Drones could hoist escapers over prison walls, watchdog warns
Charlie Taylor, HM chief inspector of prisons, said the technology was developing so quickly that there was a 'theoretical risk' of drones being used to help prisoners escape.
At the release event for his annual report published on Tuesday, he said drones were already bringing in 10kg packages of drugs on each flight. There had also been cases of zombie-style knives found in jails that officials believed had been brought in by drones.
But he warned: 'What's scary, and we haven't reached this stage yet, but, if you look on Google, you'll be able to see someone being lifted up by a drone. So you know this isn't ultimately just a risk of what might come in. There is also a danger of what might go out of prisons as well.'
Asked if he meant this posed a risk of a prisoner escaping by being carried out of a jail by a drone, he said: 'There is a theoretical possibility of that risk. So certainly that's concerning.'
He added: 'Drone technology is moving fast. We've seen, particularly with Ukraine, that the technology has changed. There is a level of risk that's posed by drones that is different to what we've seen in the past both with stuff coming in [to jails] and ultimately the potential for something even more serious to happen.'
He said security failings by the prison service meant it had 'ceded the airspace above many of our prisons to serious organised crime' with 'overwhelming' amounts of illegal drugs, mobile phones and contraband being brought in by drones.
This was fuelling 'uncontrolled levels of criminality' and rising violence with as many as six in 10 inmates at the worst drug-ridden jails testing positive for drugs. The illegal phones brought in by drones meant crime bosses could not only continue to run their empires from jail but also orchestrate more drone drops.
He said drones were delivering 10kg loads of drugs to an individual cell 'very quickly' with inmates provided with a menu of drugs from steroids to cannabis and cocaine to synthetic drugs like spice.
Mr Taylor added: 'Prisoners have told us that pretty much anything you want is available.'
In high-security jails like Manchester and Long Lartin, which held terrorists, organised crime bosses and other dangerous criminals, the regular deliveries of drugs, mobile phones and other contraband represented a 'threat to national security'.
'Physical security such as netting, windows and CCTV was inadequate and at Manchester, inexperienced staff were being manipulated or simply ignored by prisoners,' said Mr Taylor.
'The ingress of drugs, drones and indeed weapons, which I described as a potential security risk at maximum security jails like Manchester and Long Lartin, continue to be our biggest concern.
'It costs £57,000 a year to keep someone locked up, and at the moment, many of those people are in their cells for up to 22 hours a day, high on drugs, watching daytime TV. It has to be said, this is hardly a rehabilitative atmosphere, and it's hardly value for money for the taxpayer.'
The threat from drugs being smuggled into jails was so serious that it 'needs to be taken seriously at the highest levels of Government', said Mr Taylor, warning that it was 'destabilising' prisons.
Mr Taylor said his teams of inspectors regularly walked round prisons where they were greeted by the 'strong smell of cannabis'.
He added: 'Only when drugs are kept out, and prisoners are involved in genuinely purposeful activity that will help them to get work and resettle successfully on release, can we expect to see prisons rehabilitate rather than just contain the men and women they hold.'
He said prisons needed to adopt basic security measures including securing windows, ensuring netting was in place to block drones, proper searches on the gates and regular site checks.
'It's making sure that basic stuff is done, like mowing the lawn so that you don't get packages which we've seen disguised as grass clippings, or making sure that the grounds are properly checked before prisoners get out there. We've seen packages that have been disguised as things like astroturf,' said Mr Taylor.
Lord Timpson, the prisons minister, said the report shows the scale of the crisis Labour inherited 'with prisons dangerously full, rife with drugs and violence'. He said the Government planned to build 14,000 extra prison places and reform sentencing 'to ensure we never run out of space again'.
He added: 'We're also investing £40 million to bolster security, alongside stepping up cooperation with police to combat drones and stop the contraband which fuels violence behind bars.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
'Adrenaline junkie' mother died on her first skydive alongside instructor when their 'parachute did not open as expected', inquest hears
A mother described as an 'adrenaline junkie' died on her first skydive - alongside her instructor - when their parachute failed to open as expected, an inquest has heard. Skydive instructor Adam Harrison and Belinda Taylor, who was strapped to him on her first jump, died when the parachute failed to open and they crashed to the ground.
