Prison ‘like an airport’ with so many drugs delivered by drones, inspectors say

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It is the latest damning – many would say embarrassing – illustration of the country’s growing prisons’ crisis.

HMP Garth is a high security prison with so many drones delivering drugs to prisoners, it’s “more like an airport”, one of the inmates told the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor.

The drones bring the drugs straight to their cells, the latest inspection report says, with prisoners using the element of their kettles to burn a hole in their “inadequately protected” Perspex windows.

With drugs comes the inevitable instability and violence. The rate of assaults at Garth, in  Lancashire, has risen 45 per cent since the last inspection in 2022.

As we’ve been reporting for the past year, drug debts incurred in prison leave men vulnerable and terrified. The inspection report said many inmates at Garth were now seeking protection because of money they owe.

The prison’s response to the problem was simply “inadequate”, the Chief Inspector said, with  prisoners left to damage windows faster than the authorities organised fixing them. There wasn’t always enough staff to do proper searches, and the prison couldn’t even manage to account for the mops and brooms which are critical tools used by the inmates, to collect their contraband from the buzzing drones.

The stark conclusion is that Garth – which is home to prisoners who pose a high risk of harm – now faces “major security issues “ and a potential “breakdown in safety and security.”

The problems at HMP Garth are not unique.

Less than a fortnight ago, HMP Winchester became the eighth prison since 2022 to be issued with an Urgent Notification – a sign a prison is struggling to function.

It had an acute, though familiar, list of failings. Drugs, debt, violence, self harm, prisoners stuck in their cells for all but two or three hours a day.

The conditions at Winchester were described by inspectors as “dreadful”, damp and mouldy, the infrastructure now so dilapidated one inmate had been able to remove his own cell door.

But equally familiar is the government’s response. It said the report into Winchester was an illustration of the “crisis this Government inherited.”

Its response to today’s report into HMP Garth:

“The new Government inherited a prison system in crisis and reports like these demonstrate the need for robust action to get the situation back under control.

We have zero tolerance towards violence and drugs and our security measures, such as X-ray body scanners and anti-drone no-fly zones, detect and stop drugs from entering our prisons.”

At the moment, the government’s immediate response to the prison crisis is the controversial early release scheme – though it’s worth noting, HMP Garth’s problem is not overcrowding.

Today’s report says Garth, like many other jails, needs substantial investment from the prison service, otherwise drugs – and all the issues that come with them – will continue to “flow into this troubled jail.”