Homeless inmate died after taking cocktail of drugs hours after release from North East prison

A homeless inmate died after taking a cocktail of drugs hours after being released from a North East prison.

Lewis Skelton died from the toxic effects of a combination of prescription and illicit drugs following his release from HMP Durham the day before. The 24-year-old had been drinking and taking drugs at a friend's house before coughing up blood and becoming unresponsive. It was soon after that paramedics pronounced him dead.

Following his death, an independent investigation was carried out by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO). Despite being released from prison homeless, the investigators made no recommendations as his community offender manager had completed the appropriate accommodation referrals to local authorities and housing agencies.

In May 2022, Mr Skelton was jailed for 20 weeks after being convicted of stealing and served his sentence at HMP Durham and HMP Holme House. As he had a drug dependency, he was prescribed a methadone detoxification programme and was referred to the drug and alcohol recovery team (DART).

The PPO report, which was published in October, stated that Mr Skelton was also told about naloxone - a medication that can rapidly reverse the effects of an overdose of heroin or other opioids. Mr Skelton agreed to be released with a supply of naloxone, and he was given instructions on how to administer it, in the event of an overdose.

But following his first prison release, he was recalled to HMP Durham after committing further offences and was given another methadone prescription. Before his release, the homeless Mr Skelton was not offered accommodation. Due to his behaviour in previous properties, neither social housing nor private landlords were willing to house him. His family also refused to house him following his recall to prison and so he was released homeless.

The PPO report stated: "On the day of his release, Mr Skelton went to a friend’s address where they both drank alcohol and took drugs. The next day at approximately 8am, Mr Skelton’s friend saw Mr Skelton coughing and vomiting up blood before becoming unresponsive. The friend gave Mr Skelton chest compressions and called for an ambulance. Paramedics attended and continued to give chest compressions for a further 20 minutes.

"Unfortunately, their resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful and, at 8.27am, paramedics pronounced that Mr Skelton had died. The post-mortem report concluded that Mr Skelton died of the effects of a combination of pregabalin (a prescription medication that is widely abused as it enhances the euphoric effects of opioids), alprazolam and bromazolam (bothbenzodiazepines), methadone and cocaine."

The investigators found that Mr Skelton received good support with his substance misuse issues at Durham. Substance misuse support was also put in place for when he was released from prison. An inquest, held on September 24 this year, concluded that his death was drug related.

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