Prison death prompts concerns over drug supply

The coroner's report found the prison was unable to prevent drugs from getting in

Concerns have been raised about a prison's ability to deal with drugs after the death of an inmate from a psychoactive substance.

Derrion Adams died on 31 October 2024 and a coroner who looked into his death found HMP Birmingham was not able to prevent criminals from delivering dangerous drugs.

Coroner Emma Brown also reported that while it operated at target staffing levels, prison officers sometimes found themselves overwhelmed with the demands placed upon them.

The Prison Service said its thoughts were with the family and added: "We are tackling the issue of drugs in prisons by investing in security measures to stop their supply."

It said this year it was spending more than £40m on security at 34 prisons, including £10m on anti-drone measures, including improvements to windows and secure netting.

In January 2024 it said Flight Restriction Zones were introduced around all closed prisons and young offender institutions, to disrupt illegal drone use.

The coroner's report concluded Adams had a history of substance misuse and had spent time in the prison's drug recovery unit before returning to a general wing because of behaviour issues.

It said he was found to be under the influence of substances on a number of occasions after that and on 31 October officers were called to his cell to find him in cardiac arrest.

He could not be resuscitated and the coroner concluded he died as a result of a toxic substance.

But the coroner also said there could be further deaths unless her concerns about drugs were acted upon.

Risk to life

She said that while the prison appeared to doing everything possible using the measures available, the criminals delivering the contraband were, by the prison's own admission, "more sophisticated".

Psychoactive substances, like the one involved in Adams' death, were available to prisoners, the coroner said, creating a risk to life.

At the same time, Ms Brown's report found prison officers were under increasing pressure to deal with instances of drug misuse and other incidents.

On the night of Adams' death, she noted one officer was attempting to lock up approximately 60 men on his own, because colleagues were dealing with other incidents.

She said she believed that while staffing was at national target levels, those targets were "based on historic benchmarking" and did not take into account the additional challenges being posed by drugs getting into the jail.

Ms Brown asked the prison to respond to her findings within 56 days.