Figures obtained by The Examiner under Right to Information laws show  the dogs carried out 661 searches in 2013-14.

From this, 57 people were caught with cannabis, methamphetamine, such as ice, and prescription drugs such as opioids.

This amounts to nearly a tenfold increase in drug seizures and a potential rise in the use of ice when compared with a 2011 Australian National Council on Drugs report.

According to the report, 595 dog searches in 2009 only turned up drugs on six occasions and none included ice.

The incidence of illicit substance use inside Tasmanian prisons has led to the setting up of a special Drug Strategy Unit.

The Justice Department refused to state whether  those caught with drugs were inmates or visitors and exactly how the contraband was being smuggled in, saying that  might tip off crooks.

However, court proceedings have revealed what lengths people will go to in order to smuggle drugs into jail.

Last year a woman was caught taking drugs into Risdon Prison internally.

Police located two balloons inside the woman containing cannabis, speed, ice, opioids, five ecstasy pills and syringes.

The woman told police that she was delivering drugs to her inmate boyfriend and had smuggled several packages into the jail before getting caught.

The prison drug trade is hardly surprising.

According to the ANCD report, more than 60 per cent of Tasmanian inmates said their offending was drug or alcohol-related, while 28 per cent reported a history of injecting drugs.

‘‘(The ANCD) has consistently reported that we have an issue in all prisons ... of illicit drugs getting into the prison,’’ said Jann Smith, chief executive of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Council of Tasmania.

‘‘We know the drugs are in there so we need to increase and enhance the treatment that’s available.’’

Ms Smith said there were rehabilitation programs in jail but they had limited resources.

She said a needle exchange in prison would exist in an ‘‘ideal world’’ but issues such as  the safety of prison guards made it a complex matter.

‘‘We know that people in prison are injecting drugs and we also know that if they share equipment or use damaged equipment they have high rates of hepatitis, and we also know damage to veins … all those sort of things … are magnified,’’ she said.

‘‘Just because it’s complicated doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and find a solution.’’

The department quashed talk of a needle program, stating that no other prison in Australia has one.

‘‘While drugs in prison are a reality, the Tasmania Prison Service manages the issue effectively,’’ a spokeswoman said.

The Tasmanian Greens are the only party that supports a prison needle program, but former Greens leader Nick McKim failed to implement one while corrections minister in the former government.

Mr McKim said the drugs in jail should be treated like they were on the outside with a ‘‘combination of supply reduction, demand reduction and harm minimisation’’.