Namibian Correctional Service’s Head of Central Staff, Commissioner Sam Shaalulange, has said the smuggling of unauthorised items such as drugs, tobacco and cellphones into correctional facilities around the country continues to be a significant problem.
Shaalulange said this on Friday during a media briefing that took place at the Windhoek Correctional Facility, while providing an update on criminal activities prison officers encounter on a daily basis involving inmates, the public and some prisoner officers.
He said often inmates get hold of the unauthorised items when they go out to courts, hospitals and other outlets, with assistance from outside contacts. However, it has also been established that some correctional services staff members, “motivated by greed”, who accept bribes from inmates and are therefore complicit in the smuggling of the items.
A total of 532 smuggling incidents were recorded in all 14 correctional facilities around the country between January 2021 and 30 September 2021. Windhoek Correctional Facility recorded the highest number of incidents, with 80 cellphones smuggled into the facility, 35 drug incidents, 36 tobacco incidents, 19 incidents of an inmate fighting a prison officer and six cases of assault of an offender. The rest of the incidents were recorded at the other correctional facilities.
Shaalulange also expressed concern about inmates scamming members of the public with the help of people outside by advertising items on social media which do not exist.
“We have observed and noticed that inmates are perpetrating a scam whereby they post adverts of selling vehicles and other costly items on social media using mobile phones, where victims are conned into depositing significant amounts of money to purchase these items, and only later to find out that no such item exists. These criminal activities are often perpetrated with the assistance of people from outside,” said Shaalulange.
He appealed to the public to refrain from sending money or to advance deposits for items which they have not seen and from people whom they have never met physically.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
