WATCHDOG SAYS DRUG BARONS RULE PRISONS

EVERY jail in England and Wales is in the grip of drug barons, the Chief
Inspector of Prisons said yesterday.

Sir David Ramsbotham accused prison staff of turning a blind eye to as many
as ten barons in each prison dealing in drugs including cannabis and heroin.

He demanded that the Prison Service and Government adopted a more
aggressive approach toward combating the use of illegal drugs in prisons.

In a report published today Sir David describes Glen Parva Young Offender
Institution as a "monster" in which a cannabis joint costs £2, many young
offenders feel unsafe and unconvicted inmates are deprived of fresh air and
sunlight for 22 hours a day.

But Sir David's comments to MPs at a Home Affairs Select Committee provoked
a furious response within Prison Service headquarters in London. Tony
Pearson, the deputy director of the service, said in a statement that he
"was saddened and astonished" at the remarks of the chief inspector. In
private other officials dismissed his comments.

Sir David, who frequently clashed with ministers in the former Conservative
Government, told the committee that he believed as many as ten drug barons
were operating in each of the nation's 140 jails. He said the barons
wreaked misery in prisons, dominated and intimidated prisoners and drove
them into debt.

Sir David said the prison drug problem had to be tackled much more
aggressively. "The people who cause the misery are the drug barons. I would
like to see them taken out. They intimidate others, they drive people into
debt, they dominate the life of the prisons in a way that I think is
totally unacceptable.

"While the barons are allowed to wreak their misery in the prisons, it
undermines all the programmes everyone is trying to do. If the prison staff
claim they don't know who they are, I don't actually believe them."