Prison governor pleads with relatives over legal highs

A prison governor has issued a plea to relatives and friends to stop throwing legal high drugs over the walls of his prison.

Andy Hudson, governor of Rochester prison, claims that the friends and families of prison inmates are throwing legal high drugs over the walls of the prison on a regular basis. This has become such a problem that Mr Hudson is begging these members of the public to stop the practice.Mr Hudson claims that prisoners are not educated about the very real dangers of the substances and that they should stop being punished for possession of legal high drugs; instead, they should be offered support and encouragement not to use them. He admits, however, that such a policy will be difficult to achieve because of the actions of the public.

During an interview with BBC Radio Kent, Mr Hudson said: “People will say ‘Why do you have them in the prison?’ You only have to walk round the perimeter of this prison so see how large it is and how easy it is for people to just throw things over the wall. And probably if I could get a message to people who do throw things over the wall, whether it be to family members or whatever, they need to stop doing it because they are putting people at risk.”

The mandatory drug tests currently carried out in the prison do not test for the presence of legal high drugs. This proves, Mr Hudson said, that testing is not the answer to controlling their use.