Call for urgent action over spate of drug deaths at Bovingdon prison

The Prisons & Probation Ombudsman said that Tyrone Beresford, 31, died at HMP The Mount in July 2022 after overdosing on spice, a synthetic psychoactive drug made to mimic the effects of cannabis.

They said a report showed there were “significant amounts” of drugs in the prison in Bovingdon near Hemel Hempstead.

Two prisoners at The Mount died from using psychoactive substances in July 2022, the Ombudsman said.

It added: “Two more prisoners have apparently died from psychoactive substances in January 2023.”

The Ombudsman said: “I am extremely concerned that unless more is urgently done to reduce drugs at the prison, more prisoners will die there.

“Ongoing staff shortages perpetually undermine the prison’s efforts to reduce supply and demand.”

A prison service spokesperson said: “Since 2022, HMP The Mount has improved its drug strategy to crack down on the supply of illegal substances in the prison.

“Staff have also undergone renewed medical emergency training to reduce the likelihood of such an event happening again.”

Mr Beresford, who had a history of drug and alcohol misuse, was transferred to HMP The Mount in November 2019 after being sentenced to five years and six months imprisonment.

The investigation into his death found he “appeared to think of himself as a ‘big fish’” and had “sway” with other prisoners in his wing.

The Ombudsman said: “Mr Beresford had a history of using illicit substances in prison, with periods of abstinence, and his death appears to have been an accidental result of using drugs.

“Two days before he died, he was sacked from his job as a kitchen worker after intelligence indicated that he was both using drugs and using his position to distribute drugs throughout the prison.”

Between December 2019 and October 2020, he was found to be under the influence of psychoactive substances seven times.

He later worked with a health and wellbeing worker and with a therapist to help with his anxiety and depression, though the Ombudsman found the care he received was “not equivalent” to the care he would have received if he had not been in prison.

The Ombudsman said “there were a number of indications that Mr Beresford was again active in prison drug culture” from December 2021, and “relatives of other prisoners were paying him money” in April 2022.

Mr Beresford was then removed from his work in the prison kitchen on 12 July “after intelligence was received that he was using and conveying psychoactive substances”, and two days later, he was found unresponsive in his cell.

Prison officers entered the cell 15 minutes later and began CPR before paramedics arrived and found that Mr Beresford had died. The coroner found he had died from “acute cardiorespiratory failure as a consequence of using synthetic cannabinoids” - or spice.

No evidence was found that he intended to take his own life at the time of his death.

The Ombudsman said “prison management was not doing enough to reduce supply and demand” of drugs.

At the time of Mr Beresford’s death, “all forms of drug testing were suspended and only 50 per cent of requested searches took place”.

The Ombudsman added: “Since the death of Mr Beresford and another prisoner, the prison has put in place a number of extra measures to reduce supply and demand, but their efforts are undermined by an ongoing lack of operational staff.

“In particular, they are unable to run an effective drug testing programme and complete the number of searches requested.

“It is imperative that the Director General for Prisons considers how the prison can reasonably deliver an effective drug strategy in these circumstances.”

The Ombudsman also found that the first member of staff to find Mr Beresford in his cell did not call an emergency code, contributing to a “significant delay” in calling an ambulance. It said the emergency response from officers was “poor”.