Bjorn Burke, Staff Reporter

Leaving behind the comforts of everyday life on the 'outside', criminals locked away often find several means to retain some of life's luxuries.

Most often, illicit items such as cellular phones and other items are smuggled into correctional facilities. So in order to power up these gadgets the prisoners are now said to be smuggling electrical wires into the prisons.

Information reaching THE STAR is that the prisoners have sought inventive methods to harness electricity necessary to power the electrical goods such as cellular phones.

A senior member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) explained to our news team that lengths of electrical wires are often introduced into correctional facilities to be used as a substitute to a mobile phone charger.

Recently, a woman was hauled before the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court to answer to charges of breaches of the Correctional Act, after allegedly attempting to introduce a coiled metal wire neatly stashed away inside an abnormally large chicken breast into the South Camp Adult Correctional Centre, also known as the Gun Court prison.

Deputy Superintendent Steve Brown told THE STAR that while he is unaware of that particular practice, he is not quick to rule out the claims as "people have their ways of doing things."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a correctional officer attached to the Fort Augusta Adult Correctional Centre in St Catherine, told our news team "We had an incident once, but it wasn't an electrical wire, it was a cable that you use to plug into the computer," she said.

Deputy commissioner in charge of custodial services at the Department of Custodial Services (DCS), Joyce Stone, declined to comment on the reports.