Britain’s brutally damaged jails is ‘to blame for escape’ of Daniel Khalife

X-ray scanners are not always used due to staffing problems, increasing the risk of phones, weapons and drugs getting into inmate’s palms, the Prison Officers’ Association warns.

And it has been revealed that 80 jail wardens at Wandsworth Prison failed to point out up for work on the day Khalife escaped, representing 40 % of workers.

This might be added to an inventory of “systemic failings” which can have enabled Khalife’s break for freedom, the union says.

The general jail inhabitants shot up by greater than 5,000 to 85,851 within the yr to the tip of June 2023. Problems are so dangerous throughout the property that the one answer is to launch lots of of prisons and monitor them by digital tagging, say some consultants, together with former Tory prisons minister Rory Stewart.

He mentioned: “There are hundreds of problems in prisons, from low morale of prison officers to the general violence and filth across the estate.

The fundamental solution is to recognise that our prisons are completely overcrowded. “We are not building prisons quickly enough to keep up with the increase in population.”

“We have to reduce the number of people sent to prison.” Professor Francis Pakes, Professor of Criminology on the University of Portsmouth, mentioned: “The UK locks up more people than most of western Europe and overcrowding and poor conditions are a major problem.

This combined with short staffing means officers cannot manage the wings. It should be almost impossible to escape, but these could be factors why Khalife got out.

“We need political courage to think how to reduce overcrowding through early release, tagging and alternative sentences.”

On September 6 Khalife escaped by allegedly strapping himself beneath a supply lorry whereas working within the kitchen at class B HMP Wandsworth.

He was arrested after 75 hours the subsequent Saturday and appeared at court docket on Monday charged with escaping from lawful custody.

Wandsworth ought to have 979 prisoners however frequently has greater than 1,600. An MOJ spokesman mentioned on the Khalife evaluation: “Public protection is of the utmost importance and the purpose of the investigation is to identify shortcomings and ensure lessons are learned to help prevent incidents of this nature in the future.”