To most of the public, the widespread availability of illegal drugs in prisons must be hard to comprehend. A Ministry of Justice that cannot prevent law-breaking within its own institutions is clearly failing to a disastrous extent. As well as undermining rehabilitation by perpetuating criminality, addiction and debt, drug dealing in prisons undermines the whole system’s credibility and purpose.

Yet this is the situation in multiple English and Welsh jails, as set out by chief inspector Charlie Taylor. His last annual report highlighted the fact that 39% of prisoners surveyed in 2024/25 said it was easy to obtain drugs, while 19% of female prisoners had developed drug problems in jail. The rate of positive results in random drug tests regularly topped 30%.

These are disturbingly high figures and Mr Taylor did not conceal his frustration when he told the Guardian that the government has been “very slow” to address the threat from drug dealers using drones to make deliveries. Mr Taylor has six months left in the job, and watchdogs often become more outspoken towards the end of their terms. But there is no doubting the gravity of the crisis.

Ministers have already committed to spending £40m on prison security, including £10m on anti-drone measures such as nets and signal blockers. An ambitious set of sentencing reforms is aimed at reducing the chronic overcrowding that makes prisons so difficult to manage. Given these changes, Mr Taylor cannot complain of being ignored. But the findings from a recent inspection of Manchester prison, released this week, point to an alarming lack of progress in crucial areas. More than 15 months after the same prison was subject to an urgent notification when inspectors uncovered a “very poor regime”, drug test results had not improved and “organised crime gangs continued to operate with impunity”.

Last year the government rejected a recommendation from the justice select committee that key individuals should be segregated from the wider prison population, given the urgency of the drugs crisis. In pressing for more drastic action, Mr Taylor is on the side of the MPs. The Prison Service, he said, values “plodding managerialism” over the kind of hands-on leadership that would reject lengthy waits for replacement windows, while the use of drones is a national security threat that should be tackled without delay.

Such warnings, and criticisms of lacklustre civil servants, require a response from ministers. Drug use in prisons is linked to self-harm and debt, and Mr Taylor’s suggestion of a link with attacks on staff should be taken seriously (a 2024 inspection of Wandsworth prison, for example, recorded a big increase in violence and “ubiquitous” cannabis).

But while drugs are a neglected problem in prisons, they must not become a distraction from the wider context. Ill-judged cuts to education budgets, and staffing problems, mean that far too many prisoners lack access to the purposeful activity which ought to be a core element of any sentence. With nothing useful to do, and separated from their families, there is no wonder that many become desperate for distraction. Where anti-drugs initiatives have been successful, peer and staff support have been vital. If such practice is to spread, a more robust approach to security will need to be accompanied by serious efforts to improve the human side of prison life.

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