"Very serious" drug problem at Holme House prison

HMP Holme House, near Stockton, has a "very serious" drug problem, according to a new report.

The report from HM Inspectorate of Prisons says three in five inmates think it's easy to get illegal drugs in the jail.

More than a third also failed drug tests.

HMP Holme House was designated as one of six flagship reform jails last year, in a project that saw the government give more flexibility to governors.

Publishing the findings, Chief Inspector of Prisons, Peter Clarke, said:

"The prison was not as safe as it had been and at the heart of our concerns was a very serious problem with drugs.

"The threat to the well-being of individuals was manifest and rarely have we seen so many serious and repeated incidents of prisoners under the influence of clearly harmful substances."

Alex Cunningham, MP for Stockton North, said:

"The government have been promising these new sophisticated machines that detects drugs for some time and Holme House was supposed to be one of the first in the queue - but now the Governor is telling me that that's still in development.

"We had the spice drug and we know that prison officers were very much affected by that

"We had many of them on the sick at one time - and that meant there were even fewer officers on the floor, in the prison, looking after the prisoners."

Michael Spurr, Chief Executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, said:

“As the Chief Inspector says, the Change Programme at Holme House has been undermined by the illicit supply and use of psychoactive drugs, which is why addressing this problem is a top priority.

“The Governor has increased the number of security and searching staff and is working closely with the Police to tackle supply. Work is also taking place with NHS England to reduce drug dependency and as a result, violent and drug-related incidents have significantly reduced over recent months.