Inside Britain's Jails BBC News Special

Now on BBC News in a special programme with exclusive access,

Lucy Manning looks at the reality of prison life in England and Wales.

On the programme, we take a look up close at Britain's prison system,

Delivery by drone, as prisons struggled to cope with a tidal

wave of legal highs, phones and weapons.

The drug use, violence and fear which is part of daily life in jail.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove tells us some prisons are not

Welcome to a BBC News special programme from Wandsworth

In a week when the government announced what it said was the most

significant reform of the prison system since the Victorian era.

Originally built to take 900 inmates, this

It was announced this week that Wandsworth was to be one

of six reform prisons, jails where governors have

extensive new powers over running the prison, their budgets,

After months of negotiations with the Ministry of Justice,

the BBC has gained exclusive access into the prison to see the problems

My colleague Ed Thomas spent the past week inside.

The BBC has been given unprecedented access, inside a British jail.

Over seven days, we saw the fear and violence.

One person under restraint, the wing looks secure.

You have to defend yourself, if you cannot defend yourself,

Is it easy to get cannabis?

The prison officers pushed to the very edge.

I am the most stressed I have been in 24 years, in this job.

It is the second alarm of the day, a prisoner refusing to go back

20 years ago, the inmate in the middle of all of this

We cannot identify him, he told us he was trapped

I have had warfare with politics in jail.

Sliced down the side of my face, attacked by 15 people,

At the end of the day, you are putting me in a predicament

They are so short staffed in here, this place cannot run.

Next, B-Wing, the smell of cannabis is everywhere.

And then we see it, they groups making below us.

How do you feel about people smoking cannabis?

If they cannot get in next week, there will be fights.

Obviously it is not good, defeating everything

You don't have to look far to find drugs in Wandsworth.

Ashley has only just arrived, he says all drugs

Right now, all I have to do is go down to the twos, threes, one.

Then there is alcohol, brewed in the cells.

Smartphone, 700 quid they go for retail price.

This prisoner asked us not to show his face.

I know officers that charge ?500 a parcel.

The size of three tennis balls, full of drugs, phones,

The BBC was invited here, to hear the stories,

to see the pressure from a governor demanding change.

Corruption the one thing I absolutely cannot stand,

one of the first things I want to do with reform,

is to think carefully about how we deal with issues of corruption,

how we can tackle the staff bringing drugs in.

That will deal with some of the issues you have highlighted

How long will this prison reform take?

At the moment, just a victim of an assault.

My wife worries I will not come home.

If she could, she would have me out of a job.

Wandsworth has been Andy Topping's life, for in it cannot get worse.

Wandsworth has been Andy Topping's life, for him it cannot get worse.

It is because I care, I want to make a difference,

I believe my staff want to make a difference.

We are struggling, we do not have the staff.

What is happening to your mental health?

I don't think people care about what is happening

I think I am the most stressed I have been

This prison revolution, a promise to fix broken jails.

As you saw in the report drug use in prison is widespread.

Authorities in prison are fighting a losing battle trying

to prevent smuggled items, including drugs and phones

A BBC investigation has found the number of banned items coming

over the wall into jails has doubled in the last two years.

In some cases, the packages have been flown in by drones.

The Ministry of Justice says they are determined to crack

down on the problem, as I found out, drugs,

especially the legal high known as spice are fuelling

The prisoners cannot get out, but there is little to stop drugs,

Wandsworth Prison, a drone hovers, then you get a package dangling

in midair, packed with spice, a synthetic drug

The prisoner guides the drone into his cell, after a few attempts

Caught on CCTV this was a wasted effort, seized by prison officers.

Outside Pentonville prison, a more low tech attempt.

A man attaches a bundle to a rope, from inside the jail,

Lifted over the ball into the prison.

A problem jails up and down the country are

A snag as it is caught on a branch, then lifted over.

An arm from inside the prison yanks it in.

The official figures show only 15 cases of thrown items over

Locals say they must have missed a zero, seeing it

Another drone crashing inside Wandsworth Prison grounds,

Some drugs and phones are seized, sometimes packed

The BBC has found the number of banned items thrown into prisons

in England and Wales has doubled in the last two years.

2000 packages, many more not detected.

Sam, his voice has been disguised, served five years

It can literally be thrown over the wall.

Wandsworth has seen this method, managing to intercept

Spice, in the packets, the legal high taking over prisons.

With spice on the increase, so too is the violence.

The BBC has learned more than 1000 weapons were found in prisons

in England and Wales in just six months last year.

Nearly three quarters, knives and blades, four a day.

Jonathan Burke was released last year after serving time for robbery.

I see a change, especially since spice came into prison.

There was regular violence, then the spice came in,

three months later, it was just ridiculous.

I have personally known people making thousands,

They are richer coming out than when they went in.

The BBC has discovered an increase in people charged with smuggling

Oliver was released from jail last year.

Staff is commonplace, having a good supply.

I have seen the handover of drugs and mobile phones personally

in prisons on a pretty regular basis.

The prison service said this is a minority of staff,

The defence prisoners are presenting is that they were tooling up

This becomes, what was described to me, almost an arms

The combination of drugs, drugs and knives and fewer staff

make a dangerous mix for prisoners and officers.

Too many jails in England and Wales are not fit for purpose,

according to the Chief Inspector of Prisons, highlighting the growing

Figures obtained by BBC News show emergency services are being called

out to incidents at prisons across the UK almost every 20

That represents a rise of more than 50% in prison

The chief inspector told me problems in jails are having a draining

In the prison yard a fight breaks out.

