PRISONS in England and Wales are “plagued” by “drugs, violence, appalling living conditions and a lack of access to meaningful rehabilitative activity,” the chief inspector has warned in his annual report.

Peter Clarke said the last year was “deeply troubling,” with levels of self-harm “disturbingly high” and suicides up by nearly a fifth.

Despite these “tragic” incidents, Mr Clarke praised prison officers for their “extraordinary dedication.”

He said: “Many worked through a period in which reduced resources, both in terms of staff and investment, made it extremely difficult to run some of our jails.”

The inspector also scrutinises immigration detention centres run by the Home Office.

He criticised the department for not recording incidents where detainees had died shortly after leaving custody, a practice he regarded as “unhelpful” and “concerning.”

Deportation flights were another area highlighted by the inspector, who cited “real concerns about the use of restraints on some detainees who were on charter flights removing them from the United Kingdom.”

Labour’s shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon MP described the report as “extremely depressing” and called on the government to spend more on prisons.

He commented: “This report makes clear the role of Tory austerity in unleashing this crisis.

“With violence spiralling out of control and prisons failing to do their basic job of rehabilitation, it’s way past time for the government to set out an emergency plan and funding to make our prisons safe.”

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, was also alarmed.

“The findings of suicide, self-injury, violence, drugs and squalor are all too familiar to people living and working in a prison system that has been asked to do too much, with too little, for too long,” she said.

“Prisons are rivers of crime and there are dozens and dozens of them still feeling the impact of disastrous policy decisions made years previously.

“Moving staff and resources from one part of an overcrowded system to another is merely robbing Peter to pay Paul.

“The Secretary of State for Justice, David Gauke, has indicated that he wants to abolish failing short prison sentences, which would ease pressure on the most troubled prisons, reduce crime and support victims.

“We call on him to get this legislation done and dusted immediately.”