Prison's provision for dementia inmates 'poor'
Prison inmates with dementia are being held in normal cells without extra accommodations, inspectors have said.
The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) said facilities at County Durham's HMP Frankland for elderly frail prisoners, as well as those with dementia, were "quite poor".
It also said both staff and prisoners had required hospital checks following exposure to fumes from the drug Spice.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said it was "clamping down" on drugs at the prison using detection dogs.
In a report published on Tuesday into its monitoring from December 2023 to November 2024, the IMB said there were 21 wheelchair users at the prison, which holds about 800 people, during that time but only 14 adapted cells available.
It said the number of older prisoners at the site was growing.
"Much of the prison is not designed for an elderly population," the report said.
According to latest statistics, as of March 2025 there were 52 people aged 70 and over at the prison.
It also held about 261 prisoners aged between 50 and 69 at the site.
The inspectors said they considered HMP Frankland to be a "generally safe environment" and that wings often appeared to be "calm and settled".
It also noted that the prison had recently initiated a "dementia pathway scheme" to provide extra support to prisoners with the disease.
The report comes after the Manchester Arena bomber Hashem Abedi threw hot oil at officers and stabbed them with makeshift weapons at the prison in April.
The IMB said drone sightings above the prison had increased and that more postage to the site was testing positive for drugs.
The report said the availability of illegal drugs at the prison was a "significant concern".
It said about 112 prisoners were on the caseload of the site's drug and alcohol recovery team.
The MoJ said it was pleased inspectors had recognised the prison as "generally safe" despite the "challenges" that came with running a high-security prison.
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