Unannounced inspectors from HM Inspectorate of Prisons have found that drugs, delivered mainly by drone, are destabilising HMP Highpoint, a category C training and resettlement prison near Newmarket in Suffolk holding just over 1,100 men. The report, based on a visit in June and July 2026 and published on 5 October, found that 28% of random drug tests came back positive, up from 21% at the last inspection in 2023, and confirmed two drug-related deaths since then. Inspectors said prisoners had cut holes in window grilles to retrieve packages dropped from drones flying over the site.
Violence also rose sharply: the overall violence rate was up 23% and serious assaults were up 43%, with use of PAVA incapacitant spray among the highest of any category C prison. At the same time, only 42% of prisoners were engaged in education, work or training on a typical day, and Ofsted rated the prison’s learning and skills provision “inadequate” overall, with workshops often closed because of staff shortages.
Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said Highpoint was “generally well run” by an experienced governor, but that the prison service must do more to stop drones reaching the jail before its population grows further. For families, this matters because a prison struggling with drugs and violence is harder to live in safely, and limited purposeful activity and slow sentence planning can mean longer waits before someone is ready to progress towards release.