A prison in England is dealing with a “near-tsunami of drugs,” with more than half of inmates testing positive for narcotics, the chief inspector of prisons has said.
The inspectorate said the rate was the highest of all prisons in England and Wales.
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said: “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.”
‘Very High’ Levels of Violence
HMP Hindley is a prison and young offender institution for men aged 18 and over. It is a Category C prison, which is a training and resettlement prison that provides inmates with the opportunity to develop skills so that on release they can resettle into the community and find employment.
Mr. Taylor had conducted the unannounced inspection in November and December 2023, the most recent full inspection of the prison since 2017.
The report said its concern was that “many of the fundamental weaknesses that we identified over five years ago had not changed,” describing the environment as “run-down,” the regime “poor,” and “the prevalence of drugs was at the heart of much that undermined safety for prisoners.”
The inspectorate also noted that levels of violence were “very high, driven to a great extent by significant quantities of illegal drugs and a poor regime.”
Staffing Issues
Hindley was also facing staffing problems, with the rate of attrition of prison officers “in the top 10 of prisons nationally, with a high number leaving in their first year.”More than 40 percent of prison officers had less than one year’s experience and 58 percent had less than two years.
“We saw numerous examples of staff diffidence and an inability to confront rulebreaking and delinquency among prisoners,” Mr. Taylor noted.
The report also remarked on the “old kitchen” and “very cramped accommodation.” The prison was considered “poor” for “purposeful activity,” but “reasonably good for preparation for release.”
Mr. Taylor said: “Despite our criticism and the obvious strategic challenges, there was no sense of helplessness at the prison.
“Some very good offending behaviour and resettlement work was taking place.”
‘Zero-Tolerance Approach to Drugs’
A Prison Service spokesperson told The Epoch Times, “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 also boosting training for staff to better spot and support those with substance misuse issues while our £100 million investment in tough security measures such as X-ray body scanners is stopping more illicit drugs from entering jails in the first place,” they added.
The Prison Service also said that it had increased the number of prison officers in 2023 by 27 full-time equivalents (12.9 percent).
“Additional purposeful activity spaces will be delivered in HMP Hindley, such as accredited horticulture programmes and implementation of an ‘administration and reprographics’ workshop,” they said.
They added, “There is currently an ongoing multi-million-pound expansion project at HMP Hindley that will improve living conditions and the provision of services to prisoners.”
