THE drug culture at a prison which houses hundreds of criminals from Bolton has been revealed by the Bolton Evening News.

In an exclusive interview, a prisoner inside troubled Forest Bank has told of: Drug dealers firing packages of heroin over prison walls using crossbows and catapults.

Prisoners paying for their fixes with tobacco or everyday goods, including razor blades.

Dozens of inmates using mobile phones - even though they are banned at the prison - to continue running crime empires on the outside and intimidate witnesses.

'Clean' inmates providing urine samples so drug users in the prison can escape punishment.

The prisoner, who is in his 30s and on remand for robbery, said drug use was 'rife' in every wing of the jail.

Between 60 and 70 per cent of inmates regularly used heroin.

Huge demand for drugs behind bars meant the equivalent of a £10 package on the streets of Bolton could fetch £70 in Forest Bank.

Some warders were too afraid to stop users for fear of violence, the prisoner said.

His claims were backed up by Bolton MP Brian Iddon, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Misuse of Drugs, who is investigating claims that the privately-run jail at Agecroft, Pendlebury, is 'awash' with drugs.

Dr Iddon said: "I've been on a tour of the prison and saw £24,000 worth of confiscated drugs and 245 mobile phones."

He backed up the claims of how some drugs were getting into the prison.

He said: "Dealers from Bolton are now using crossbows to get drugs into the prison. I went on a visit after being told that the prison was awash with drugs."

The prisoner told the Evening News: "Most people take heroin to make their sentences go quicker but there's a lot of people using cocaine and cannabis as well.

"There's a drugs epidemic in every wing of the prison.

"Most of the heavy users get their own packages in, usually over the wall, but a lot of others are getting drugs in to make money.

"If you come out of this place an addict, you've got no chance of staying away from crime when you are released.

"They also get mobile phones and SIM cards over the wall and some of the lads spend half of their lives on the phone, sometimes to keep the businesses going or to lean on witnesses. They also use them to order drugs."

The insider - a recovered addict - said packages of drugs were thrown or fired over the walls at pre-arranged times by dealers posing as dog walkers. They are then picked up in exercise yards. Inmates smoke the drugs on foil smuggled out of the prison's canteen.

The revelations come just weeks after an official prisons inspection reported idespread drug use and violence.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, said prisoners and staff were put at risk by a "culture of tolerance with inappropriate behaviour".

Her report also spoke about a practice known as "potting," which involves inmates throwing buckets of excrement at warders, and highlighted a set of shocking statistics which revealed: 25 assaults on prisoners by inmates are reported every month.

Four out of 10 inmates tested for drugs return positive samples.

2,500 disciplinary hearings were held in a period of just six months.

A series of reported assaults against staff.

Following the criticism, UK Detention Services, the company which runs the prison, claimed progress had been made to address problems and released a statement saying: "We look forward to continuing improvements at the prison."

But the new revelations are sure to be a set back for the jail.

Ms Owers' inspection found that four out of 10 prisoners returned positive samples from random drug tests.

However, the Bolton Evening News has learned that many users escape punishment for taking drugs by using urine samples given to them by non-drug users.

Urine is put into fingers of cut-off latex gloves which inmates take to drugs tests - strapped to their body to keep them warm - and use a pin to burst the latex glove in order to give a negative sample.

The prisoner claimed a lack of regular searches allowed inmates to hide drugs and paraphernalia in their cells. He said his cell had not been searched during the three months he had been on remand.

The Category B jail opened in 2000. Bosses claimed it was a "prison for the 21st century" and was then just one of a handful of privately-owned jails in the country.

Forest Bank is home to 1,040 adult male offenders, some as young as 18, who have been remanded, convicted or sentenced by courts in Greater Manchester.

The number of Bolton men in the prison stands at about 630, with the remainder coming from Wigan and Salford.

The Prison Officers Association has criticised the running of the jail.

"Prisons should not be in the hands of the private sector," said Tom Robson, who represents officers at the jail.

"People who are in custody should be looked after by staff working for Her Majesty's Prison Service who see the job as a long-term career and, as a result, have gained the necessary experience to deal with the difficult people we have to look after."

UK Detention Services were given the opportunity by the Bolton Evening News to comment on the claims made about Forest Bank, but declined.