The Prison Service is to introduce mobile phone blockers in high-risk areas to stop inmates using smuggled handsets.

Hi-tech chairs which scan inside the body for smuggled contraband will also be introduced at every jail in England and Wales by next March. The equipment, known as Body Orifice Security Scanners, will also be used on prison staff.

A report commissioned by Mr Straw highlighted the role played by corrupt employees in smuggling drugs and other contraband.

Asked for his message to bent prison officers and other employees, Mr Straw said: "It is intolerable and we are going to do everything we can to catch you and ensure you get a very long jail sentence. It is a betrayal of society and it is also treacherous to colleagues because with corruption and the smuggling of drugs by prison officers goes major problems of disorder."

Prison Service director-general Phil Wheatley said: "We are very happy to catch people and turn them in as prisoners."

The report by former top policeman David Blakey revealed that some prisoners get hold of drugs by abusing a system designed to allow confidential communication with their lawyers.

So-called "Rule 39" correspondence from solicitors cannot be opened and checked by the prison.

The report said: "All that is required for a prisoner to receive... small amounts of drugs is a legal-looking envelope with Rule 39 written on it. Legal staff or legal impostors could be smuggling drugs this way."

Mr Blakey suggested that discussions with the Law Society, which represents solicitors, should consider a registration scheme in a bid to foil the smugglers. He also proposed a ban on visitors handing property such as clothes to inmates because illegal drugs can be stitched into garments, for example.