Anne Owers, HM Inspector of Prisons, said in a report following a surprise visit to HMP Rye Hill that it was unclear whether it was the staff or the inmates who were in charge of the prison.
Kirsty Allsop, 24, was arrested when guards at HMP Rye Hill, near Daventry, found her with three separate amounts of cannabis when she arrived to visit an inmate It is the latest case of drugs being smuggled into the privately-run, category B prison.
Allsop, of Portland Road, Nottingham, pleaded guilty before magistrates to two charges of possessing 24 grams of cannabis resin and grass with intent to supply.
Matthew Maynard, prosecuting, said Allsop and another woman had been on a visit at the prison and met inmate Gary Longstone, who she had never met before but agreed to smuggle drugs to.
As they embraced at the end of the visit, a prison guard spotted Longstone put his hands into the waistband of her trousers and try to take the drugs out.
But they were stopped and searched, and Allsop gave up the drugs which amounted to almost an ounce of the drug.
The court heard Allsop, who has been using heroin and crack for five years, owed money to her dealer who had assaulted and threatened her to take the drugs into prison to repay a debt.Recorder Sandy Dawson, who jailed her for 10 months, said she had mentioned nothing of her claims of duress during interview when she had made 'no comment' to all questions and had shown little commitment to the proposal from the Probation Service that she was suitable for drug treatment rehabilitation.He said: "Although you say you were threatened, the courts have repeatedly said offenders cannot escape punishment just because they are the courier and mule."
Poppy Mossenn, defending, said Allsop was a bright, intelligent woman who had got into drugs through an ex-partner.
"She owed a particular person money and was threatened into doing it. She was given the drugs in question and told to visit an inmate at Rye Hill."She did not know whom, nor had she met him before."
HMP Rye Hill has been dogged with controversy since it opened under the private finance initiative in 2001.
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