Inmate found dead at Forest Bank prison in latest fatality at under-fire jail

Another inmate has died at Salford's troubled Forest Bank prison, officials have confirmed. The un-named man was found dead at the jail on Tuesday.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate the death, the latest in a series of fatalities at the privately-run prison in recent years. They include Michael McDonagh , 27, who was found unresponsive in his cell in February 2019 and 63-year-old Raymond Lucy, who was found dead in his cell in July of that year.

In September last year, an inquest jury found Mr McDonagh, who was prescribed a 'combination of drugs' died after 'serious failings' in his care. He was prescribed a number of drugs that acted in combination to depress his central nervous system - including methadone.

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The jury found the medics responsible for the prescription of methadone 'failed to carry out adequate enquiries' into Mr McDonagh's tolerance to opiate medication' before deciding to prescribe the drug. They also found they then 'failed to monitor him in the days that followed in line with prison and national health guidelines' - a failing they concluded probably contributed to Michael’s death.

Mr Lucy's death was ‘unpreventable’ despite his family claiming his prison cell had no fresh air, a coroner ruled in November.

Following the latest fatality, an HMP Forest Bank spokesperson said: “We can confirm that a prisoner died at HMP Forest Bank on 9 July 2024. The next of kin have been informed and our thoughts are with the family. As with all deaths in custody, there will be an investigation by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman and therefore we are unable to comment further at this stage."

In April last year, an M.E.N. investigation into Forest Bank prison uncovered allegations of widespread drug use and inmates who 'run the wings', prompting an MP and Salford's mayor to write to the government to demand an 'urgent' review.

Our revelations included a call from Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long-Bailey for the Ministry of Justice to cancel a billion pound contract it has with facilities management giant Sodexo to run the troubled jail.

Our investigation, based on allegations from a whistle-blower, an ex-prisoner and his father, and the family of a grandfather who died in his cell, exposed what Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long-Bailey branded a 'culture of lawlessness' at the jail.

We revealed that:

• Drugs are rife, smuggled in via 'legal letters' and inmates are 'off their t**s a lot of the time'

• Inmates brew their own hooch

• Violence is commonplace and inmates 'run the wings'

• Staff feel 'unsafe' and a lone guard can be 'left to guard 100-plus inmates'

• Staff have to buy 'their own uniform because of cost-cutting'

• A desperate father paid off a drug dealer on his addict son's wing because 'staff didn't protect him'

Sodexo's contract to run the prison ends on January 19, 2025. Back in 1998, it was awarded a deal worth £1,006,771,964 to design, build and run the prison built on the site of the former Agecroft power station under a private finance initiative to house a maximum 1,064 inmates. The deal was to last 25 years, before being extended.

The facilities management giant, founded and based in France, runs six prisons in England and Scotland, and last year recorded revenues of 21.1 billion euros, including 'underlying operating profit' of more than a billion euros, up 83 per cent. An announcement on the contract is due imminelty.