Reasons behind the shocking scale of drug culture at Deerbolt Prison are complex, says Charlie Ing, the chairman of the volunteer board which monitors inmates’ welfare. He spoke to senior reporter, Martin Paul
STAFF and resources are among the chief reasons Deerbolt Prison has a drug problem, the facility’s independent monitoring board (IMB) has revealed.
A report from an unannounced inspection on the prison released last week showed that almost 40 per cent of prisoners tested positive after drug tests, and 25 per cent say they developed a habit while serving their sentence.
Chairman of Deerbolt’s IMB Charlie Ing says the issue is complex and relates to the amount of time inmates are kept busy with educational activities.
He said while the inspection report revealed the extent of the drug problem, it does not explain why it exists.
He added: “Our IMB report looks more into the reason why. When we are monitoring, we are speaking to staff, speaking to prisoners and with that we understand a lot of the issues relating to why there is a bigger problem.”
One of the issues, he said, was being able to find the drugs.
He said: “For example spice – you can’t get prison dogs to sniff it out. From what we have been told every batch of spice is different so if you do have a dog at the establishment, it can only smell what strand it has been taught.
“Spice seems to be one of the biggest issues. There is always going to be drugs in Deerbolt, whether it is coming in over the top or handovers or drones.”
The chairman said although staffing levels are now “adequate” at the prison, regular regimes are interrupted when staff are booked off sick, put on restricted duties and stuck in offices, or deployed to neighbouring prisons where there are shortages.
Mr Ing said: “The number of staff needed to provide a good regime to occupy the prisoners is the real issue. Because of staffing issues prisoners are not engaged in as much activity as they should be, which means if prisoners are not engaged in activity as they should be they are more likely to do drugs.
“If the regime can’t function because of staff issues the prisoners can’t go to educational activities. The offering is there, but it can’t happen, so of course, prisoners are going to get frustrated and staff are going to get frustrated as well.”
Another problem is the change in the prison population, which was formerly a young offenders institution catering for ages 18 to 24, but now is a category C and takes inmates of all ages.
He added that while the core traditional education on offer is good, it is only appropriate to younger inmates and the vocational offering is still being improved to suit all ages.
Mr Ing said: “Therefore you don’t have a meaningful way of rehabilitating people, which means they are more likely to do drugs.
“Really the prison needs more support from a higher level to improve staffing to improve the amount of activity offered in a bid to improve the drug issue.”
Compounding the issue is the lack of experience of many of the new wardens, the IMB volunteer said.
He added: “Most of the staff we see are of a high level, but there definitely is, especially the last couple of years, a new cohort of staff who maybe do need experienced staff to teach them the ropes and give them that prison nous.
“The problem then is Deerbolt doesn’t have the funding to employ more senior managers, especially on wings, to then teach this new cohort.
“Those staff won’t be doing the same amount of job functions as the more experienced staff, so the situation gets even worse.”
He added that those without “prison nous” sometimes do not know how to effective communicate with inmates, putting themselves at risk of violence, or even opening themselves up to being corrupted into bringing drugs into the prison.
At the time of the inspection report, the inspector noted that some staff were suspended for this reason
The IMB team write an annual report in which they identify issues and make suggestions to the prison governor, the prison service and the secretary of state.
Many of the issues highlighted in the inspection report have been highlighted in previous IMB reports and remedial recommendations made.
Mr Ing said: “There has never really been a coherent response to what we raise. So really, senior managers at Deerbolt have got their hands tied because they can’t improve matters how they want to because they can’t get the funding or the resource.
