Two prisoners die as jail declares major incident
Two prisoners have died at a prison in what authorities are treating as a drug-related incident, and the jail has been placed in a major incident situation.
Police are investigating the deaths. The link to drugs inside the prison is a central part of the inquiry.
One report says the prison has been put into lockdown following the deaths. The same report says the two men died as a result of a "bad drugs batch" circulating inside the jail. That account has come from a single outlet, and the cause of death for both men will be a matter for the investigation.
Impact on the jail
The deaths affect everyone held at the prison. Prisoners are likely to face restrictions on movement while the major incident continues, and families with relatives inside are expected to be anxious for information.
Staff at the jail have also been affected, having had to respond to a medical emergency on a serious scale before the situation was declared a major incident.
The deaths of prisoners in custody are routinely subject to scrutiny, and investigations into drug supply inside prisons can run for a long time. Police inquiries into how substances reach inmates often look at routes such as visits, parcels and other means of smuggling.
The investigation
Police will continue to examine the circumstances in which the two men died, including how the drugs came to be in the prison. Inquiries of this kind typically involve the collection of evidence from the scene and from the wider establishment.
The lockdown, according to the report, is expected to remain in place while those inquiries continue.
Prison drug supply has been a long-running problem across the UK estate, with deaths linked to illicit substances prompting repeated calls for tighter security. Any findings from this investigation are likely to feed into that wider debate.
The identities of the two men and the formal cause of their deaths are expected to emerge as the inquiry progresses and, in due course, through the coroner's process.
The prison remains in a major incident situation while the police investigation continues.
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