Inmates are being ‘pushed into drug activities’ in a violent London prison, warns watchdog

Justice in Crisis: One of London’s most famous prisons remains troubled by gangs and drugs despite “promising” measures to improve security including the stationing of a police officer inside to investigate serious crime.
Wormwood Scrubs prison
Andrew Matthews/PA

Inmates in a London prison say it is hard to avoid being pushed into drug-related activities and that they are afraid of gang attacks despite “promising” reforms to cut violence, a watchdog says today.  

The Independent Monitoring Board for Wormwood Scrubs says that the problems are caused by the “easy availability” of illicit substances within the jail which the installation of a body scanner and other technology has yet to halt.  It says that other encouraging measures taken by the prison including the permanent stationing inside of a police officer to pursue investigations and an anti-knife crime scheme for inmates.  But it warns that 40 per cent of inmates have reported feeling unsafe because of gang activity and problems of debt and also discloses that an increasing number of attacks are now taking place in showers and other places beyond the view of  CCTV.  

The findings come in the board’s annual report on the west London prison, which houses around 1,00O prisoners ranging from young men to a handful of inmates aged over 70.  

It says that there were more than 500 violent incidents, including 452 assaults, during the 12 months covered by its report’with a decline in clashes later in the period when coronavirus restrictions were in place.  

The board says that it hopes that the downward momentum can be maintained and praises initiatives  to reduce violence and the introduction of new airport style security technology to try to detect drugs being smuggled in. Staff numbers have also increased.  

But the board says that despite this the “easy availability of drugs within the prison remains a serious issue” and “is a driver for violence, intimidation and gang-related activity on the wings.”

Its report adds: “Prisoners have told the Board that it is difficult to avoid being pushed into drug-related activities, and that they are afraid of drug-related gang violence.”

It also quotes a survey which found that “40% of prisoners .. said that they felt unsafe or quite unsafe.”’with “gang-related issues and debt”’ the main causes of violence.  

“As in previous years, prisoners told the Board that they are afraid of weapons and violence on the wings, and that violence can be hard to avoid,” the report adds.  

“The Board is concerned that an increasing number of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults are in cells and other areas, such as showers, away from CCTV.”

Wormwood Scrubs was one of ten jails nationwide included in a violence and drug reduction project set up by the former prisons minister Rory Stewart. Problems at most declined during the project’s operation but rose at Wormwood Scrubs. Today’s report expresses optimism, however, that some of the measures could lead to improvements over the coming months, although it emphasises that it is too soon to say whether this will be the case.  

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in