The drug infestation in our prisons

Despite the focus on the government’s controversial plans to reduce the prison population, the troubled Prison Service continues to cause headaches for Ministers in another way — by failing to get on top of the security problems plaguing the estate In the 1990s, when Michael Howard was in Ken Clarke’s position, the concern of ministers was escaping inmates. The Prison Service has made huge strides on this, despite ongoing issues with the open prison estate and day-release of some inmates. But now the ever-present problem is lax internal security and especially drug-infestation. The jailing this week, for two years, of a prison officer based at Feltham Young Offenders Institution is just one example of the problem.

As Channel 4 News reports tonight, we obtained — through a Freedom of Information request — an internal assessment of the prison drug problem which casts new light on the issue. The document admits that:

“Research consistently indicates that the most common types of staff corruption are the trafficking of drugs and mobile phones and that the scale of the threat is considerable… …Reducing prison drug supply is a constant battle.