Tough new laws, which give outlaw bikie gang and criminal organisation members seeking to visit prisoners the boot from our jails, come into force today.
Amendments to the Correctional Services Act 1982 mean that domestic visitors who have been identified as members, associates, or those who associate with criminal organisations are now banned from visiting prisoners at all South Australian prisons.
Criminals will now find it harder than ever to smuggle drugs into our prisons and the amendments will help sever links between prisoners and their associates who seek to commit crimes on the outside.
The ban comes as the Minister for Police and Correctional Services, Corey Wingard, today visits Port Lincoln Prison and a week after two Hells Angels motorcycle gang members, and an associate of the gang, allegedly tried to enter Mount Gambier Prison.
Minister Wingard said the new amendments give Correctional officers the powers they need to disrupt the flow of drugs into our prisons.
“Bikies gangs and criminal organisations also use prisons to recruit new members, who may then go out and reoffend and put community safety at risk,” Minister Wingard said.
“These amendments make that much more difficult and is part of a suite of measures being rolled out by the Marshall Government’s Better Prisons Program, which aims to reduce reoffending by 10 per cent by 2020.”
