By  Alan Travis, home affairs editor The Guardian

Report highlights decrepit cells, endemic drug use and high levels of victimisation at jails on self-governing British territory

Grand Cayman: inspectors said their findings were ‘disturbing’ and recommend many of the prison facilities should be demolished. Photograph: Stephen Frink/Corbis

UK prison inspectors say they were “shocked” by conditions they found inside two British-run jails on the Cayman Islands, with decrepit cells, endemic drug use and high levels of victimisation.

Nick Hardwick, Her Majesty’s chief inspector of prisons, was asked last January by the Cayman’s governor-general to inspect the two jails on Grand Cayman after concerns raised in the local media about prison conditions on the island.

Soon after the invitation was issued a decision was taken to carry out drug tests on every employee of the Cayman Islands prison and a shakeup ordered in the prison service.

The Cayman Islands are a self-governing British overseas territory but the two jails – Northward, which holds 200 men, and Fairbanks, which held just four women at the time of the inspection – are operated in the name of Her Majesty’s prison service.

The inspectors, who visited the jails last July, said their findings were “disturbing” and recommend that many of the facilities should be demolished.

“At Northward, some findings were shocking. Conditions were decrepit, meaningful accountability almost non-existent, and work to deliver decent standards and ensure people are prepared for a successful return to society severely lacking.” says Hardwick’s introduction to the inspection report published on Tuesday.

Prisoners at HMP Northward told inspectors they did not feel safe and reported high levels of victimisation by both staff and prisoners. Illegal drug use was endemic and a pervasive smell of cannabis reported in all the wings.

“We had serious concerns for the safety of a small number of children and young adults held at Northward. There were no systems to protect them from predatory behaviour, and it says much that those who seemed most concerned for their safety were other prisoners,” said Hardwick.

“Cells in Northward were dark, stifling and intimidating. Prisoners lived in overcrowded cells on dirty overcrowded wings devoid of privacy. Conditions were shambolic with most accommodation barely fit for human habitation.”

The inspectors say that conditions at HMP Fairbanks were only marginally better but still very poor.

The inspectors say the worst facility was the ‘high-risk unit’ where a small number of prisoners were locked up in appalling conditions for over 22 hours a day, and in some cases for many years. “In our view, the facility had no legitimacy.”

They add that there was little for prisoners to do and both jails were characterised by indolence and inactivity. Many prisoners at Northward told them it was easy to get illegal drugs and alcohol with no action to prevent drugs coming into the jail.

“The smell of cannabis pervaded throughout the establishment at all times of the day and night,” the report says.

The drug testing of every employee at the Cayman Islands prison service was carried out over four days last March and all 135 results were negative. The visit by the British prison inspectors followed two recent reports by Cambridge University Institute of Criminology and the Canadian Institute of Public Administration on the quality of life of inmates. The previous inspection by British inspectors took place 11 years ago.

Hardwick said: “What we found was troubling and concerning, particularly given that the prisons operated in the name of Her Majesty’s Prison Service. Whatever one’s view of the role of imprisonment, most people would expect prisons to hold prisoners safely and decently, and to ensure prisoners leave as better people than when they came in. Northward and Fairbanks fall well short of this standard.”

The British Foreign Office said it was confident the Cayman Islands government had the appetite, ability and commitment to address the shortcomings identified by the inspectors.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/05/prison-inspectors-cayman-islands-jails