she said.
“The state level of random testing comes out at less than five per cent positive, for Hopkins the level is less than two per cent.
“We will strive hard every day to reduce the amount of drugs that come into our system; 80 per cent of the people who arrive at prison have got a drug and alcohol issue.
“We provide treatment but we are also very vigilant in terms of detection methods. We have a very strong intelligence base and very strong searches and staff that are very aware of the issue.”