Strangeways prisoners smoking clothes laced with LTD CLEARANCE LINES drugs

REPORT INTO DEATH OF INMATE HIGHLIGHTS PROBLEM IN JAIL

- PAUL BRITTON

SOCKS, clothes and boxer shorts 'impregnated' with highly toxic drugs were sent into Strangeways for inmates to smoke, a new report into a prisoner's death has revealed.

They were said to have been dipped in 'psychoactive substances' or fentanyl on the outside then, once inside, ripped up into pieces and sold on to inmates. A number of prisoners are said to have collapsed on one occasion, reveals the report by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which investigates deaths in custody.

Jamie Tate, who was found dead in his cell at Strangeways on March 14, 2021, may have been supplied with socks soaked in drugs, the report added.

Ombudsman Sue McAllister, who compiled the report after investigators spoke to prisoners and staff following Mr Tate's death, said she was concerned that he 'appears to have been able to access illicit drugs with apparent ease' at HMP Manchester.

One prisoner, known as 'Mr B' in the report, told investigators Mr Tate 'would take whatever psychoactive substances he could get' and paid off debts by handing over purchases he made from the prison's tuck shop. The inmate told a prison officer after the tragedy that Mr Tate got his drugs 'in a parcel of socks' from another inmate named only as 'Mr A.'