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
'Everyone's on edge': Epping braces for another hotel protest
Tracey's cheese toastie is getting cold. She's explaining to me how hacked off she is about the asylum hotel in Epping, there is a lot to get off her chest. This Essex commuter town has seen a series of protests around the Bell Hotel where asylum seekers have been housed for the past few years. The catalyst last week was an Ethiopian man, who had only recently arrived on a small boat, appearing in court charged with three counts of sexual assault on a local girl. Tracey was in the crowd demonstrating last Thursday when things turned violent, with some protesters clashing with police. Eight officers suffered injuries along with two hotel employees. Tracey told Sky News: "I've been here since I was four years old, I'm sixty now and we've never had any trouble like this before. "I'm sick to the skin of it all, I can't wait for it all to be over. "Everyone's on edge now. There's a lot of hostility so I think they (the migrants) should go. "I'm not a racist and I'm not prejudiced but this has just gone too far for this town. "You shouldn't relocate them, you should send them back to where they came from, simple as that. "Then it will be restored, the peace." She's angry at the government's response and the way she feels communities have not been listened to. She told Sky News: "They are going to have a lot of protests on their hands if they don't do anything about it. "So watch this space!" She went back to her cheese toastie and chips. Essex Police officers are preparing for another demonstration in Epping later with a march planned from the hotel to the council offices, where local politicians are due to discuss the problems. The chief constable has promised that his officers will facilitate peaceful protest while warning troublemakers they will be robustly dealt with. As we walked along the main shopping street with our camera, a man wound down the window of his partner's Mini and shouted about the violence last week. We asked him to stop and explain what he meant. It turned out Keith was at the protest too, his son was arrested and charged with criminal damage. "My son is actually going to court because he shook the Bell hotel sign and they are trying to do him with criminal damage," he said. "If they arrest somebody there will be five people to take their place," he warned - suggesting that people will show up regardless. "It will go on until it stops, it'll stop when they (the migrants) get moved out." Not everyone feels the same way - another woman who did not want to give her name said she strongly disagreed with the protests at the hotel. She told us: "I don't think an angry mob outside somewhere where people are staying within our community is the right way to go about it. "They could be demonstrating outside the Home Office." It is a divisive issue that the government clearly can't solve quickly. They are aiming to stop using hotels to house asylum seekers by 2029. Very few people in Epping feel they can wait that long. They want solutions now.
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Gaps in Len McCluskey's memory must be filled one way or another
Len McCluskey has questions to answer RAY MCMANUS/SPORTSFILE In his last major investigation for The Times before his untimely death, Andrew Norfolk, the reporter whose work exposed the grooming gangs scandal, turned his forensic eye to the Unite trade union. In a series of reports for this newspaper, Mr Norfolk revealed that a company owned by a friend of the union's then general secretary, Len McCluskey, was paid at least £95 million for the construction of a hotel and conference centre in Birmingham initially meant to cost £7 million. This week an independent report commissioned by Sharon Graham, Mr McCluskey's successor at Unite, showed the situation to be even worse. Ms Graham had asked Martin Bowdery KC, a barrister specialising in construction, to investigate the hotel project, for which Mr McCluskey was a vocal advocate. The inquiry concluded that the cost of the hotel had in fact ballooned to £112 million. That was £74.5 million more than its market value. As a result, Unite has had to wipe £66 million from its accounts. An audit accompanying the KC's report concluded that under Mr McCluskey's leadership there was a 'pervasive fraud environment' at Unite. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is pursuing its own investigation. Mr McCluskey, an avowed socialist and admirer of Jeremy Corbyn, never shy of voicing his opinions on Labour politics, clearly has serious questions to answer. Mr Bowdery's report claims that the union leader was flown to watch his beloved Liverpool FC in two Champions League finals, in Kyiv and Madrid, by the Flanagan Group, the construction firm alleged to have overcharged Unite by at least £30 million when building the hotel. The report also lists five other occasions on which the union leader was taken to watch Liverpool, enjoying matchday hospitality courtesy of the Flanagans, whom he described as 'good friends'. Mr McCluskey said that as far as he could recall he paid his own way. Unite officials and lawyers were uneasy about Flanagan, which the report said had a history of 'poor performance, delays [and] cost overruns'. Mr McCluskey is said to have overruled them. He denies doing so, and through his lawyers has denounced Ms Graham's inquiry as 'inaccurate, selective and highly misleading'. The ultimate judgment will be made by the SFO but Ms Graham believes there is enough evidence to support criminal action against two 'very senior' former Unite officials. South Wales police are undertaking an investigation involving alleged bribery, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. It is not often that The Times agrees with Ms Graham but she is to be commended for her courage in taking on vested interests within a vast and powerful union of some 1.2 million members straddling the private and public sectors. She told this newspaper of the 'horrendous' attacks she endured from supporters of Mr McCluskey after promising to investigate the hotel project. She has described being 'followed home' and subjected to 'despicable online abuse'. There is much to criticise about Unite's positioning under Ms Graham's leadership, not least its intransigence over refuse collection strikes in Birmingham, but whatever her politics, she is at least committed to uncovering the truth. As Ms Graham says, multiple investigations suggest 'rank incompetence … or something else' during Mr McCluskey's reign. It now falls to the SFO to establish what that 'something else' might have been. It should expedite its inquiry as swiftly as possible. Unite pays £1.5 million a year to affiliate to the Labour Party and contributes significant sums to individual Labour MPs. It is too significant a political player to remain under a cloud of suspicion about its past integrity. The facts as they pertain to Mr McCluskey must be established, even if recalling some of them appears to be beyond our Len.
