WITH an annual budget of more than £1m to tackle drugs, no one at Holme House can be accused of underestimating the problem.

The Teesside prison faces a constant battle to restrict the supply of illegal substances from smuggling, while at the same time treating inmates suffering from addictions.

The challenge is huge - sitting as it does in the middle of an area with one of the biggest drugs problems in the country and with up to 50 offenders coming and going each day.

Mark Robson, of the Prison Officers' Association at the jail, says the vast majority of inmates arrive with an addiction - whether heroin, cocaine, amphetamine or prescription drugs.

The biggest problem at the moment is with temgesic tablets - known as "temmies" - a controlled drug available on prescription.

The tablets are used by prisoners to help them come down after a heroin fix.

Fifty temmies smuggled into Holme House were seized recently after being found inside a Vicks tube in a prisoner's anus during a random search.

Heroin, also known as smack or brown, is another smugglers' favourite. A tablespoon-sized quantity of the drug could sustain the illegal drugs trade behind bars for a month.

Mr Robson says resources at Holme House are adequate, but admits they are sometimes stretched.

"The jail does all it can to stop people physically bringing drugs in. But we have to accept that unless you keep every visitor behind a glass screen you are never going to stop the problem.

"Visitors go to amazing lengths to bring drugs in. Some people will use their children as cover. When they know the security camera is on them they will play with their children in such a way that it will block out the camera's view."

Holme House was opened in 1992 to serve courts in Teesside, South Durham and North Yorkshire, and has a capacity of 995.

Visits by friends and family to prisoners have to be booked in advance. When they arrive, their possessions are subjected to an airport style x-ray machine.

Visitors receive rub-down searches from staff. Passive drugs dogs - trained not to bark or cause a fuss - are used to sniff out illegal substances.

Closed-circuit television cameras are used to monitor every move in the visitors' areas and ten per cent of inmates are randomly searched following a visit to ensure they have not been passed drugs.

Sean Clark, principal prison officer and drug strategy co-ordinator at Holme House, says smugglers take a "massive risk" of being caught.

Prisoners caught in possession face a range of punishments from a lengthening of their sentence to a taking away of privileges. They may also be banned from receiving visits or have to make do with one of the handful of booths that are used for closed visits where the prisoner and loved ones are separated by a screen.

Despite the risks involved in smuggling, Mr Clark is realistic: "We cannot force prisoners to address their drugs problems. We also cannot stop people from setting off to smuggle drugs in."

Holme House has stepped up daily patrols of its prison perimeter in a bid to prevent people from lobbing drugs over prison walls from the outside, a problem openly acknowledged.

It has also made a confidential hotline available to prisoners allowing them to act as informers and provide information on drugs to prison security.

Governor Mick Lees acknowledges the problem facing Holme House, but says: "The prison is better placed to deal with a drug problem than anywhere else in the community.