Shocking footage of an inmate at HM Prison Winchester being beaten by a fellow convict, allegedly after racking up a spice debt.

Spice is a synthetic cannabinoid product and currently a Class B drug, illegal in the UK. Just this week a group of police and crime commissioners sent a letter to the Home Office terming it the "most severe" threat to public health in decades.

"Our concerns not only lie with the devastating effects spice has on its users but also the wider negative impacts felt by their families, communities and emergency services," the open letter stated.

The supplier of the footage expressed similar concerns to Newsflare by phone about its effect on relationships as well as the individuals involved. "Whole families are impacted," he said.

Inmates are allegedly finding numerous inventive ways to smuggle the drug in, and some are making a tidy profit. The unverifiable figure given to Newsflare was that the drug can sell for approximately £50 per gram on the inside. Street prices are approximately £30-£60 in London.

In November last year, eight people were convicted of smuggling mobile phones and drugs into the same prison. "This result sends a clear message that such activity will be brought to light and punished," HMP Winchester governor Stephanie Robert-Bibby told Portsmouth's The News at the time.

However, it seems the issues have persisted.

"Its not even officers running the prisons – it's the prisoners ... the officers are fresh out of school," said the supplier. He added that half the prison population were "spice heads" and that the issue was "getting worse and worse".

"They need double the officers," he added, mentioning that he believed some of the staff may have been corrupted too on account of the proliferation of illicit phones and spice in the facility.

British prison inmates spoke of similar problems in 2016 when inmates described the “drug-epidemic s***hole” they lived in during a two-and-a-half minute long recording from Bullingdon prison in Oxfordshire.

They also alleged widespread beatings and blamed a culture of drugs (including spice) and violence on a shortage of prison staff, reported The Mirror at the time.

The guy being beaten is now in "voluntary bang up" for his own safety, said the supplier. The footage was recorded "to show debts been taken care of."

The footage was filmed last week.

Man is set upon in HMP Winchester over spice debt