‘Little progress’ in stopping drug drones at HMP Manchester, watchdog says
The Prison Service has made “very little progress” in enforcing a formal demand to stop drones from delivering drugs into one of its worst performing jails, a watchdog has concluded.Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons for England and Wales, said HMP Manchester remained in a “precarious state” after a failure to fix broken windows and install security to stop contraband being delivered to gangs.Taylor issued an urgent notification in October 2024 demanding that the Ministry of Justice intervene within 28 days to stop escalating drug use and violence at the high-security prison.The disclosures, in a report released on Tuesday, have provoked concern among penal reformers that ministers are failing to stop drugs being delivered into the 123 prisons across England and Wales.The government has dedicated £10m across the entire estate to anti-drone measures.
Andrea Coomber, the chief executive of the Howard League, said: “It is a sign of the intense pressure the prison system is under when a jail that was effectively put in special measures 15 months ago is still unable to protect people living and working there from harm.”Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the social justice charity Nacro, said: “How can rehabilitation happen when drug use and violence are rife, and chronic staff shortages leave people in prison with little meaningful activity?“When nearly half of prisoners are using drugs and many are locked in cells for up to 22 hours a day, rehabilitation doesn’t stand a chance.”Taylor said inspectors invoked the urgent notification protocol in 2024 after finding that the category A and B jail, which houses about 550 men, was “in an appalling state”.“The combination of drugs, violence, an inexperienced and demotivated staff team, and a very poor regime, meant the prison was failing in many of its most basic functions,” he said.After inspecting earlier this year, he found some improvements but still scored the prison, formerly known as Strangeways, as “poor” for safety and purposeful activity.
Progress was “fragile” and undermined by delays in installing secure windows and grilles to stop drones from delivering drugs to inmates.“Drones continued to bring large quantities of drugs into the jail, which was leading to high levels of violence and instability,” Taylor said.“A failure by leaders in the Prison Service and absurdly bureaucratic planning processes meant just a handful of windows had been replaced, with the consequence that organised crime gangs continued to operate with impunity in the prison and the safety of prisoners and staff was compromised.”The number of prisoners testing positive in random drug tests remained the same, while rates of self-harm continued to rise, he said.“Four men had taken their own lives since our last visit and the rate of self-harm remained extremely high compared to similar jails,” he said.
The jail was failing to fulfil its function as a training prison, Taylor concluded, with staffing shortages forcing cancelled activities, and 44% of inmates unemployed.“Drastic” education budget cuts of more than 50% meant that the number of teachers had reduced dramatically, he said.Ofsted rated the provision as “inadequate”.A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “This is a prison operating under immense pressure after this government inherited a prison system at the peak of its crisis.“We took immediate action to bring the system back from the point of collapse and while we welcome inspectors recognising the strong leadership now in place at HMP Manchester, we are taking urgent action to stop drones, upgrade security and tackle the flow of drugs which fuels violence behind bars.
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UK’s largest housebuilder to buy less land in blow to Labour’s homes target
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IMF calls for countries to economise on energy supplies, and hails UK’s budget deficit improvement – as it happened
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A controversial law that grants the US government sweeping powers for warrantless surveillance is set to expire next week. Replacing it has inspired fierce debate within the White House and Congress, including a scheduled vote cancelled the day of.A coalition of progressive Democrats and far-right Republicans is pushing for reform of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), but they face strong bipartisan opposition from lawmakers advocating for an 18-month renewal with no changes, in line with Donald Trump’s demands. House GOP leaders delayed a procedural vote on a clean extension of Section 702 on Wednesday, after the chamber’s rules committee approved the measure on Tuesday night. Republican leadership was expected to bring the measure to the floor on Wednesday but canceled the scheduled vote, amid dissent from privacy advocates in their own party
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LIV Golf meeting in New York fuels speculation over rebel tour’s future
LIV Golf executives have been called to a meeting in New York amid growing speculation over the future of the Saudi Arabia-funded rebel tour.Rumours that LIV could soon be shut down had begun to circulate on social media on Tuesday evening with officials from the tour declining to respond. LIV’s next event in Mexico City will begin as planned on Thursday, although as first reported by the Daily Telegraph, the tour’s senior leadership were all absent having been diverted to New York. Many of LIV’s senior personnel, including the chief executive, Scott O’Neil, were at Augusta for the Masters last week and have stayed in the US.LIV has been under pressure for some time owing to its inability to agree a merger with the PGA Tour three years after signing a so-called “framework agreement”, with that stand-off compounded by the desire of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) to cut costs
Sir Craig Reedie obituary
Sir Craig Reedie, who has died aged 84, was a key figure in London’s successful bid to stage the 2012 Olympics. As a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games from 2005 to 2013, he formed a brilliantly effective campaign partnership with Sebastian Coe, the bid leader, doing much crucial work behind the scenes, first by helping to win the support of British politicians and then by marshalling the all-important votes of Olympic delegates who would determine where the Games would go.Coe, to whom Reedie was a long-time mentor, was under no illusion that without the older man’s diplomatic skills and influential presence within the Olympic and Paralympic movement, which he had developed earlier as chair of the British Olympic Association (BOA), London might never have won the right to host the 2012 Games.Reedie chaired the BOA between 1992 and 2005, and from 1994 was also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), ultimately serving as its vice-president from 2012 to 2016. A passionate advocate of drug-free competition (“there’s no point in any of it if the sport is not clean”), he became a founder board member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) in 2000, rising to be its president from 2014 to 2019, and a thorn in the side of those who tried to gain advantage by taking performance enhancing substances
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