Half the staff at a jail from which a terrorist suspect escaped are off sick or unavailable to work on any one day, a report by watchdogs has found.
Security is so lax that Wandsworth prison, from which Daniel Khalife escaped last month, is rife with drugs, illegal phones and illicit alcohol, said its independent monitoring board (IMB) in a report on Wednesday.
Staff shortages were so acute that the jail was failing to function effectively, it said. This meant the overcrowded Victorian prison was not only struggling to provide even a “limited” regime that could rehabilitate inmates but also deliver all the other needs of the jail, said the watchdogs.
The jail was unsafe, with a 25 per cent increase in assaults including on staff, as well as inhumane. Most men were forced to share ageing Victorian cells designed for one and suffered shortages of hot water, heating and clothes.
After Khalife’s escape, Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, singled out Wandsworth as one of 10 Victorian jails that he said should be closed in an ideal world because they were not fit for purpose.
Khalife, 21, who was on remand at the jail charged with terror and spying offences, escaped by clinging onto the bottom of a delivery van, sparking a four-day manhunt involving more than 150 police officers.
Tim Aikens, chair of Wandsworth’s IMB, said: “Recent events at Wandsworth have demonstrated the shortcomings of the prison system that the IMB has been highlighting repeatedly for many years.
“Prisoners are being failed and most have a severely reduced chance of rehabilitation upon release. We are told there is significant investment in the prison system, but we see little evidence of this in Wandsworth.”
Wandsworth prison was designed to house 961 prisoners without being crowded but had peaked at 1,655 – Lucy North/PA
The watchdogs said it appeared “easy” for prisoners to get contraband through a variety of methods, including drones. Cell searches had found 330 mobile phones, 210 stashes of drugs and 1,900 litres of illicitly brewed alcohol in the past year.
The IMB said prevention of smuggling was “weak and gate security was “not consistently rigorous,” a problem that the watchdogs suggested pre-dated the escape by Khalife.
“There were occasions when Board members had been waved through without being searched or there were too few staff to carry out searches,” said the watchdogs.
“The overall CCTV system has deteriorated since the last report. In the visits hall the cameras failed to such an extent that security was solely dependent on officers’ observations. This increased the opportunity for visitors to pass contraband undetected.”
Wandsworth was designed to house 961 prisoners without being crowded but had peaked at 1,655, more than 80 per cent over capacity including 682 foreign nationals from more than 80 countries.
“The shortage of available staff seriously undermined the ability of the prison to function effectively,” said the IMB. “Staff turnover was high and the experience of many staff limited. The management team had no input over selection and the process to remove unsuitable staff was both long and complex.”
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