Inside crumbling Wandsworth prison where Daniel Khalife made his escape
Pictures show the appalling conditions inside the crumbling, underfunded prison where inmate Daniel Khalife escaped on Wednesday.
The mouldering walls and dilapidated cells show the state of the prison where inmates are often forced into overcrowded cells and guards are routinely short-staffed by dozens of people. Mark Fairhurst, chair of the Prison Officer's Association (POA), told the BBC Wandsworth prison is "chronically overcrowded and understaffed" blaming it on "crippling" government budget cuts. He said: "They only had 69 prison officers on duty, during this escape they should have had at least 120 prison officers on duty."
Barrister and former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation Lord Carlisle told BBC Radio 5 Live it was "mind-boggling" a terrorism suspect was allowed to work in the kitchen with free access to knives. The government yesterday ordered an independent review of how the prisoner escaped. A damning report released last year found that HMP Wandsworth was overcrowded with "very poor" living conditions with inmates kept in filthy cells for up to 22 hours at a time.
HMP Wandsworth has very poor living conditions, a report found (Justice Inspectorates)
Prisoners were locked in filthy cells for 22 hours a day (Justice Inspectorates)Steve Gillan, general secretary of the POA, said: “You cannot take out £900m from the budget with reduced staffing levels up and down the country and expect the Prison Service to operate as if nothing has happened. Government needs to take responsibility for the decimation of the Prison Service with less staff and more prisoners and Wandsworth is a typical example of what life is like for serving prison officers operating in a stressful and violent workplace with inadequate staff levels caring for over 1,600 prisoners at that establishment.”
Photographs released in 2022 show piles of litter built up, cells full of graffiti and there were broken windows across the grounds. There was also a serious hygiene problem as inmates can only wash their clothes once every two weeks and bedsheets were being used to stop bird poo from falling through the netting, MyLondon reports. While steps were taken to control vermin, rubbish continued to be thrown from cell windows which added to the problem.
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The government yesterday ordered an independent review of how the prisoner escaped (Justice Inspectorates)Some cells in the prison had no windows and inmates were locked in with no natural light for 22 hours a day. This is because the overcrowded prison houses 1,400 people but there are not enough jobs and education uptake was low. Serious violence in the prison had doubled in just six months after an influx of rival gang members. Staff attributed this to a change in roll which means Wandsworth now accepts prisoners from a larger number of courts in the Greater London area. Staff also felt the increased violence was a result of the fact that prisoners were spending more time out of their cells compared to during the pandemic.
Charlie Taylor, HM chief inspector of prisons, said at the time: "While investigations of violent incidents and oversight of plans to challenge perpetrators and support victims of violence had improved, many residential officers were unclear about their role in plans to reduce violence and lacked confidence in challenging poor behaviour on the wings". A HM Prison Service spokesperson said: “HMP Wandsworth is addressing the concerns raised on the report, providing additional training for staff to drive down violence and a new approach to supporting troubled youth offenders. The prison’s population has reduced recently which will be further helped by our £4 billion investment to create 20,000 additional, modern prison places – providing the education, skills and support prisoners need to live crime-free lives on release."
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