"Scale of drug use undermines safety" at Doncaster's HMP Lindholme, latest report reveals
More than half of prisoners in survey said drugs were easy to obtain
An inspection of a prison in Doncaster claims that drug use remains a persistant problem and had resulted in one inmate’s death since the last time inspectors visited.
The HM Inspectorate of Prisons performed an unannounced inspection of HMP Lindholme between June 1 and 11 this year, when problems blighting the facility were discovered.
A report of the findings, released on Tuesday (September 1), said that the prison “continued to face some significant and persistent challenges” with the outcomes and safety of prisoners identified as not good enough.
“Arguably, the most pressing challenge the prison faced was the continuing availability and use of illicit drugs,” Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, added in the report.
“More than half of prisoners in our survey said they were easy to obtain, and random mandatory testing indicated a positive rate in excess of 30 per cent. Leaders had responded with more suspicion testing, stronger intelligence and partnership working with the police, and practical steps to detect packages delivered by drones.
“These were encouraging developments, but the scale of drug use continued to undermine safety, causing at least one death, fuelling debts and bullying, and damaging any chance some of the most vulnerable prisoners had to make progress.”
It explained that more prison deaths may be linked to drug use, but investigations into those by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) were not yet completed.
The report adds that assaults “remained above the average for similar prisons” and described self harm as “high” while identifying that support for vulnerable prisoners was uncoordinated.
Across the four areas of prisoner outcomes inspected - which include safety, respect, purposeful activity and preparation for release - the report stated that the prison was “not sufficiently good” in any.
HMP Lindholme housed 956 prisoners at the time of the inspection, with a capacity for 1,010.
The report identified that of those, 832 were new prisoners received in the last year, 37 were foreign nationals and 273 prisoners were receiving support for substance misuse.
Despite the many criticisms, there was praise for new governor Shaun Mycroft, who took over the role in June 2025 - however it clarified that the prison was still failing to fix issues identified at the last inspection in 2023.
“Clear expectations about the behaviour of staff and prisoners had been set by the governor and he was very visible around the site,” the report adds.
The number of prisoners released since the last inspection has also seen a notable rise, though the report claims that resources did not match the changing rates.
It went on to say: “The governor had a particularly thorough understanding of offender management, and leadership within education, skills and work had improved. However, the prison was not yet fulfilling its role as a training site.
“Not enough men were in full-time purposeful activity, prison offender managers could not provide regular support and the number of places on the accredited offending behaviour programme did not meet the level of need.
“The prison was not resourced to provide help with resettlement despite the number of releases having quadrupled since our last inspection. The governor had funded some short employability courses for this group and the prison employment lead, strategic housing specialist and prison leaders worked very well together to deliver improved outcomes.”