Drugs disaster in jails ‘worse than ever’ as seizures by jail officers close to record-high | EUROtoday

The medication disaster in prisons is the worst it has ever been, specialists have warned, with the prevalence of illicit substances rendering jails “almost impossible to run positively”.

Ministers have been warned that an unacceptable degree of criminality is rampaging unchecked in lots of prisons, as the newest knowledge exhibits annual drug seizures by jail officers returning to document highs of greater than 21,000.

New evaluation by The Independent highlights how the continuing disaster first exploded throughout the austerity years, because the jail service was hollowed out by cuts and employees layoffs.

The warning comes as staffing ranges stay on the brink at some prisons and because the authorities prepares for the biggest overhaul of the system in a long time to ease overcrowding and refocus the justice system in the direction of rehabilitating offenders.

“We generally feel there is a bigger and more diverse and profitable drug market in prisons than there’s ever been,” mentioned Mike Trace, chief government of the Forward Trust, a charity delivering drug therapy in 20 prisons.

“Obviously we can’t itemise that in terms of GDP figures, but the feeling for most professionals on the wings is this is a bigger part of prison life than it’s ever been before.”

Warning that this “makes prisons almost impossible to run positively”, Mr Trace – who beforehand served as a authorities medication tsar beneath Tony Blair – additionally expressed concern that an inflow of latest artificial medication are posing a danger to security, with fatally potent artificial opioids feared to be “in the mix”.

Mr Trace informed The Independent: “A lot of the market in prisons now is liquids and powders that people receiving and taking them are not really sure what’s in them. That means the risk of overdose or adverse reaction is heightened because people aren’t in a good position to manage dose and potency.”

“That’s why you get the large number of blue-light ambulances calling,” he mentioned. Warning that “blue lights are a normal part of prison life now”, Mr Trace added: “There are prisoners who need medical attention on a daily/weekly basis.”

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His warnings have been echoed in a serious watchdog report printed final month, during which the Independent Monitoring Board described medication as a rising drawback “endemic across the prison estate” – with “a seemingly unstoppable flow” into many jails.

The watchdog’s annual report mentioned: “At some prisons the impact of drugs was inescapable: debt drove up violence and bullying, while prisoners frequently experienced medical emergencies, which added further disruption as staff resource was directed towards assisting them and providing hospital escorts.”

That is regardless of intensified efforts to crack down on the flourishing illicit market, as employees within the crumbling jail property battle in opposition to more and more adept drone deliveries and hard-to-detect substances.

Official knowledge exhibits there have been a complete of 21,145 drug seizures within the 12 months to March 2024 – an increase of 35 per cent on the earlier 12 months, and near an all-time excessive of 21,575 hit 4 years prior.

Of the seizures made final 12 months, greater than 7,200 drug finds within the 12 months to March 2024 have been logged as “unknown” substances. Nearly 5,000 others have been categorised as “psychoactive substances” – which might embrace the artificial cannabinoid spice – and greater than 3,000 as “other”.

The Independent beforehand revealed that new super-strength artificial opioids now infiltrating the UK medication market had already claimed lives behind bars, with two deaths in June 2022 at HMP Lewes attributable to overdoses of isotonitazene, a substance 250 occasions stronger than heroin.

But specialists warn that, in each jail seizures and autopsy examinations, officers are nonetheless failing to check for these new opioids, which have been found in not simply heroin however illicit vapes, diazepam and codeine drugs. When nitazenes have been found throughout a jail seizure in 2023, the federal government claimed the pattern was deemed to be too harmful for the non-public laboratory to deal with.

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The Independent’s evaluation of official knowledge underscored the fast explosion within the disaster throughout the austerity years led by the previous Tory authorities, when funding cuts noticed skilled officers laid off and drug therapy avenues diminish.

There have been a median of three,813 annual drug seizures in prisons over the eight years to 2014, however this soared to a yearly common of 15,350 over the next decade. From 2014, confiscations skyrocketed from fewer than 4,500 to greater than 21,000 simply six years later.

Mr Trace mentioned “massive austerity cuts” from 2012 onwards noticed long-serving jail employees changed with “relatively inexperienced and poorly trained officers” – ensuing within the lack of “an awful lot of prison craft experience” and handing “much more freedom to prisoners to exploit laxer security to build up drug trade”.

Simultaneously, the variety of habit therapy programmes in prisons, similar to drug-free wings, have been slashed from 110 in 2013 to round 15 simply six years later, based on Mr Trace. It coincided with the arrival of spice – which is simpler to provide and flow into behind bars than hashish – and “increased the incentives of drug dealing gangs to target prisons”.

Now, the arrival of drones – which Mr Trace describes because the “current front line in the arms race for dealing” – have taken the medication commerce to “another level”, with a single supply able to serving a jail for a month. Previously, piecemeal provides got here through household visits and corrupt officers which lasted solely a matter of days.

HM chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, informed The Independent the consequences of medicine, usually introduced in on drones, “is the biggest challenge currently facing many of our prisons”.

He mentioned: “Inspectors regularly smell drugs as they walk around the wings and random drug tests in some jails are regularly coming back more than 30 per cent positive. Where there are drugs, there is debt, which is one of the causes of increasing violence.

“It is simply not acceptable that these levels of criminality are going on, unchecked, in so many English and Welsh prisons.”

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Experts often warn that medication and associated money owed are a serious driver of violence behind bars, with assaults on employees hitting a document excessive of greater than 10,000 within the 12 months to March.

Placing HMP Manchester into emergency measures final October, inspectors mentioned “catastrophic” ranges of medicine have been “clearly undermining every aspect of prison life, particularly safety”, fuelling the very best charges of great assaults of any jail within the nation. HMP Winchester adopted go well with days later to develop into the ninth jail put in emergency measures in simply two years, with inspectors additionally citing medication and violence as critical points.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson mentioned: “This government inherited a prison system in crisis – close to collapse, with drugs and violence rife.

“We take a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and are cracking down on illicit items using X-ray body scanners and drone-restricted fly zones – measures that are making a clear impact.”