THE death of an inmate at Chelmsford prison is set to be investigated.

Essex Police were contacted at around 12.50am on Saturday with reports of the death of a man, aged in his 30s, who was pronounced dead at the scene at HMP Chelmsford.

The death is currently being treated as unexplained but not suspicious and a file is being prepared for HM Coroner.

The inmate’s death comes as new figures show HMP Chelmsford is under severe pressure.

The data, from the Ministry of Justice, shows that the prison is one of the most troubled in the country, ranking 114th out of 117 institutions.

Figures suggest staff members are assaulted every three days on average and there were three cases of prisoners apparently taking their own lives last year.

There were a record-high 122 assaults on staff at the facility in 2016 and drug abuse was also at record levels, with 17.5 per cent of prisoners failing tests in 2016/2017.

The latest figures follow a damning report on the prison by the Independent Monitoring Board was published last month which raised concerns about staffing levels.

Inspectors stated: “With too few officers, all the prison can do is ‘warehouse’ prisoners rather than pointing them towards positive behaviour change.”

It also raised concerns about drugs and violence at the prison.

The board flagged up figures showing the number of assaults, including fights, went up from 162 in 2012 to 414 last year, while assaults on staff showed a 400 per cent rise.

The report said: “It is our view that the widespread availability of drugs, despite the best efforts of the prison to detect them and to prevent their use, and of bullying, often as a result of prisoner indebtedness, are primary causes of the reported violence, prisoner injuries and self-harm.”

A jury inquest into the death will take place later this year.