it was revealed yesterday.

And Commissioner of Prisons Edward Dyer warned the raid at Westgate Correctional Facility in Dockyard was just the first in a series of swoops throughout the prison system.

Mr. Dyer said: "We have plans for the other facilities as well -- we are very serious about drugs.'' A team using sniffer dogs swamped Westgate just before the start of the annual Cup Match holiday.

Mr. Dyer said: "It was very thorough and we covered every inch of Westgate.

"We covered every prisoner, every member of staff and every visitor who came through the gate.'' But Mr. Dyer declined to comment on how much drugs were found -- or who was found to be in possession of them.

He said: "I'm pleased with the results -- let's put it that way.'' But he confirmed no major stashes were found inside the Westgate perimeter.

Mr. Dyer added: "I don't have any evidence that there are tons of drugs in the prisons. I do have evidence that drugs are there but to quantify it, that's not easy.'' The Commissioner was speaking only days after a prisons watchdogs report warned that drug abuse at the Prison Farm in St. George's had reached epidemic proportions -- and that it seemed "extremely difficult to keep drugs out of Westgate''.

Mr. Dyer said: "We have used sniffer dogs before -- but as it was close to the report being released, we used them then.'' But Mr. Dyer stressed that the battle against drugs was not a fresh initiative for the Prisons Service.

He said: "Let's say we've just intensified it -- I wouldn't call it anything new.'' Mr. Dyer added: "It didn't surprise anybody that the Westgate search happened -- but it surprised people with the timing, when it did happen.'' The Treatment of Offenders Board report said the Prison Farm -- a more open institution than Westgate -- had a serious problem with drugs and recommended the use of dogs throughout the jail system.

The Board's report also called for less use of jail terms and more of UK-style community service orders for less serious offences.

Members admitted that lack of discipline and respect and increasing violence among prison inmates reflected society's problems outside prison walls.

And the report added that inmates with skills and trades should be used to maintain the structure of the prison system and denied that Works and Engineering Ministry employees would be done out of a job.

Mr. Dyer said: "Community Service has my support -- but my only question if we're going to use this more -- we do have it at the moment -- is the supervisory aspect. If we don't have that, it's not going to work.'' He added that prisoners did much of the routine maintenance work at the old Casemates Prison and that he supported prisoners looking after their own surroundings.

Mr. Dyer said: "We probably will find ourselves getting into that -- but Westgate is a very sophisticated place and we have to call in outside experts for some things. But the principle is definitely accepted.'' And he admitted that standards of behaviour among the prison population had declined and caused problems for officers.

"We are getting general society's behaviour mirrored in the prisons and we just have to cope with it,'' he said.