Prisoners caught with mobile phones will face longer jail terms under proposals to stop "Mr Bigs" organising criminal activities from behind bars.
Prisoners caught with mobile phones will face longer jail terms under proposals to stop "Mr Bigs" organising criminal activities from behind bars.
Those who smuggle mobiles or SIM cards into prisons will also face jail under the proposed amendment to legislation.
Justice chiefs aim to clamp down on prisoners who use mobiles to arrange drug deals, intimidate witnesses and organise crime outside jail.
From next month prisoners caught with mobiles or SIM cards, and those who smuggle them in, will be sentenced to 30 days behind bars, subject to the Scottish Parliament approving the amendment.
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) also plans to introduce the use of signal blocking devices in prison grounds.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "The Scottish Government is determined to get tough with those who try to continue criminal activities while in prison.
"Serving a prison sentence should not allow the Mr Bigs to continue their life of crime.
"The smuggling of mobile phones into prisons is becoming increasingly difficult to detect as the technology is becoming smaller. But the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is committed to searching for them.
"By making possession a punishable offence we are showing that it will not be tolerated."
He said that in addition, a new offence of using a mobile phone in prison with a penalty of up to two years in prison will be contained in the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill which goes before parliament next year.
A common method of smuggling a mobile phone into jail is through packing it in a bodily orifice.
Other methods include throwing the device over the prison walls and smuggling in by contractors.
In many cases only a SIM card is brought in as prisoners can share a small number of handsets and take turns at inserting their SIM card into them.
The Scottish Government said that intelligence shows mobiles can lead to bullying around their use.
Currently mobile phones are not defined as "prohibited articles" and are treated as unauthorised property.
Justice chiefs propose amending the prison rules to specifically prohibit personal communication devices, including mobile phones.
This would immediately make it an offence to bring mobile phones into a prison under the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1989.
