Liverpool prison branded "worst inspectors have ever seen"

Credit: pa

Drones are seized at a rate of more than one a week at a jail holding inmates in the worst conditions inspectors have ever seen.

The prisons watchdog flagged up the impact of the remote-controlled flying devices at HMP Liverpool.

In one of its most scathing reports in years, HM Inspectorate of Prisons also condemned the "squalid" state of the establishment.

Here's a list of some of the other findings by inspectors in their most recent visit:

  • Drugs were readily available: nearly two-thirds of inmates in a survey said they were easy to get hold of

  • Four prisoners had taken their own lives since the previous inspection

  • Two more suspected suicides occurred shortly after the latest visit

  • Many cells had broken windows with dangerous jagged glass, damp, leaks and broken or blocked toilets

  • Violence of all kinds had increased, with assaults on staff more than tripling compared with the last assessment in 2015

Michael Spurr, chief executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, acknowledged the conditions at the prison were "unacceptable".