Drug-filled tennis balls landing at Adelaide women’s prison take a hit in $6.8m state budget funding

Security is about to get tighter at an Adelaide prison in a contraband crackdown with drugs, weapons, cash and mobile phones on the hit list.

Tougher barriers to stop tennis balls filled with drugs being flung over Adelaide Women’s Prison fences. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Tougher barriers to stop tennis balls filled with drugs being flung over Adelaide Women’s Prison fences are being targeted in a $6.8m corrections package in this week’s State Budget.

Treasurer Stephen Mullighan said the funding over four years would include building new barriers on the prison’s perimeter fence where people recently had been caught hitting tennis balls filled with contraband into the prison yard.

Illegal contraband including drugs found at prisons across South Australia, including filled tennis balls hit over fences into the Adelaide Women's Prison. Picture: Supplied

The budget funds would lead to tougher measures across the state to keep contraband like drugs, weapons, cash, mobile phones and powders from entering prisons and threatening the safety of staff and prisoners.

Mr Mullighan said it would also include new high-tech security scanners at prisons across the state, including Port Augusta Prison and Mobilong, to detect banned items and serve “as a powerful deterrent”.

“Safety is the number one priority for our prisons, so this government is doing more to protect the staff and prisoners,” he said.

“We are cracking down on contraband, so we can stop dangerous items entering correctional facilities.”

The latest funding followed the installation of new body scanners at Yatala Labour Prison and the Adelaide Women’s Prison that can detect small substances often difficult to identify using traditional search methods.

In a first-of-its-kind at the prison, the scanner can detect objects on or inside a person’s body without removed clothing so it can avoid invasive strip searches of female prisoners.

Funding would also lead to more digital upgrades at the prisons and new cameras being installed with built-in artificial intelligence.

Tougher barriers to stop tennis balls filled with drugs being flung over Adelaide Women’s Prison fences. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Mr Mullighan said more searches were being conducted at SA correctional facilities, with more than 104,000 searches conducted in 2023-24, resulting in nearly 1600 contraband discoveries – compared to 88,000 searches in 2022-23 and over 900 prohibited items seized.

The government was ensuring thousands more searches were being conducted each year “and upgraded security will stop more banned items from entering sites”, Correctional Services Minister Emily Bourke said.

“We’re sending a clear message to anyone thinking of introducing contraband into the

system it’s not worth the risk,” she said.

In another pre-budget announcement, Mr Mullighan said $6.8 million over four years would be spent on replacing the current semiautomatic pistol used by SA Police – which is no longer being manufactured.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said it was vitally important to have reliable and effective equipment.

“The new pistols will enhance our operational safety capabilities and provide our officers with the tools they need to safely resolve critical incidents,” he said.

SA Police used their firearms 808 times in the past 18 months.

Of those, 673 related the lawful destruction of animals, while the remaining 135 occasions included the sighting or levelling of a firearm.

Originally published as Drug-filled tennis balls landing at Adelaide women’s prison take a hit in $6.8m state budget funding