Drug-addled inmates ‘roamed jail like zombies’

Conditions at one of Britain’s biggest jails resembled a ‘war zone’ with drugaddled inmates wandering around like zombies, a damning report has found.

Convicts and officers at crisis-hit HMP Birmingham ‘lived and worked in fear’ as staff lost control, according to the assessment by HM Inspectorate of Prisons. In august, ministers took the dramatic step of moving the jail – which was run by private firm G4s on a 15-year £30million contract – back under government control for six months.

the HMIP report detailed a catalogue of violence, drugs, self-harm and squalor. an inmate described inmates ‘walking around like zombies, high on spice’.

Peter Clarke, Chief Inspector of Prisons, renewed his call for an independent assessment of how the jail was allowed to ‘slip into crisis’. G4s said: ‘We continue to work with the Ministry of Justice to urgently address the issues faced at the prison.’