A LONDON prison has been denounced as a place of “deaths, drugs and despair” by inspectors who have given the government just 28 days to take action.

Prison officers’ union the POA said HMP Wandsworth was symbolic of the government’s wrecking of the whole prison service through austerity.

The damning report from HM Prisons Inspectorate, which called for the prison to be put into emergency measures, sparked the resignation of Wandsworth governor Katie Price.