Haul : The cherry picker collecting drugs from the roof of HMP Altcourse in Liverpool . The amount of drugs being thrown over the fence into one prison is so high that warders have been forced to deploy a cherry picker to remove them . Packages containing heroin and cannabis were cleared from the roof of HMP Altcourse in Liverpool - hurled there from the outside by friends of inmates who missed their intended targets . The hydraulic crane also recovered so-called 'legal highs ' as well as 22 phones , three Sim cards and six chargers from the 60ft roof , contained in a total of 14 bubble-wrapped packages . Officers at the jail , privately run by controversial firm G4S , disclosed the haul in an internal document , which dramatically highlights the extent of drug use among the jail 's 1,300 inmates . Dave Thompson , director of the Category B prison , said : 'These items were thrown over the prison walls by criminals on the outside and it required a cherry picker and staff to retrieve them from inaccessible rooftops . ' Altcourse , the first prison in the UK to be designed and constructed for a private operator , has been criticised for drug-related violence . After a three-day visit last June , chief inspector of prisons Chris Hardwick wrote : 'There have been 38 serious assaults in just four months before the inspection . Gang issues and the availability of drugs , particularly new psychoactive substances [ legal highs ] were a significant factor in much of the violence . ' G4S insists that Altcourse runs an effective anti-smuggling operation , and that the cherry picker is part of a 'high-visibility ' approach to show inmates they will 'root out packages from anywhere ' . 'We are committed to preventing drugs coming into our prison and we are encouraged that , at the same time as our seizures of banned substances have increased , the numbers of prisoners testing positive for them has come down , ' said Mr Thompson .
A cherry picker was called in to clear drugs from roof of HMP Altcourse . The prison has been under a management order since last year after inspectors found it had failed to meet minimum standards for the safety and security of prisoners.