A fight between an Albanian gang and a local one over the control

For the new chief Inspector of prisons, it is a toxic mix.

The biggest single challenge is violence, the levels

of violence in prisons are unacceptably high.

Last year there were 100 self-inflicted deaths.

Ambulances last week at Wandsworth, with legal highs fuelling violence

and health problems inside, combined with mental health

Are some of the prisons you are seeing not fit for purpose?

If the purpose is to develop an environment in which meaningful

rehabilitation and resettlement can take place, then again,

some of these prisons are failing, no doubt about that.

I suppose the honest answer to your question is,

yes, some prisons are not fit for their purpose.

Guards have to step in to deal a prisoner, for those

who have spent time in jail, they saw the new synthetic drugs

such as spice as the root of the problems.

It has messed up a lot of people, people getting heart

attacks, ambulances coming every couple of days.

Sometimes you would see three ambulances outside,

because of the amount of drugs coming in from all different parts.

The BBC has learned emergency services were called out to prison

Police forces, ambulance trusts and the Fire Service were called out

A rise of 50% over the last four years.

The impact that these drugs are having is not only

inside the prison walls, it has an enormously draining

There are just too many prisoners on the wing struggling

It is another destabilising factor inside prisons.

There needs to be a serious review about the availability of secure

beds outside prisons, so that people can receive treatment

Fewer staff are having to deal with more problems.

I think everyone would like to see more staff in prisons.

I have not spoken to anybody that thinks the current staffing levels

are right, or that it would not be a good thing to have more staff.

Obviously we know about the pressures.

The problems inside are laid bare, so many areas that need fixing,

at a time when staff complained are not enough officers or money.

Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, has admitted there are significant

problems with the prison system in England and Wales.

He says he has serious concerns about the safety of

And drugs and violence behind prison bars could undermine

One new measure could see more prisoners left out of jail,

to work on day release as part of their rehabilitation.

Michael Gove knows he has got problems.

What to do about prisons many say are overcrowded, full

He thinks his new autonomous jails will work.

They will, I hope, the places of rehabilitation, order and purpose.

But as gangs fight over drugs in Wandsworth Prison's yard, it is

He does not shy away from a damning assessment.

Your Chief Inspector of Prisons says some prisons

There are some prisons which are not safe enough, for prisoners,

and for the dedicated staff who work in them.

There are some prisons which are not doing a good enough job

in providing education, or employment opportunities

He admits the increase in drugs and weapons is worrying.

The startling footage of a drone flying in a package of highly

addictive legal highs and phones into a prison cell is something

the Justice Secretary saw when broadcast by the BBC this week.

What did you make from what he saw in that footage?

The public will now realise one of the big problems

We are taking action to deal with the corruption that sometimes

facilitates getting these drugs into prison.

We are also taking action to ensure we audit our state,

to ensure we can prevent drugs coming in, in the way

Critics complain there are just too many people in jails

Part of Mr Gove's plan is allowing people out to work.

That means prisoners can spend time out of their cell, and out of jail,

working for an employer, learning what responsibility means,

preparing for a useful life on the outside.

Will that be safe for the wider public?

He admits the rise of suicide, self harm and violence

He accepts to many people reoffending.

The whole point of having someone inside prison,

spending as much as parents will spend on sending their children

to Eton, every year, is to change their lives.

We will not change their lives leaving them banged

It is only by transforming our prisons that we will

That is why when people say this is a soft agenda, codling prisoners,

When you have drugs ordered in, lifted over the prison walls,

Mr Gove knows them, but can anything he does change them?

Mental health problems are rife in prison.

Across the prison system self harm and suicide are up by one

Another key problem is the number of foreign prisoners.

They make up about one in eight prisoners.

Here is the second of Ed Thomas' exclusive reports from inside

Who cares for the men behind these doors?

Lack of staff, lack of staff, we cannot let you out.

That needs to change, we are human beings.

Self harm, prisoners in crisis.

The system does not work, nothing works as it should.

For seven days, the BBC was given rare access inside Wandsworth.

To reveal the reality of life in an overcrowded,

On B-Wing, an inmate has been in a fight.

He says his mental health is getting worse.

I'm also signed off from the doctor, for severe anxiety.

I only just received my medication yesterday.

Yes, I'm asking for help, the service seems so slow.

Nathan is not alone, so many here are in crisis.

On our final day in Wandsworth, this man came to see us.

We cannot show it, every inch of his body is covered in cuts.

He is in distress, speaks little English.

For prison officers like Steve Johnson, the demand

If you cannot look after vulnerable people, in a safe environment,

people will get hurt, people will die.

Do you think lives could be saved if there were more members of staff?

There are demands all over Wandsworth.

Nearly half of the inmates are foreign, many

Like Nikolai, they say they have served their time,

I am from Romania, does not matter where you are from.

This man is unhappy with his room, but proud of his crimes.

To pickpocket you, you make a lot of money.

Astonishing stories, the governor wanted

Like this, officers wearing helmets to deliver a sandwich.

It is important for anybody that does not really understand

prisons to understand the pressure we are under,

Is that why you brought the camera is in, to see all of this?

Absolutely, the public need to understand what

To end the waste of lives lost behind bars.

That is all from us at Wandsworth Prison in south London.

Next on the BBC News Channel, all the latest news from the UK

and around the world, thanks for watching.

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Rain heading in from the West in the last few hours. The scene from one

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