Prison drug culture continues unabated

Date article online: 27/06/2007

The drug culture in prisons continues to spiral after one in fourteen inmates in Manchester failed a drugs test.

A total of 611 prisoners were tested for illegal substances at the prison in the 10 months to January 2007.

Of those, 44 tested positive — a failure rate of 7 per cent. Despite the large numbers it was down from nearly 11 per cent of inmates who tested positive in 2005/6.

Prison service targets state the drug test failure rate should have been kept below 10.3 per cent in 2006/7.

William Higham, head of policy at the Prison Reform Trust said the latest figures proved drug taking was endemic in prisons in England and Wales.

He said: "There is a cast iron link between drugs and offending. We know that drugs cost around five or six times more in prison than on the outside. This high cost means people will find a way of getting them into prisons."

A Home Office spokesman said: "Drugs are sadly valuable currency in prison and those outside go to great lengths to get them in.

"To combat this, the prison service has measures in place to reduce supply, including dogs to detect drugs, CCTV, fixed and low-level furniture in social visit areas, closed visits and visit bans on visitors suspected of smuggling drugs."