Hot Seat Jamie Wallis

I HAVE requested an urgent meeting with the Lord Chancellor, who is in charge of our prisons, to discuss the appalling situation at HMP Parc.

Six people have died there in recent weeks, with police believing four of these deaths are connected to drugs. The Prisons Ombudsman is investigating 14 earlier deaths at the prison.

I was shocked by some of the findings, published in the Gazette last week, of an investigation by the newspaper. Former prisoners and staff claim there is widespread corruption, with allegations of drugs being smuggled in by staff.

The drugs include psychoactive ones like spice, which are 300 times more powerful than heroin.

Further allegations were made that prisoners are not monitored when they make outside calls, with some ordering drugs by drones which then deliver the contraband to their cell windows.

These claims prompt many questions. Why do staff not immediately go to the cell in question and search it and the inmates for drugs? And why are cell windows at Parc able to open at all?

Also, does the prison have body scanners and if not, why not? If they do have them, why are they not deployed to check all staff and visitors as they enter the prison? That would certainly deter those involved in the smuggling.

A report from the Prisons Ombudsman also highlighted a serious case of poor healthcare being provided at Parc.

The prisoner involved informed staff upon his arrival that he had kidney cancer and was waiting for an operation to remove it.

No attempt was made to get his medical records and nobody noticed he missed the date for his operation. By the time he did get it, months later, the cancer had spread to other organs and he died.

Being sent to prison should not be a death sentence – either from medical neglect, drug abuse or self-harm. Criminal gangs should not operate with impunity inside our prisons. Parc should be a place of safety where the often young and vulnerable offenders need to be detoxed and rehabilitated.

This prison, run by G4S, seems to be failing badly and I have urged Alex Chalk to consider stripping it of its contract to run Parc as has already happened with HMP Birmingham.