The average stay of a Holloway inmate is just 45 days. It is a holding prison, defined by its transient population. Its function is to hold inmates on remand, or until they move to other jails. Repeat offenders also come through the gates with alarming regularity. Shockingly, the main reason for this is drugs. Every prisoner is seen by a doctor on arrival, and at times the scale of drug abuse is staggering. Most arrivals go straight to “Ivor Ward”, the prison’s specialist detox unit. So successful is its detox programme that some addicts trying to get clean are actually hoping to come into Holloway.