Drug smuggling and dealing behind bars has led to inmates being able to access substances such as heroin, cannabis and "downers".

Research by the Ministry of Justice shows that 6.1 per cent of randomly tested prisoners in the women's block had benzodiazepines, known on the streets as benzos, jellies or downers in their systems – the second highest of any prison in England or Wales.


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Meanwhile, more than one in ten men (11.5 per cent) had opiates such as the class A drug heroin in their bodies, the third highest number out of the country's jails, while 9.7 per cent tested positive for cannabis.
Mike Conway is governor of HMP Peterborough.

He said: "Peterborough like all prisons receive a high proportion of offenders who have drug abuse problems.

"We have strategies in place to reduce supply and demand. We operate a drugs offending behaviour programme, and we have put over 1,000 prisoners through drugs detox so far this year.

"The drugs problem at Peterborough is mainly opiates, but when all drugs are taken into account Peterborough is in the middle range of prisons in terms of scale of the problem.

"The difficulty that all prisons face is that between half and two-thirds of all prisoners coming in have substance abuse problems.
"We are very effective in disrupting drug supply into the prison through the use of drug dogs, searching, intelligence and banning of some visitations."

Concerned Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson plans to meet with Mr Conway to discuss the situation.

He said: "Obviously I am disappointed with these figures. We need to educate prisoners about drug use and work to get them off drugs.

"I want to be reassured that the prison is doing everything possible to prevent illegal substances getting to prisoners."

Among women prisoners, the use of cannabis and opiates was much lower compared to the men, with one per cent tested proving positive for cannabis and one per cent for opiates.

The figures were published as ministers announced that testing for the opiate substitute buprenorphine is to be introduced into all prisons next month.

Their drug survey focused on the illicit use of buprenorphine – also known as Subutex – and discovered positive results in 63 jails, including HMP Peterborough.

In fact, random tests showed the male block had the more prisoners testing positive for that substance than in any other jail in the East of England (3.5 per cent), with the female block coming fourth in a league (one per cent) of 15 prisons.

A spokesman for HMP Peterborough said: "HMP Peterborough is a local prison, and in local prisons traditionally there are higher amounts of illicit drug use due to more contact with the outside world, people going to and from court, etc."

By contrast, high-security HMP Whitemoor, in March, had low numbers of prisoners testing positive for drugs, with none testing positive for cannabis, benzos or buprenorphine and 4.3 per cent testing positive for opiates.