Over half of prisoners at HMP Ranby in Nottinghamshire said they found getting drugs easy in a scathing inspection report.
The National Offender Management Service also said 15 per cent of inmates had developed a drug problem in the prison, near Retford.
A total of 58 per cent said it was easy to get illegal drugs there, an increase since the prison was last inspected, and far above the national average of 36 per cent.
Police intelligence suggested that prisoners were struggling to get hold of traditional drugs so had switched to new psychoactive substances(NPS), sometimes called legal highs.
This has been linked with the high-levels of violence in the prison by a report from the HM Inspectorate of Prisons.
There was also an incident in which a group of prisoners muscled into a wing office to take back a ‘throw-over’ package of drugs that had just been intercepted by staff.
prison still fundamentally unsafe
A Prison Service spokesman said action was being taken to address the problems.
They said: “Governors use sniffer dogs, cell searches and mandatory drugs tests to find drugs in prison and punish those responsible.
“We have also passed laws so that people who smuggle packages over prison walls, including drugs, face up to two years in prison. However, it’s clear we need to do more.”
The report also found evidence of extensive use of NPS by prisoners and this has been cited as contributing significantly to violence, associated debt and bullying.
At the time of inspection (September 2015) the prison housed 1,087 with roughly 10 per cent of the prisoners being prescribed methadone.
The report recommended urgent action to reduce the size of the population.
violence remained very high
Michael Spurr, Chief Executive Officer of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), said: “Following September’s Inspection we have taken decisive action to support the prison in making the required improvements including; reducing the population by 120 prisoners and increasing prison staff.
“In addition, we have changed Ranby’s role to give it a longer sentenced, more stable prisoner population.NPS remains a real concern in prisons and we are introducing a new testing regime which will be rolled out across the country from April.
“Legislation is in place to ban so called ‘legal highs’ and we will continue to work with police to disrupt supply chains and take robust action against anyone found supplying or using NPS in prisons. There remains some way to go, but I’m confident that Ranby is now on the right track”.
The report found that there had been some level of improvement in the prison since the last inspection in March 2014 but more needed to be done
It found: “The prison was still not safe for most prisoners. Far too many men still felt unsafe, although fewer than at our last inspection.
“The level of incidents and violence remained very high and a high number of prisoners had taken their own lifes.
“The prison was still fundamentally unsafe and many prisoners and staff confirmed they did not feel secure.”
In the six months preceding the report there had been 71 assaults on prisoners and 29 on staff more than double the levels seen in similar establishments, with one of the assaults leading to the death of a prisoner.
