Andy Slaughter, Labour MP and Chair of the Justice Select Committee (JSC), has said he is disappointed that the government has accepted only 8 of 29 recommendations made by the JSC to tackle the drugs crisis in prisons. Two of the recommendations in the JSC’s report were rejected outright and 19 were only “partially” accepted – despite Ministers acknowledging a “dangerous culture of acceptance” of narcotics in prisons.
The report warned that the use of illicit drugs and their availability 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 normalised drug use in prisons and made their presence inescapable, noting that 39% of prisoners said they found it easy to acquire drugs. Concerningly, 11% of men and 19% of women in custody said that they had developed a problem with drugs, alcohol or medication not prescribed to them since arriving in prison.
Mr Slaughter commented:
“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.
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.”
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