Even though it is illegal for prisoners to have cell phones, as it is for them to smoke ganga, the authorities seem powerless to stop them.

Rizla cigarette papers are now on the banned list so the prisoners can’t roll their own joints and Eric Bush, Chief Officer of the Portfolio for Internal and External Affairs, has announced the prison authorities plan to liaise directly with the social networking giant, Facebook, to remove accounts that are either being used by inmates, or updated on their behalf.

Bush, in an interview he gave CITN/Cayman27 aired last Monday (3), he cited similar action in the United States.

He said, “One article that I have been made aware of was in California, where we had a sexual predator, or sex offender, and through his Facebook page and through a contraband smartphone in California, was actually visiting the sites of past victims. We certainly wouldn’t want anything like that repeated in the Cayman Islands.”

Whilst I applaud this initiative it does seem somehow like a Band-Aid. If you get rid of the source you don’t need the treatment.

Shouldn’t the priority be to stop the prisoners having cell phones and to stop the drugs being readily available?

Is that really so difficult?

Perhaps the inmates can show us on Facebook how they are able to get hold of their cell phones? Offer them a reward, perhaps?

Just kidding.

Also on the agenda is to make Cayman’s prisons smoke free.

Aduke Natalie Caesar Josephs acting Deputy Director of prisons said just before last Friday (May 31) No Smoking Day, “The decision to make HM prisons smoke free was made for both health and safety reasons, as well as to be compliant with the Tobacco Law 2008 and Regulation 2010. Given the serious health consequences of smoking and second hand smoke, we considered it to be the right thing to do for our prisoners and staff.”

The goal is for the prisons to be totally smoke free by 2014. This includes a no smoking policy for staff. The prison system will provide counselling and therapeutic assistance to help people cope when the no tolerance policy comes fully into effect under the new prison director expected next month.

There will be designated smoking areas in the prisons.