‘Tsunami’ of medication floods UK jail the place greater than half of inmates are on them

More than half of the inmates at a UK jail are on medication ‘at anyone time’, a report has discovered.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons has revealed that inexperienced officers are struggling to deal with a “tsunami” of medication at HMP Hindley, close to Wigan the place many lags have identified ties to organised crime gangs.

The report additionally highlighted that over half of the 600 prisoners have been discovered to be on medication at any given time. The scathing assessment by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor acknowledged that the jail is dealing with an “uphill battle” and is “still not safe enough”.

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Mr Taylor commented: “Hindley is facing an uphill battle: many prisoners arriving at the jail had an existing drug problem, and a large minority had known links to organised crime, so it’s unsurprising that the prison had a near-tsunami of drugs. The situation was so bad that mandatory drug testing found more than half of prisoners were on drugs at any one time.”

He added: “Combined with the indolence, boredom and frustration created by a really poor regime, and some very inexperienced staff, it is no surprise that the prison just wasn’t safe enough.”, experiences the Liverpool Echo.

These remarks comply with the primary full inspection of the class C coaching and resettlement jail since 2017, which was carried out unannounced in November and December final yr.

Previous checks by the watchdog revealed that the jail wasn’t secure or respectful sufficient, and was poor at offering purposeful actions. However, it was moderately good at planning for rehabilitation and launch.

The inspection report acknowledged: “Our concern was that many of the fundamental weaknesses that we identified over five years ago had not changed: the environment was run-down, the regime was poor, and the prevalence of drugs was at the heart of much that undermined safety for prisoners.”

The jail’s cramped residing areas, previous kitchen, and lack of bodily safety have been highlighted as examples of its poor situation. It was prompt that the HM Prison and Probation Service wanted to spend money on the jail to make enhancements.

The report additionally identified “very high” ranges of violence, largely pushed by the numerous quantity of unlawful medication and a poor regime. It mentioned: “The availability and use of illicit drugs posed a critical threat to the security of the prison, contributing to prisoner debt, bullying and fear.”

“The positive drug testing rate at Hindley was the highest of all prisons in England and Wales, and work so far to tackle this crisis had achieved minimal impact.”

Self-harm on the jail, which was included as a key concern, was ‘excessive and was rising’. The inspectors discovered that within the final 12 months, there had been 494 incidents of self-harm, which positioned Hindley within the high three amongst comparable prisons.

Staff leaving HMP Hindley inside their first yr will not be serving to the scenario however Mr Tylor mentioned the jail is not giving up, it simply wants extra funding.

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Campbell Robb, who’s chief government at charity Nacro, informed the ECHO: “The government needs to urgently address the crisis in prisons so they become places of rehabilitation creating a safer society for everyone.”

A spokesperson for the Prison Service mentioned: “We have a zero-tolerance approach to drugs in prison and through our new drug-free units like the one at HMP Hindley we are helping the highest-ever proportion of offenders overcome their addiction.

“We are additionally boosting coaching for employees to higher spot and help these with substance misuse points whereas our £100m funding in robust safety measures equivalent to X-ray physique scanners is stopping extra illicit medication from getting into jails within the first place.”