08-07-2025
Drones could hoist escapers over prison walls, watchdog warns
Organised crime gangs could use drones to carry prisoners out of jail, the official watchdog has warned.
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.'
