Chicken used to smuggle ganja into prison

| 01/03/2011

(CNS): Prison officials continue to battle against attempts to smuggle illegal contraband into the prison. In the most recent incident the chief officer at the Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs revealed that smugglers had thrown a dead chicken over the prison perimeter fence, stuffed with ganja. Franz Manderson told Cayman 27 that it was a constant battle to keep cell phones, SIM cards, alcohol, drugs and other prohibited items outside the prison when people are willing to go to any lengths to get them in. One of the biggest challenges faced by guards at Northward is the private road that runs right next to the prison walls which offers smugglers direct access. (Photo courtesy of Cayman 27

Manderson said this is not typical of most prisons and it remains one of the easiest ways for people to get banned items into HMP Northward. However, with changes to the legislation and the introduction of closed circuit television cameras (CCTV), the prison is improving its monitoring and enforcement. “Previously, if someone was found bringing a cell phone into prison, they were basically dealt with by suspending their prison rights and whatever action was being taken against the prisoner,” Manderson said, adding that he hopes the new law will act as a deterrent to smugglers as they themselves will now face a potential prison sentence.

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  1. Alice says:

    Finally someone is ready to take on the challenge of our prison. Thank you Mr Manderson for being open and honest with the public.

    I am confident that you will take the difficult decisions that is required to remove the revolving door at the prison.

  2. bracer says:

     Why not put up cameras?

    Good God! What are you people being paid for!!?

    Some one wake up and join the world we all live in!

  3. Nj2Cay says:

    Am I missing something here, if this private road gives smugglers access and is a known problem. Why do they not monitor activity on the road. And if it’s a private road why not put a gate at the entrance..

  4. Sarah says:

    mmm chicken pot pie – my favourite

    • Twyla says:

      Good morning Gracie, ah whaan ye go down dey by Nothward road an buy mi one a dem Weed Head chicken. LOL. Fun neva done.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why didn’t the chicken NOT cross the road?

  5. EEEEEDIATS says:

    What I really wanna know is… who shoved their hand up the chickens butt to discover it was stuffed? LOL

  6. Anonymous says:

    “The prison is improving its monitoring and enforcement”

    Hello!?!? What are you all being paid for? What do you mean improving enforcement. Do you think this is a bloody joke? Those people are in prison for a reason!

    Earn your money for a change and stop blaming somebody else. Do what needs to be done to keep the prison under control and ensure that it is what it is supposed to be – a prison where one has very very little freedom and only a few rights!

    No wonder those criminials don’t take anyone or anything serious.

  7. Anonymous says:

    I seem to remember that a recent F.O.I. request revealed that only a few ounces of ganja had been intercepted at Her Majesty’s Prison during 2010, with the implication that this turning of blind eyes resulted in calmer prisoners, easier to handle. It makes sense.

  8. Anonymous says:

    The croanies that are hurling contraband over the fence are the exactly the people that the authorities should be most interested in.  These are not Franciscan Monks or anonymous benefactors. These are gang members sent on an errand and they will lead you to the drugs and guns.  

    I refuse to believe that this activity persists out of gross ineptitude. Someone (or collections of authority figures) have been paid or otherwise feel compelled to look the other way.  This corruption has gone on for years and years and years and years.  ENOUGH!

  9. Anonymous says:

    There are a lot of sensible ideas set out in the comments here as well as a lot of very funny ones.

    Humour aside, there is no chance of making our streets safe if the authorities cannot even keep order at the prison. if the prison authorities actually want to stop the illegal activity at the prison then they might want to adopt the suggestions printed here. Jam the cell signals, close the private road, light and CCTV the perimeter and impose harsh penalties for all breaches.

    I also like the idea of imposing collective responsibility – for any breach of the rules, everybody looses visitation and other their privileges. The only problem I can see is that this would probably demonstrate that it is the prisoners who control the prison and are able to enforce the rules rather than the guards.

  10. Rundown11 says:

    Now this is funny! Whats next? Smocking Iguanas crawling under the fence and saying, "Hey dude, wanna buzzz"! 

    Now for a Dave Martins song for his Rundown 2011. Think i’ll start it off:

    A prisoner was sitting in his northward cellblock just the other day, when all of a sudden, a chicken came flying in and the dam thing landed by em cell bars and he jumped up and said, “Bloodcloth, a dead fowl with a stick a weed, what me doing in here; I & I should be selling these”. So he called Ratsa Pasta man and asked for a plan to get as many fowls to be the distribut-Ta.  

    Take it over Dave…….        

  11. Anonymous says:

    ya just gotta laugh …. and slowly sell yer stuff, pack up, close your bank accounts, say good bye to your friends, turn off the lights,  and get back home…..  I am weary 

  12. Chicken Feed says:

    Here’s your Curry Chicken with a side of Pot.

  13. Anonymous says:

    What no CCTV?

