A second prison guard in a week is facing allegations of drug smuggling.
A female guard has been stood down from Spring Hill prison in north Waikato, Corrections Department chief executive Barry Matthews confirmed yesterday.
"The officer...will be subject to an employment investigation and if the investigation confirms the evidence she will face severe disciplinary action and almost certain dismissal," he told the New Zealand Herald newspaper.The news comes in the same week as a guard at Wellington's Rimutaka Prison was arrested for drug smuggling.
A 41-year-old man will appear in Wellington District Court today charged with supplying cannabis.Further charges were expected.
Drug smuggling by guards was not a big problem but some were tempted, Mr Matthews said.Prison guards could be paid up to $1000 a time for smuggling drugs into prisons for inmates, he said.
There was a further case in June, when Rimutaka Prison senior manager Jeffrey Mark Reid, 43, was arrested and charged with selling cannabis to inmates.Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon did not deny some guards accepted money, but said they were more often motivated by threats to their families.
