Government response to MPs’ report on prison drugs “not enough”, says senior MP

The Labour MP who chairs the Justice Select Committee (JSC), Andy Slaughter, has said he is disappointed that of 29 recommendations made by the JSC to tackle the drugs crisis in prisons, only eight have been accepted by the Government.

Two of the recommendations in the JSC’s report, called ‘Tackling the Drugs Crisis in our Prisons’ and published in October, were rejected outright. The remaining 19 were only “partially” accepted. This is despite Ministers acknowledging there is a “dangerous culture of acceptance” of narcotics in prisons. 

Mr Slaughter said the response was “not enough” to gain control over the drugs crisis in jails.

In its response to the JSC report, published on 9 January, ministers say they “recognise that drug use in prisons is too high and share the Committee’s concern about the risks this poses, both to safety and to our efforts to reduce reoffending”. They add: “We are taking action through the Sentencing Bill to place the prison population on a sustainable footing, and create the conditions required to tackle the key challenges in our prisons.”

The JSC report warned that the use of illicit drugs and the trade in them across prisons in England and Wales has reached “endemic” levels, fostering a “dangerous culture of acceptance that must be broken”. It also warned that widespread and increasing availability of illicit substances normalises drug use in prisons and makes their presence inescapable, noting that 39 per cent of prisoners say they find it easy to acquire drugs.

 The situation is made worse by the high number of people entering prison with an existing addiction and the worrying trend of prisoners who had no prior issues developing a drug habit once exposed to the ‘menu of drugs’ available. The report noted that 11 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women in custody said they had developed a problem with drugs, alcohol or medication not prescribed to them since arriving in prison.

The Government response added: “Ongoing efforts are focused on creating a safer, recovery-focused system which tackles the threat of drug ingress, improves support for prisoners in treatment, keeps people safe, and equips staff with skills and tools they need.”

One of the two rejected recommendations called for the setting of mandatory timeframes for critical estate repairs. The other related to the management of individuals identified as key OCG (Organised Crime Group) operators.

 Mr Slaughter added: “The Committee’s report laid bare a prisons drugs crisis at ‘endemic’ levels requiring an urgent multi-faceted response underpinned by the necessary funding to turn around a ‘dangerous culture of acceptance’. It is disappointing that of the 29 recommendations made, only eight have been accepted, two rejected and the rest ‘partially accepted’. When HM Prison and Probation Service’s ability to maintain safety and control, and offer effective rehabilitation, is being critically undermined by the scale of the trade and use of drugs, a selective response is not enough to grip and solve this wide-ranging issue.

 “As the Committee’s report recommended, further immediate measures are needed to address and reduce the underlying demand for drugs and combat the alarming rise in the use of sophisticated drone technology. Without such reform and investment that tackles the profitable supply networks, the discrepancies in treatment provision and purposeful activity, plus the poor condition of the estate and serious capacity pressures, prisons will remain unstable, unsafe and incapable of gaining control over the drugs crisis.”