Watchdog chief: Drugs in prison are driving violence and reoffending

Illegal drug use is fuelling addiction and criminality within our prison system, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons has warned.

Speaking at the 2026 Longford Lecture in London, Charlie Taylor called drug use “the biggest challenge facing prisons in 2026”, and urged the Government to invest in drug rehabilitation services to “stop the cycle” of many prisoners reoffending.

He explained that around a quarter of men and almost half of the women entering the prison system admit to having a problem with drugs or alcohol.

Violence and reoffending

Taylor said the illegal drug market “is the main reason for the increases in violence in recent years, reaching astonishingly high levels in many jails”.

He added: “as part of our fieldwork for a report on drugs, that we will produce next year, we interviewed 50 drug users who were leaving prison, a few months later, around half are already back inside again.”

The prison inspector stated that we need a prison service that helps prisoners “to recover from addiction and giving them the skills and the training to go out to work successfully on release”.

Rehabilitation

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The government inherited a prison system on the brink of collapse, but we’re taking decisive action to make jails safer, crack down on criminal gangs and stop drugs getting behind bars.”

However, Taylor warned: “we won’t solve the drug problem with security measures alone”.

He continued: “It is compounded because of a lack of proper support for the many men and women with addiction problems.”

The watchdog chief hailed Prison Governor Amanda Corrigan’s work in setting up drug-free prison units which have an “extensive recovery program”, saying: “Prisoners there talk about their lives being transformed.”

Wasting lives

Concluding his talk, Taylor said: “if we can’t keep drugs out of prison and help prisoners to deal with their addiction, if we can’t prepare them for a successful life on the outside with the skills to get a job, if we can’t find somewhere decent for them to live, then we’re not only wasting time, we’re wasting money and we’re wasting lives”.

Reflecting on his six years in the Chief Inspector role assessing prisons across the country, he stated: “I still absolutely believe in the possibility of rehabilitation. I see it every week.”