JERSEY’S failure to face up to its drug problem will destroy the wider community and fuel a ‘revolving door’ of prisoners, says a prisons expert.

UK prisons and probation ombudsman Stephen Shaw says that tackling drugs must be Jersey’s number one priority in controlling persistent crime and limiting victims. He says that ‘woeful’ conditions at La Moye are to blame for the extraordinary rates of reoffending in the Island – and that such a system falls far short of standards in England and Wales. Mr Shaw wrote a report on La Moye after two suicides by inmates in five months, and the inquests heard this week that conditions at the prison may have contributed to the deaths. But he says that the time for reports is over – it is now time for action. ‘If I had come across any prison in England and Wales in the same state as I found at La Moye, I would have walked straight out and expected to see the Secretary of State for Justice within 24 hours,’ he said. ‘About 60 or 70 per cent of prisoners are coming in with drugs problems. I have to say, however, that in terms of what the prison is offering and in terms of the supervision and treatment of the prisoners, Jersey lags woefully behind what would be considered acceptable standards in England and Wales.’