BRIXTON prison is “fundamentally failing” men due to severe overcrowding, inspectors warned on Tuesday.

Inspectors found in June when visiting the south London prison, which holds a large number of men convicted of sexual offences, significant levels of mental health needs and substance misuse.

Despite around 140 men being released each month, the prison was failing to prepare prisoners for their return back into the community, the inspectors warned.

The prison was the most overcrowded of its category in the country, with two-thirds of the men sharing cells designed for one person.

Inspectors found cramped, dirty cells with little fresh air, and some people locked up for more than 23 hours a day.

With nothing to do with their time and confined to their cells, many prisoners were turning to drugs.

Howard League for Penal Reform chief executive Andrea Coomber said: “If someone is sent to prison, we should do all that we can to support them to move on from crime and live healthily.

“Brixton is doing the opposite, with hundreds of men locked up for hours on end in dirty, overcrowded cells and turning to drugs when they should be getting training and employment.

“But Brixton is not an isolated case. This is the latest in a long line of inspection reports on overcrowded prisons up and down the country that are failing to turn lives around.

“It underlines the need for a major overhaul of a system that has been asked to do too much, with too little, for too long.”

The Ministry of Justice said: "The new government inherited a justice system in crisis and has been forced to take action across the prison estate so we can continue to lock up dangerous offenders, protect the public and make prisons safer for hard-working staff.”