Staff working in Kent jails have dealt with more than 1,400 incidents where drugs were found and discovered hundreds of mobiles, according to government data.

HMP Swaleside, which is one of three prisons within the Isle of Sheppey cluster, recorded 486 separate incidents where illicit substances were found between April 2019 and March 2020.

The year before, there were 334 times when drugs were found in the jail.

As well as that, it had the second highest number of incidents where weapons were discovered at 373, behind only Wetherby jail in Yorkshire which had 374.

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) reported part of the prison's engineering workshop was closed after a search in October 2019 found weapons were being made in there. A total of 124 were found and 14 prisoners had to be sent to other facilities as a result.

Swaleside also had the highest number of mobile phones at 370 compared to 364 the year before.

Data collated by the Ministry of Justice shows it also had the highest level of finds of mobile phone SIM cards, alcohol, distilling equipment and weapons compared to other prisons in Kent in the same year.

In its latest report on the jail the IMB noted there was "minimal contraband coming into the prison".

It said there had been additional training for staff and a "greater awareness" of trafficking within the prison and during outside hospital visits.

Elmley, the Island's remand prison, recorded 388 incidents where drugs were discovered.

In January, it was selected as one of 16 prisons in the country to get high-tech body scanners as part of a crackdown on weapons and drug smuggling .

Standford Hill, also on Sheppey, is an open prison catering for those who are near the end of their sentence.

There, 164 mobile phones were found along with 65 drug discoveries.

Rochester prison had the highest level of incidents where tobacco was found, with 106 finds being recorded between April 2019 and March 2020.

Meanwhile, the highest number of finds at Maidstone prison was mobile phones with 316 found in the same period, compared to 165 in the year before.

It comes as a number of people in recent years have been found guilty of throwing items into the jail including Kuljit Kaur who was sentenced in 2018 for 10 months .

Cookham Wood, which is a young offenders institution, had 141 weapons discovered, compared to 49 in the previous year.

And staff at East Sutton Park – a women's open prison – had just four incidents where drugs were found.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We are finding and stopping more drugs, weapons and phones getting into the hands of prisoners than ever before.

"Our £100 million investment in prison security, including x-ray body scanners, will help continue to tackle the contraband which drives prison violence."

Additional security measures brought in to tackle the issue of contraband in jails include hardening the security.

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