Recent data released by Ministry of Justice shows that 2025 recorded the highest number of deaths in prison on record. Last year there were 394 deaths in custody, a 15% increase from 2024.
This comes during a year when the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, warned of an ‘overwhelming ingress of illegal drugs’ which are ‘undermining every aspect of prison life’.
An inquest this week into the death of Simon Ludlow in 2023 found that drugs in prison probably contributed to his death in HMP The Mount.
On 25 November 2023, Simon Ludlow was found unresponsive in his cell after insufficient implementations of a protocol following a temporary hospital admission after a suspected opiate overdose sent him into cardiac arrest.
He did not receive the expected wellbeing review, nor was he seen by the substance misuse team. It was also noted his cell was not thoroughly checked during his time at hospital.
Rajiv Nair, a solicitor for Simon’s daughter highlighted that there is ‘widespread drug use, flaws in operation of the drug strategy at the prison, and staffing problems in the substance misuse service’.
This week, the Prisons Ombudsman also reported on its investigation into the death of Edward Hands in 2024, revealed that staff at HMP Bedford were inadequately trained, had a lack of basic drug use measures and were routinely ignoring crucial paperwork. The report reveals that, prior to Hand’s death, 15 ‘under the influence’ cases took place, yet not one incident form was completed.
A parliamentary inquiry in 2025 found that the use of illicit drugs in prison had reached ‘endemic levels’. It highlighted that 39% of prisoners find it easy to acquire drugs and that the persistence of this issue continues to stand in the way of effective rehabilitation, with many prisoners developing a drug problem after arriving in prison.
The inquiry showed that the issue continues for prisoners post-release too, after an investigation between September 2021 and December 2023 revealed that 61% of 137 post-release deaths were drug related.
