Woman who smuggled drugs into prison jailed

A woman who was caught smuggling drugs to friends in prison is now facing jail time herself. File photo / NZ Herald

A woman who thought it was a lark to smuggle drugs to mates in jail today found herself behind prison bars.

Nikita McCausland, 22, was sentenced in Christchurch District Court to two years imprisonment for supplying methamphetamine, ecstasy, and a class C drug inside a cigarette packet to an inmate at the Christchurch Women's Prison.

She also also admitted reckless driving, driving while forbidden, and failing to stop charges.

McCausland said she took the drugs into prison because that was what friends did for each other, and because women in the prison got nothing, unlike the male inmates in a prison nearby.

Defence counsel Tim Fournier said McCausland, who was on parole and bail, did not do it for financial gain, more for a misguided sense of loyalty.

He said she had a substantial list of previous convictions, and a poor record of compliance with court orders.

Her life had unravelled in a significant way, but she thought it was a lark helping out her mates in jail, he said.

Judge Stephen Erber said McCausland received a telephone call from someone in prison. She hid the drugs in a cigarette packet, and a person doing garden duties uplifted it.

McCausland had a serious drug problem and had been using methamphetamine since she was 14. She was assessed as a high risk of reoffending and not suitable for home detention, he said.

Her criminal activity started in the Youth Court, and then from 2006 she had frequently appeared in the District Court, and had had more than one term in prison.

He said supplying a class A drug to a prison inmate had three problems. There was a difficulty managing prisoners who had taken drugs, there was a problem of standover -- where one inmate had drugs and another wanted them -- and, the drugs could be used by inmates on drug prevention programmes.

He sentenced her to two years' prison with a release condition that she participate in a drug assessment programme as directed by probation.

- NZPA