A 32-year-old woman was busted trying to smuggle 10 razor blades, a handcuff key and a sharpened screwdriver into a Bronx jail, authorities said this week.
The woman, who was visiting an inmate at the Vernon C. Bain Center in Hunts Point on June 22, had wrapped the banned items in foam in a bag, according to the Department of Correction.
The woman was arrested and is facing charges.
“Safety is the Department’s top priority,” Acting DOC Commissioner Cynthia Brann said in a statement.
According to the DOC, there has been an increase in weapons seized by department investigators: There were 721 instances where weapons were discovered in 2016, a 538 percent increase from the 113 instances in 2015.
The department has also discovered more drugs, making 432 drug finds in 2016, compared with 298 in 2015.
According to the DOC, the spike in seizures can be traced to an ongoing amnesty program, which allows visitors to anonymously drop contraband into a box, and tactics such as increased visitor bus searches. On the Q100 bus, which runs to Rikers Island, the department said it has recovered razors, box cutters, knives, drugs and a stun gun.
