Visitors slipping drugs into Vic prisons

Pills under the tongue or a packet of meth in a bra - it's easy to get drugs inside a Victorian prison.

A former inmate who doesn't want to be identified, told AAP that he was regularly delivered drugs by a visitor while behind bars.

On one occasion, his visitor had a packet concealed under her tongue, which was deposited in the prisoner's mouth with a kiss.

Another time the same visitor had a pouch of drugs hidden in her bra, which she dropped into a packet of chips for him to eat.

On both occasions he says he ingested the packet and collected it later from the toilet.

A Department of Justice and Regulation spokesperson told AAP "visitors will go to great lengths to smuggle drugs into prisons".

There were 52,869 searches of visitors and their vehicles in 2014-2015, which included pat-downs, strip searches and vehicle searches, the department says.

"Corrections Victoria takes a zero tolerance approach to illicit drug use in the prison system and is constantly reviewing how it detects contraband," the spokesperson said.

The state's prisons use a swathe of drug detection methods, including dogs, searches and advanced ion scanners, which can pick up micro specks of drugs on visitors.

Yet drugs, mobile phones and other contraband still slip through the bars.

A 2013 auditor general's report into drugs in prisons said: "completely eliminating prohibited drugs from entering prisons is unrealistic", with a harm minimisation the only real solution.

Any visitors caught with drugs or contraband are banned from prisons and referred to police.