The Prison Commissioner has sought Planning approval to build a 12-foot tall concrete wall to keep drugs out of the Co-Educational Correctional Facility in Ferry Reach.

The Bermuda Department of Corrections has applied to replace an existing security fence with a new block wall to match the existing fence height at No. 31, Ferry Road. ?It will stop communication and any trafficking that might take place,? Prisons Commissioner Hubert Dean said. ?Because people can see inside they do attempt to throw things to prisoners.?

In December, revealed that more than three quarters of new prisoners tested positive for at least one illicit substance. Mr. Dean said he hoped the 12-foot tall, razor wire and concrete wall would stop prisoners from getting hold of illicit substances inside prison.

?It will be around the perimeter of the Co-Ed,? he said. ?The existing fence is rotted away. One of our concerns at the Co-Ed is that all kinds of persons coming up to the fences.?

Mr. Dean hoped that if traffickers could not see prisoners they would be less likely to throw packages of drugs inside the prison. But should traffickers still attempt to throw drugs over the proposed wall, he said, more packages of drugs would be picked up during patrols of the Co-Ed?s perimeter.

Mr. Dean said these people were cutting through private property in order to access the west side of the fence.

?They do it to communicate,? he said. ?They can be seen and they can look right into the yard. It has been a problem for years. The reason it was never replaced was that the fencing was in pretty good nick. But now that it definitely needs to be replaced we can address it.?

However, Mr. Dean was not able to predict when work on the wall would commence pending Planning approval.

?After Planning we need funding from Government,? he said.

Mr. Dean was told that funding had been allocated in the Ministry of Labour, Home Affairs and Public Safety?s budget, however. ?The fact that it has gone to Planning is encouraging,? he said.