**Contains course language**

Deals with Durham’s seemingly unstoppable flood of drugs and mobile phones into the prison. The circulation of drugs such as Spice is of epidemic proportions - the result of contraband trafficked into Durham by prisoners fresh from the courts who’ve secreted drugs and packed phones inside themselves. Even armed with modern detection techniques the presence of drugs and mini - phones is very hard for prison staff to detect.

Staff are permanently vigilant - aware that prison premises are being used as a drug market place, that drug barons are running rogue and that a prisoner overdose or officer adversely affected by Spice fumes can be a daily event. Some addicts feel that the ‘zombie’ state they fall into is a momentary ‘release’ from the bars that surround them. For staff and prisoners it’s a cat and mouse game with potentially fatal consequences.

Filmed over 7 months, PRISON tells the human story on both sides of the door: staff and prisoners, and the real issues facing them all.