Grass tennis prison-style

A Geraldton magistrate has reinforced the seriousness of bringing drugs into prison, adding four months to a man’s jail term for being found with a tennis ball full of cannabis.

Wade Jones, 24, appeared in court via video-link from Albany recently on the single charge of possessing a prohibited drug, and changed his previous plea of not guilty to guilty.

About 8.30am on July 6, the tennis ball, covered in black tape, was found on Jones during a security search at Greenough Regional Prison, where Jones was an inmate. When they opened up the ball, prison officers found it contained 22.47g of cannabis.

In court, Jones said he had been given the package by one of the gardeners and had been asked to take it back to his cell.

Magistrate Donna Webb said Jones had to understand having drugs in prison was a crime which ordinarily attracted a further term of imprisonment because it attacked the integrity of the justice system.

However, she said because he was already serving a long prison sentence, the punishment would be reduced as “totality (was) a very relevant factor”.

Jones was made eligible for parole on the extra jail time.