A member of the watchdog that monitors conditions at HMP Liverpool has been suspended after allegedly delivering drugs and a mobile phone to a prisoner.
The Guardian understands that the person, who sits on a board that oversees the prison to maintain standards, was arrested and suspended about six weeks ago but has not been charged with any crime.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “A member of HMP Liverpool’s independent monitoring board has been suspended pending the outcome of an ongoing police investigation. It would be inappropriate to comment further.”
The law requires every prison to be monitored by an independent board (IMB), made up of members of the community where the prison is situated.
IMB members, who are unpaid volunteers, have unrestricted access to their local prison and a right of access to every prisoner and part of the prison, and to the prison’s records. They can talk to any prisoner they wish to, out of sight and hearing of prison staff members.
In a separate incident, a 30-year-old prison officer was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office and conveying prohibited articles into HMP Liverpool. He was later released under investigation.
HMP Liverpool, a Victorian prison that serves men from the Merseyside area, was described by official inspectors as having the worst living conditions that they could recall in a report published in 2018. Two-thirds of prisoners told the inspectors it was easy or very easy to obtain drugs.
The report described half of the prisoners being locked in their cells during the working day and drug-carrying drones as a serious problem. In 2019, judges in the Netherlands refused to send a suspected drug smuggler back to the UK because of concerns over the reported state of HMP Liverpool, where he was likely to have been placed. The Dutch court said they were concerned the man, who was wanted in relation to cocaine and heroin smuggling on Merseyside, was at “real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment” if returned.
A surprise inspection of the prison in September 2017 found it was infested with rats and that prisoners lived in squalid conditions.
The last report written by IMB members into conditions at the Merseyside prison, published in October 2020, said that prisoners had told members of the board that drugs were “readily available”.
The report, which covered January-December 2019, said this fact “undoubtedly contributed to the increase in violence” during that year. It said the prison had been using a body scanner to target prisoners suspected of carrying illicit items and that “good intelligence work has led to the successful recovery of drugs prisoners have been trying to smuggle into the establishment”.
MoJ figures show that drug finds in jails rose by 18% in 2020, amid claims that some prisons have recorded similar levels of substance use during the coronavirus lockdown to those before it, despite restrictions on prison visits.
From 2015 to October 2020, HM Prisons dismissed 43 staff over prohibited items, which can include drugs, tobacco and mobile phones. In 2020 alone, six HMP officers were dismissed, 23 outside staff were excluded, and 12 convictions and one caution were given.
Research also published last year suggested that the proportion of prisoners developing a drug problem while in custody had more than doubled in five years.