Ever since Labour was elected, every time there has been another disaster in our jails, or another set of terrible data, it has been briefed that ‘this government inherited prisons in crisis’. To be fair to the government, the Tories did leave our jails broken, overcrowded and crumbling, but this line has also been a useful shield for Labour, distracting from their own record. In this they have been helped by how long it takes for official reports and statistics to be published. There was always going to be a lag before Labour’s prison strategy could be judged.

Unfortunately for them, with today’s publication of a National Audit Office report on drugs and drones, we have learned that our prisons have become even worse since the general election. The Auditor General describes ‘substantial, increasing and rapidly changing threats’ from drugs in prisons, accompanied by a vast increase in drone sightings – a 750 per cent increase between 2019 and 2023, followed by another 43 per cent increase between 2023/24 and 2024/25. Meanwhile approximately half of prisoners in England and Wales are known to have a drug problem, and the number of prisoners saying it’s ‘easy’ to get hold of drugs in their jail has risen from 32 per cent to 39 per cent over the last year. 

Drugs in prisons create........

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