Inside Britain’s crumbling jails the place ‘unsuitable’ guards are interviewed over Zoom and do not know the right way to unlock a cell door – whereas wings are rife with medicine flown in by drone
Britain’s crumbling jails are being overseen by underqualified new guards who are being interviewed over Zoom and do not even know how to lock a cell door, a union chief has warned.
Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, said it was not surprising that corrupt or unsuitable prison officers were being recruited because the hiring process was ‘simply not fit for purpose’.
His intervention follows damning inspection reports into two high-security prisons that revealed photos of their grim interiors and concluded they had such a serious problem with drug-carrying drones that it ‘posed a threat to national security’.
Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor has previously found several prisons to be similarly rife with drugs – a problem he partly blames on corrupt prison officers working for organised gangs.
Mr Fairhurst, whose union represents frontline prison officers, told peers that new officers were frequently being recruited without an in-person interview before being handed just six weeks’ training.
‘We recruited a person before Christmas who got sent back to their establishment from the training college because they were not capable of locking or unlocking cell doors, they were incapable of controlling restraint training and they were incapable of conducting a rub down search,’ he said.
‘That governor has had to dismiss that member of staff because he discovered that that staff member had been recruited and has cerebral palsy. We are setting people up to fail.’
Appearing before the Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee, Mr Fairhurst echoed Mr Taylor’s warnings about the threat posed by drones – claiming that they would now be powerful enough to lift an escaping inmate out of an exercise yard.
Prisoners are burning holes in windows at HMP Manchester in order to receive drone deliveries
Rubbish strewn over the razor wire at HMP Manchester in a photo taken by prison inspectors
Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, said he it was not surprising that corrupt or unsuitable prison officers were being recruited because the hiring process was ‘simply not fit for purpose’
He added that it was a ‘matter of time’ before they were used to bring in firearms.
Following his inspections of HMP Manchester and HMP Long Lartin, Mr Taylor said bosses had ‘ceded the airspace’ above both jails to ‘organised crime gangs’.
Apart from consignments of illegal drugs and weapons, prisoners are receiving mobile phones and even takeaway meals, Mr Taylor concluded.
‘The safety of staff, prisoners and ultimately that of the public, is seriously compromised by the failure to tackle what has become a threat to national security,’ he said.
‘It is highly alarming that the police and Prison Service have, in effect, ceded the airspace above two high-security prisons to organised crime gangs, which are able to deliver contraband to jails holding extremely dangerous prisoners including some who have been designated as high-risk Category A.
‘It is chilling that weapons can be delivered in this way – especially when some of these wings hold terrorists.’
The chief inspector’s report into Manchester said: ‘The prison had a serious problem with drugs, weapons, mobile telephones, and even takeaway meals being delivered by drones to cell windows.
‘Organised criminal groups led this activity. In the last year there had been 220 drone sightings.’
A broken cell window at HMP Manchester
HMP Manchester was found to have a chronic rodent infestation. Pictured is a rodent in a segregation yard
Blood-stained walls at HMP Manchester, which is known locally as Strangeways
Charlie Taylor described the outdoor areas at HMP Long Lartin as dirty and overgrown
The shower ceiling of E Wing at HMP Long Lartin, which appeared to be covered with mould
A filthy ‘kitchenette’ inside HMP Manchester
Inspectors found basic security measures such as protective netting to stop drones and CCTV had been allowed to fall into disrepair.
Mr Taylor criticised the ‘widespread dirt, damp and litter’ at both high-security jails, and described how Manchester had a ‘chronic rodent infestation’ with many cell windows smashed and prisoners using torn-up foam from mattresses to keep out the cold.
Meanwhile, at Long Lartin, Mr Taylor said the lack of in-cell toilets for many prisoners prompted them to use buckets in their cells and throw bags of excrement out of the windows, many of which were not cleared up.
The inspector linked the neglected state of both prisons to the issue of drone incursions, with holes found burned into ‘secure’ windows in Manchester by prisoners wanting to receive packages.
In some cases, contraband packages were rolled in grass cuttings and dropped into overgrown areas to be collected later, or disguised in bin bags and dropped into areas littered with rubbish, Mr Taylor said.
‘Just doing the basics correctly in a prison, like cutting the grass and picking up rubbish, will actually make a difference,’ he added. Nearly four out of ten prisoners at Manchester who underwent mandatory drug tests tested positive.
Mr Taylor first reported his concerns about the jail, formerly known as Strangeways, last autumn. In November ministers announced the jail would get extra staff and ‘bolstered security measures’, including anti-drone netting.
The latest warning comes after Mr Taylor likened high-security jail HMP Garth in Lancashire to an ‘airport’ because there were so many drones flying in drugs.
A dilapidated cell and shower room at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire
Another shower room at HMP Manchester
Prisoners at HMP Manchester covered broken windows with foam from mattresses
And a report from Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB) – made up of volunteers tasked by ministers with scrutinising conditions in custody – into ‘crumbling’ jails in England and Wales said delays in fixing broken prison windows was making it easier for drones to be used to deliver drugs and weapons.
In December, MPs heard contraband was being taken into HMP Parc in South Wales in ‘children’s nappies’, while there were ‘industrial specification drone drops being organised by organised crime gangs’.
Lucy Adcock, 47, was jailed for six years last year for recruiting a five-man ground crew to drop packages of cocaine, spice, mobile phones and SIM cards into the prison.
The mother-of-five was the ‘operational manager’ behind 22 prison drops in under a month – flying in a potential £1,420,000 in drugs and phones.
The drones were airborne for up to 22 minutes flying over prison walls in the middle of the night to drop their cargo into exercise yards.
Adcock was caught after packages of cocaine, spice, cannabis, phones and chargers were flown into HMP Parc.
Police were able to download telltale software from the home made, heavy duty drone found in the boot of her car.
‘We are investing in prison maintenance and security, working with the police and others to tackle serious organised crime, and building more prison places to lock up dangerous criminals.’
An interior photo of HMP Manchester, which was visited as part of an unannounced inspection
HMP Long Lartin (pictured), which holds some of Britain’s most dangerous offenders
It revealed Adcock had also carried out drug drops at HMP Gartree, Leicestershire, HMP Onley, Warwickshire, HMP Guys Marsh, Shaftesbury, HMP High Down, Sutton, and HMP The Mount, Hemel Hempstead.
Prosecutor Matthew Cobbe said there were 22 ‘incursions’ at the six prisons which dropped 600 grams of cocaine over the walls.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘Our prison officers undergo robust assessments and an extended period of training before they work in prisons.
‘We also continuously review our recruitment process to ensure our officers are best suited to their role and have strengthened vetting procedures to root out applicants who fall below our high standards.’
