Drugs smuggled by drone undermining rehabilitation in prisons, watchdog warns | Prisons and probation

The volume of drugs being delivered by drones into prisons is severely undermining hopes of rehabilitation among inmates, a watchdog has warned.

Criminal gangs are smuggling contraband to bored and vulnerable inmates who are locked up for most of the day in filthy cells with little activity, the chief inspector of prisons’ annual report said.

Charlie Taylor previously warned that drones dropping drugs at high-security jails HMP Manchester and HMP Long Lartin was a “threat to national security”, and he repeated calls for the threat to be taken seriously “at the highest levels of government”.

The watchdog chief said: “This has been another very difficult year for prisons in England and Wales with the ingress of contraband delivered by drones severely impacting the essential work…