    Come on, we are spending $2million on CCTV and no one has ever bothered to consider that the prison might be a suitable location.

    LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  14. Anonymous says:

    blaming a road is the easy option….how about tackling the incomptence of prison gaurds?

  15. Anonymous says:

    Shouldn’t there be two sets of fences with a big space in between the two.  There are ways around this, get real.  If there is a private road, build another fence inside and give the inmates less space.  Sounds like they don’t need it anyway…..keep taking things away until all contraband is stopped.  Visits, gifts, mail, whatever it takes.

  16. Just Commentin' says:

    Smuggling drugs in a dead chicken? What a fowl idea!

    You can’t blame the public for squawking about this incident. And it is quite understandable that prison officials are in a flap about it too. I’ll bet this gives Mac something to really crow about.

    I wonder what bird-brain hatched this scheme up anyway?  I’ll bet you won’t hear a peep about who did it from the prisoners. I think they should come forward and make a clean breast of things.

    I guess being cooped up leads to drastic measures. I imagine that any prisoner would have been eggstatic to make such a finger-lickin’ good find while strutting about in the yard. But being in birds eye view of the guards makes this a risky venture. But then I hear that some of the prison security personnel are like the fox guarding the hen house.

    People say when certain inmates feel peckish it is not unknown to see a bucket of KFC flying over the fence.  Personally I’d be chicken to do something like that. I do not comprehend how they pullet off. Witness say they saw someone running away with a mask and capon.

    Government needs to take stock of the situation. This may be an indication we should farm out prison security to a private firm. We need to make cock-sure that something like this never happens again!  We need to egg the officials on to get more stringent about security instead of running around like a…well….you know…

    • Anonymous says:

      are you that little guy with all the hell jokes that works in hell? 

    • Anonymous says:

      Fantastic word play!

    • Anon says:

      ^ Hilarious, but true… love it! 

    • Anonymous says:

      We have many bird-brains that have infiltrated our way of Life that anything is expected in Cayman. There is a need to start doing some weed-and-feed then our problems will be less. As long as the importation continues we will have so many surprises too numerous to believe. It will be more than the Chicken that crossed over the Prison Fence.

    • Night Flyer says:

      To Just Commentin 01/03/2011 -15.23

      You should have charged for that piece,brilliant.

  17. Anonymous says:

    Why don’t they just fence the private road or buy it from the owner and close it down.

    • Anonymous says:

      or charge the private road owner with patrolling his road 

    • Anonymous says:

      I wonder …Did they build a prison next to the road or the road next to the prison, Where there is no vision the people perish, and the chickens likewise perish and become stuffed postmortem.

      • Anonymous says:

        This again was a case where land was bought from Family!!!!!
        at an high price!!!! It has come to pass!!!! They need to put the Prison in one of those Quarry holes!!! and let them btrak rocks.!!!!!

      • Anonymous9 says:

        @ 21:26

        Best comment so far

    • Just Commentin' says:

      Nope. Dat guy not me. Although my significant other has on occasion expressed the desire that I depart to that fiery venue (or worse depending on the severity of the gap between my Beloved’s opinion and mine).

      I am flattered by the compliments and LOL’s. Thanks!

  18. Anonymous says:

    Simple solution – when things are found inside the prison that should not be there (such as cell phones, sim cards, drugs, girl friends etc) suspend visiting hours the following Sunday for EVERYONE! You will quickly flush out who the ones are that don’t stick to the rules!

    Time we play hard ball because right now it seems they all are hanging back in their cells having a good laugh!

    • Nj2Cay says:

      Sounds like that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment, after all these criminals who murdered , robbed and raped our peers and got themselves thrown in prison have rights to the same amenities that hard working law abiding citizens enjoy in the homes they work hard and pay for.

       

      At least in the Cayman Islands.

       

      I’m sure they all feel that they have a birthright that allows them this, after all if the Government had given them high paying jobs they wouldn’t have had any reason to break the law, so it’s not really their fault. It’s the UDP’s fault.

       

  19. Subway Cookie says:

    I apologize for my ignorance in this area but Ive seen prisons on tv and they have the first entrance, big tall fence with barbed wire that is so tall you’d need a catapult to get anything over it. Then there’s space, and another entrance through a big tall fence. So inbetween the two fences is kind of a buffer zone so the fences are too tall to throw anything over and the space is so far its not possible to throw anything far enough.

    Isnt that reasonable? Wouldnt that make sense if the prison is close to the road? Even with the close proximity to the road, how are inmates able to access thrown over packages or is it that prison officers of the shady variety are collecting them for the prisoners?

    So many questions!

    • Anonymous says:

      the buffer zone makes it to difficult to ‘get out’ on the weekends to go to parties. 

  20. EEEEEDIATS says:

    Why did the chicken cross the road? He’s a drug mule of course!

    • Anonymous says:

      The drug mule was too heavy to throw over the fence so they threw the chicken.