PRISON watchdogs found hard drugs were readily available and gang violence rife at a Warrington jail after carrying out an unannounced inspection.

More than 60% of inmates at HMP Risley suspected of using drugs such as heroin tested positive, checks showed.

Inmates at the jail told inspectors gangs were offering joining fees of £50 cash.

Prison staff struggled to cope with “pervasive” drugs and gang activity, chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers said.

More than 50 prisoners were found with banned mobile phones in the first four months of this year.

Some prisoners were making home-made alcohol and more than a third of the 1,000 men were locked in their cells for much of the day.

Inspectors also found that procedures to address self-harm were under-developed, and that staff-prisoner relations were generally poor.

Ms Owers said issues raised in previous inspections had not been adequately addressed at Risley, the largest adult male training prison in the country.

She added: “Risley has suffered serious challenges over the years and many of these have not abated.

“Worryingly, prisoners felt even more unsafe than in the past and a serious drug problem, with associated gang violence, was having a pervasive and pernicious effect.

“The establishment’s sprawling buildings and poor design added to the difficulties for staff, but there was no excuse for the squalor we found.

“Risley also had insufficient purposeful activity to be an effective training prison, although better use could have been made of what there was.

“Clearly, there is an enormous amount to do, and managers will need support if the performance improvement programme is to succeed, as it must. The Inspectorate has repeatedly called for action, and it is long overdue.”

Phil Wheatley, director general of the National Offender Management Service, said he took the criticisms very seriously.

He said: “ Measures are being implemented which will make the prison safer.”

Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon said the report was “shocking”.

“ Despite the best efforts of staff, the prison is an intense arena for gang allegiances to be acted out.

“ The brutalising impact of incarceration in such an environment can do little to prepare people for a law-abiding life on release.”

alanweston