Inmates are returning to prison on purpose to deal drugs

FREED prisoners are deliberately breaking their parole conditions so they can return to jail to deal drugs, a new report says.

Offenders can earn thousands of pounds acting as couriers to sneak so-called legal highs on to wings, researchers claim.

One prisoner even claimed that another inmate had made £100,000 dealing substances during a six-month sentence.

Other convicts are forced by gangs to breach their terms of release so they can smuggle drugs into prison – often inside their bodies – to pay off debts or because their families have been threatened.

A gram of synthetic cannabis costs about £3 on the outside but can fetch as much as £100 when sneaked on to the wings.

Prisoners who have finished a jail term can be recalled if they commit or are charged with another crime, or if they breach

‘Devastating impact’

conditions. But academics claimed the licence recall system – under which offenders can be brought back to custody – was being ‘routinely and systematically’ abused.

Based on research conducted in an adult male prison in England, it said released inmates were committing minor infractions to return to jail.

Dr Rob Ralphs, senior lecturer in criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: ‘The synthetic cannabinoid market has exploded and unleashed a series of devastating impacts on prisons, prisoners and prison staff.’

The substances are fuelling a rise in assaults on prison staff to 5,954 in the year to June.

The latest study, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, comes at a time when the state of jails in England and Wales is under intense scrutiny.

Justice Secretary Liz Truss last month unveiled her blueprint for what ministers say is the biggest shake-up of jails in a generation.

Proposals outlined in a white paper include extra searches and mandatory drug testing in jails.