The abuse of heroin and other opiates is more widespread than cannabis in jails in England and Wales, according to figures published yesterday.

One in six inmates tested positive for opiates such as heroin in random tests. Overall, 4.2 per cent of the tests found evidence of opiate abuse compared with 4 per cent for cannabis use.

The highest level of opiate abuse was at Featherstone prison near Wolverhampton, with 16.7 per cent of inmates testing positive, according to the figures published by the Ministry of Justice. In second place was Erlestoke, a jail with room for 350 inmates, near Devizes, Wiltshire, with 16.1 per cent testing positive.

Only 38 of the 130 jails in England and Wales were clear of positive opiate tests, the survey conducted in July last year showed.

The Independent Monitoring Board’s annual report said: “It will only be a matter of time before [there is] a fatality caused by an inexperienced prisoner taking drugs of this potency for the first time.” However, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said that the proportion of positive results in the mandatory drug tests had fallen from 24.4 per cent in 1996-97 to 8.8 per cent in 2006-07. The figures were released as the Ministry of Justice announced that testing for the opiate substitute buprenorphine, also known as Subutex or “subbies”, is to be introduced into all jails next month.

Positive tests for buprenorphine, which is used like methadone to wean people off heroin, were recorded in 63 jails with the highest levels found in prisons in the North East. More than one in five inmates in Holme House jail in Stockton-on-Tees tested positive for the drug, with five other jails showing levels of between 11 per cent and 16.5 per cent.

David Hanson, the Prisons Minister, said: “The increased misuse of buprenorphine does not detract from the considerable achievement of prisons over the last ten years in reducing the supply of drugs. Buprenorphine misuse presents a new challenge which is why testing will be introduced in all prisons to act as a deterrent.” Earlier this week Mr Hanson announced that David Blakey, the former Chief Constable of West Mercia, would conduct the review of the Prison Service’s strategy to prevent drugs entering jails, due to be completed by May.

The figures showed that an average of 55 per cent of new prisoners tested positive for Class A drugs, rising to 80 per cent in some prisons.

The high list

Featherstone 16.7%
Erlestoke 16.1%
Peterborough* 11.5%
Lowdham Grange 10.6%
Lincoln 10.4%
Altcourse 10.2%
Lindholme 10.1%
Onley 9.4%
Everthorpe 9.4%
Camp Hill 9.1%
Ranby 9%

* all male

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