Doncaster prisoner died on day before release due to jail's rampant spice drug trade

John Taylor, a prisoner at HMP Doncaster, died from the toxic effects of “psychoactive drugs” on the day before he was set for release.

A pathologist later ruled Mr Taylor’s cause of death as ‘Spice toxicity’.

A report into the 35-year-old’s death on August 16 last year found several other inmates that day also needed treatment for the effects of illicit substances, and concluded drugs were “far too readily available”.

It comes after the Daily Star reported in September 2020 that inmates in HMP Doncaster were smuggling in Spice and synthetic cannabis by spraying it onto boxer shorts which were then cut up and smoked.

Mr Taylor is also the 16th prisoner to have died at HMP Doncaster since August 2018. Its operator, Serco, was served with notices to improve in early 2021.

The report noted that Taylor had a history of drug misuse and continued to take them in prison. It referred to one incident a week before he died when he was found fitting on the floor of his cell.

“I am concerned at the apparent ease with which Mr Taylor, and many others, obtained drugs at Doncaster,” wrote the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman inspector Su McAllister.

“On the same day as Mr Taylor’s death, there were multiple emergency incidents linked to drugs on his wing.”

The inspector also noted Mr Taylor had little “meaningful engagement” with his key worker, but the prison had “taken steps” to tackle to supply of drugs since August 2020.

Mr Taylor was remanded in custody in February 2020 and was later found guilty of breaking into an elderly man’s home on two separate occasions. He beat the pensioner with a bat, bit his nose and threw pint glasses at his face.

He received a 12 month prison sentence, and was due to be released the day before his death in August six months after he was arrested.

In prison, Taylor told staff he was being bullied for money and officers suspected he had taken on drug debts inside.

Another incident included having paint thrown in his face on February 18, the day after he was arrested.

On February 20, a prisoner in a cell near to Taylor’s, who he claimed was a close friend he had known since he was six, took his own life.

In July, one month before his death, Mr Taylor told staff he would take his own life if the bullying, beatings and extortion of money from him were not addressed. He was moved to another wing.

On the morning of his death, Mr Taylor made several calls to a family member asking them to put money into an unknown person's bank account.

At about 2pm, he came out of his cell briefly before being locked in by a prison officer. That was the last time a member of staff saw him alive.

During the afternoon, other prisoners repeatedly gathered outside his cell door to look in and retreated whenever an officer appeared.

The report read: “Over the next two hours a group of prisoners looked into Mr Taylor’s cell on many occasions. They seemed keen not to draw attention to whatever was going on inside as they always moved away when an officer appeared on the wing.

“At around 3.55pm, the prisoners appeared to be trying to get Mr Taylor’s attention from outside the cell and one of them kicked the cell door. Shortly after this, there were officers in the vicinity, but they appeared unaware of any problem.”

At around 4pm, an officer opened Mr Taylor’s door so that he could collect his medication and found him slumped over a chair.

The officer called a medical emergency code and several officers and healthcare staff attended. However, neither they nor the ambulance staff who arrived about 15 minutes later, were able to resuscitate Mr Taylor, who was pronounced dead at 4.40pm.

This was followed soon after by other medical emergencies from other prisoners linked to taking illicit substances.

A post-mortem report showed Mr Taylor had taken psychoactive substances, and his cause of death was ruled as “Spice toxicity”.

The ombudsman’s report added: “There were reports that prisoners had told staff that Mr Taylor was unwell on the afternoon of August 16, and that staff ignored their concerns.

“We were not able to establish whether staff were aware that Mr Taylor was unwell.

“However, both staff and prisoners told us how common drug related incidents were at Doncaster at that time. We cannot rule out the possibility that staff were made aware that Mr Taylor was unwell after taking drugs and that they took no action on the basis that drug taking by Mr Taylor, and by prisoners on the wing generally, was a common occurrence.”

Mr Taylor was the 16th prisoner to die in HMP Doncaster since August 2018. Nine of the previous deaths were self-inflicted and six were from natural causes.

The Ombudsman said: “We raised concerns about the effectiveness of the key worker scheme at Doncaster in three of those cases.

“We have also made recommendations previously about Doncaster's drug strategy.”

The report notes that an Improvement Notice had been served against Serco, the private firm running HMP Doncaster, in 2021 which led to a review and subsequent improvements in key areas.

The Prison Service “will continue to monitor Serco's progress on the improvement made and the areas where they consider there is progress still to be made,” the Ombudsman noted.