True scale of UK’s prison drug crisis revealed as deaths hit record high

Drug dealers are “operating with impunity” in British prisons, a watchdog has warned, as new figures show drug-related deaths have reached a record high.

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor highlighted the “appalling” death toll from the prison drugs crisis as he called for urgent action to prevent overcrowded prisons from being flooded with lethal substances, including synthetic drugs.

Grieving families have said they need not worry about whether their loved ones will make it out of prison alive after 48 people died after using drugs in prisons in England and Wales in the year ending March 2025.

The rate has risen by 2,300 per cent since the year ending March 2010, when just two drug-related deaths were recorded, according to new figures from the prison ombudsman. Independent.

Deaths have nearly doubled since 2024 as prisons grapple with large-scale drone deliveries; This led to a “paradigm shift” in drug availability, allowing some inmates to order from a menu of dangerous substances.

Mr Taylor said in the past smaller amounts of contraband had been thrown over prison fences or smuggled in through corrupt prison officers or prison visits, but drones could now carry up to 11kg of goods.

he said Independent The government was too slow to react and allowed dealers and organized crime groups to “operate with impunity”.

For many dealers, being sent to prison simply “opens up a whole new market”, he said, adding: “Unfortunately, the more drugs that come in, the greater the chance of riskier substances getting in, and the greater the chance of people tragically losing their lives.””

Mr Taylor called for tougher measures to deal with the crisis, which he said required a national response. This includes “managing assertively” by separating known dealers from other prisoners and working with the Ministry of Defense to fend off drones.

“It really needs understanding and it needs intergovernmental understanding,” he added. “Weapons are entering prisons. There are some risky men locked up in some of our prisons. There is a threat that if the government does not confiscate this, it will pose a threat to national security. Especially if terrorist criminals confiscate the weapons.”

Beth Ludlow’s father Simon, 51, was found unresponsive in his cell at HMP The Mount in Hertfordshire. His death in November 2023 was caused by toxicity of protonitazene, a dangerous new type of synthetic opioid that is 100 times more powerful than morphine. The inquest into his death concluded that the introduction of drugs into the prison likely contributed to his death.

His heartbroken daughter, who called him her “best friend”, said: Independent: “I lost my father because this prison can’t control the drugs coming in. It’s not like he got into a fight or got stabbed or got injured and then died. No, it’s because the drugs somehow got into that prison.

“There should be absolutely no drugs in prison. This is disgusting.”

Calling for urgent government action to save other lives, she added: “You shouldn’t have to worry if they are going to come out of prison alive.”

Ms Ludlow, 24, said she was not told that her father had relapsed when he was hospitalized with a suspected drug overdose and had a heart attack a week before he died.

When she arrived at the hospital and found him handcuffed to the bed, she was ordered to leave the hospital by prison officers and left believing her father had suffered a heart attack. Prison officers failed to thoroughly search his cell before returning to prison. It is not known whether the drug that killed him was among his belongings at that time.

Recalling their last phone call the day before he died, she said: “I was talking to him and I was just saying I miss you. I want you home. And I remember him saying, ‘There could be worse things. I’ll be home soon.'”

She said that if she had known he had a relapse, she would have tried to talk to him about it. The next day he received a call from the prison saying he had died.

When the autopsy results came back, he didn’t know what the nitazens were.

“I didn’t really understand why my father died until the investigation was over,” he said. “I never knew what any of this was. I was sitting there thinking he died of a heart attack. But he didn’t die of a heart attack, he died of drugs in prison.”

Gardener Eddie Hands, 42, died after taking methadone while on remand at HMP Bedford on 16 February 2024. A damning inquest found his death was caused by negligence and could have been prevented if staff had intervened.

Although it was observed that the father of two children, who obtained methadone illegally, was drunk with slurred speech in the morning hours, half-hour checks were not carried out as required. His condition was left to deteriorate for six hours until staff discovered him unresponsive in his cell because he had inhaled his own vomit.

His mother, Margaret Hands, 67, said the inquest was the worst she had ever experienced: “Because all the evidence showed Eddie should have been here with us and this was all avoidable.”

“I learned a lot about prisons because of Eddie and I’m horrified and I don’t want this to happen to another family,” she said.

“We will never be the same as a family. Hearing the evidence we heard was actually embarrassing and shocking, it was like he couldn’t make up for it.”

He described the new figures as “disgusting” and called on the government to do more to protect prisoners from drugs.

“David Lammy and Keir Starmer really don’t understand what families are going through,” he added.

“This is my child. I know he’s 42, but he was still our child. As a parent, I feel very angry and disappointed, I’m really sorry. I think it’s a shame and no family should have to be in this situation.”

Mr Taylor has repeatedly warned the government about the increasing risks from drugs in prisons and warned that drone deliveries pose a threat to national security.

Their calls for a tougher approach come after MPs warned in a major report earlier this year that drug use in prisons had reached “endemic” levels, with drugs changing hands for up to 100 times their market value.

The justice select committee found that 11 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women said they had had a substance abuse problem since arriving in prison.

They called for urgent reforms, including wastewater testing, a sky fence system to combat drones and investment in effective drug treatment services, among other suggestions.

Jessica Pandian, senior policy and communications officer at Inquest, which supports families whose loved ones have died in prison, said: “The record number of drug-related deaths is a predictable consequence of a government that continues to imprison more people than any other country in Western Europe.

“Drug criminalization has pushed entire communities into prison. Inhumane conditions in prison, including long periods of confinement in cells and squalid living environments, push people to use drugs as a way of coping.”

He said increased security would not protect people and called for improved drug treatment in prison.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Our thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones as a result of substance use in prison.

“We are cutting the flow of drugs into prisons by investing over £40 million in physical security measures and working closely with healthcare partners to provide prisoners with the support they need to overcome their addiction.”