Prisoners have easy access to a deadly arsenal of weapons inside a British jail – and can have someone stabbed for just £50, according to a serving inmate.
The offender, inside HMP Humber, called the Mirror from his cell to make allegations about a regime dominated by drugs and violence.
He told how screwdriver-style weapons could be used to attack fellow inmates at £50 per stabbing.
He said: “Someone gives you s***, you stab them, that is what happens in here. I can get people stabbed up for £50, that’s how easy it is.”
The convict claimed Spice, which leaves users in a zombie-like state, is sold openly on wings – with one inmate caught on video sniffing drugs at his work station.
Dead rats are being stuffed with drugs and mobiles — then lobbed into jails
“I have got a smartphone, I’ve got steroids, I’ve got weed, I’ve got knives – I’ve got everything,” he told the Mirror in a 25-minute call.
The insider provided shocking footage of inmates laughing as one openly sniffed drugs in a work-shop.
Other images show what appear to be drugs and paraphernalia inside cells at the jail, near Everthorpe, East Yorks. And there is video footage of a roof-top protest by one prisoner.
The insider described the Category C resettlement prison as the worst he had ever experienced, despite serving longer sentences elsewhere.
He said: “The problems with knives on the streets is starting inside prisons. You can carry them inside jail. When people get out, they use them to stab people.”
Three prisoners have lost their lives in recent months. The inmate was convinced the “no hope” regime contributed to their deaths.
“There is no rehabilitation in here,” he claimed. “When they get out, they have no hope, no aspiration, no dream of contributing [to society]. You need something.”
He warned the justice system and prisons were “failing people”, and contributing to the knife-crime epidemic.
The Mirror’s anti-knife campaign has highlighted the need for more police and a reverse to cuts to youth services.
“If it does not change, people will keep on getting out and stabbing people,” said the inmate.
They added: “It is the criminal element who carry knives and the young boys look up to them...”
A Prison Service spokesman said: “Violence in our prisons is unacceptably high, driven by illegal drug use, which is why we’re spending £70million on measures such as body scanners and sniffer dogs, and have recruited 4,700 more prison officers.”
