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Drones flying up to 8kg of drugs into 'dilapidated' prisons, daily, as minister brands jails 'sweet shops'
8 October 2024, 17:55
As much as 8kg of drugs is being flown into some jails on a daily basis, LBC has heard, as the prisons minister warned they’ve become like ’sweet shops’.
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Victorian-era jails, with loose windows, are seeing drones deliver substances straight to cells.
One senior source from the prison system has questioned what could come next, as he pointed to the fact they’re already being used in the US to deliver weapons and help facilitate escapes.
In his first public speech as minister, Lord Timpson told the Prison Governors Association that the system was “on the edge of disaster”.
He said: “Our crammed prisons are breeding violence, which threatens everyone’s safety.
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“Staff shortages - and a lack of experienced staff - stretch your ability to run the kind of regimes you want to run.
“So many of your prisons are dilapidated, in desperate need of repair and I know it hasn’t been easy, trying to rehabilitate offenders in a system teetering on the edge of disaster.
“It’s a system that, when we came into government, had been running at 99% capacity for months.”
James Timpson said getting on top of drug addiction would be one of his main priorities, as he suggested a desire to move away from custodial sentences for addicts.
He said a review on the sentences given to criminals was imminent.
The chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, told LBC that both the supply - and demand - for drugs behind bars needs to be addressed.
He said: “You’re up against serious organised crime here - these are sophisticated people who are making enormous amounts of money out of the vast markups they make in prisons.
“You’re always trying to keep one step ahead.
“We will need better technology to deal with drones, like better physical security and windows that can’t be accessed in the way they are at the moment.
“Some of the older prisons, they’re easily broken, and drones can deliver right up to the prison.”
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Earlier this year, legislation implemented no-fly zones over prisons, to stop drones, but a source has suggested there are reservations about shooting them down, over the liability that may be faced if a person is injured by a falling device.
Mr Taylor said the use of drugs has become more widespread and open in the prisons he’s visited, describing the smell of cannabis being in the air, as he walked through several wings.
One troubled prison has seen at least a handful of inmate deaths linked to the synthetic drug spice over the past year.
HMP Parc, in South Wales, has seen 16 deaths since late February, with at least four linked to drugs.
A warning was issued by the prisons watchdog over the use of spice, over concerns about its lethality.
Prison governors say they’re very aware of the problems drugs are causing behind bars but say it’s a challenging situation.
Tom Wheatley, president of the Prison Governors Association, told LBC: “Going back to the start of my career, drones weren’t a thing, so technology has played a big part in this.
“There's a battle being fought across our prisons against drugs all day every day.
“Smelling drugs is one thing but identifying them, finding them, catching somebody with them and having sanctions for someone that are meaningful is another.
“You’ve got to have privileges in prison for their removal to mean anything, but it doesn’t just now where prisoners aren’t enjoying privileges in the first place.”
