There is a dangerous culture of acceptance that must be broken over the “endemic levels” of drugs in prisons that endanger lives, a committee of MPs has warned.
Some 39% of prisoners find it easy to get drugs – and the use and trade of drugs are crippling the HM Prisons and Probation Service’s (HMPPS) ability to keep control and rehabilitate offenders, according to the Justice Committee.
A report published on Friday warned of the “unacceptable” human cost from the crisis, with 16% of 833 deaths investigated between December 2022 to 2024 being determined as drugs-related by the prisons ombudsman.
MPs heard that inmates in debt were being forced to test new drugs, sometimes for the entertainment of other prisoners, while staff becoming desensitised to daily suffering was a sign of a “failed system”.
The report found 11% of men and 19% of women said they had developed a problem with drugs, alcohol or non-prescription medication since arriving in prison.
Its findings come as ministers dealt with the fallout of a jail blunder this week after Epping migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu was accidentally freed from prison instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre last Friday.
The mistake was described by chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor as symptomatic of the chaos within the prisons system.
MPs raised concerns over a lack of resources for prison governors to tackle the drug “epidemic” because of the additional pressure of a prison population crisis and in some cases, severe overcrowding.
Chairman of the committee, Andy Slaughter, said: “The committee’s findings during this inquiry were sobering: put simply the drugs crisis across the prison system has reached ‘endemic’ levels, fostering a ‘dangerous culture of acceptance that must be broken’.
“Fuelled by inflated profits, the supply of drugs by organised criminal gangs into prisons is a constant pressure.
“This is compounded by failure to address and reduce the underlying demand for drugs and combat the alarming rise in the use of sophisticated drone technology.”
The report said HMPPS records show a 770% rise in drones being seen around prisons between 2019 and 2023, and MPs heard “alarmingly” about drones that could lift a “moderate-sized person”.
MPs also raised concerns of an “extremely serious threat” to prison safety over the increased ability of drones to deliver weapons, and potentially guns and explosives, as well as drugs and mobile phones.
The committee found despite the rising threat of drones, other traditional ways of getting drugs into prison via visits or throwovers were more common.
Drones dropping drugs into prisons has previously been branded a threat to national security by the chief inspector of prisons Mr Taylor.
The Government announced a £900,000 cash boost in July to tackle drones bringing drugs and weapons into prisons, on top of £40 million already used to boost security such as by reinforcing windows and putting up netting.
Meanwhile MPs heard once a prisoner is exposed to the “menu of drugs” available in jails, the pressure of the established culture made it “exceptionally difficult to resist drug use”.
They also found drug prices selling for up to 100 times their street value in the prison drugs market dominated by organised crime groups.
Strong synthetic opioids such as Nitazenes were highlighted as a “volatile threat” in the prison drugs market, which has a high threat of overdose and is already linked to deaths at HMP Parc, in Wales, in 2024.
Mr Slaughter said: “Highly potent new psychoactive substances (NPS) are driving increases in violence, debt, and fatal overdoses, with the current testing regime failing to keep pace.”
It was also raised the wider danger to prison staff through inhaling second-hand drugs after four officers at one prison became ill from a prison vaping with NPS.
MPs said that prisoners locked up in their cells for 22 hours a day is driving them to use drugs to escape from boredom and they called on ministers to expand access to education, work programmes and other activities to curb the demand.
Mr Slaughter added: “Without urgent reform and investment that tackles the profitable supply networks, the discrepancies in treatment provision and purposeful activity, plus the poor physical condition of the estate, prisons will remain unstable, unsafe and incapable of gaining control over the drugs crisis.”
Prisons minister Lord Timpson said it was a “sobering” report.
“You cannot deliver meaningful rehabilitation when jails are flooded with drugs,” he said.
“That is why we’re already investing £40 million this year to bolster security and stop contraband entering prisons, including counter-drone measures such as exterior netting and reinforced windows.
“This is alongside 85 specialist wings to help prisoners live drug-free.”
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