HMP Wandsworth was facing 10 assaults on staff every week amid “inhumane” conditions in the year leading up to the alleged escape of a suspected terrorist, a damning report has uncovered.
The prison’s independent monitoring board said the shortage of staff and resources made it “very difficult” to operate a “fully effective security regime” in the year to 1 June.
The findings, in the board’s annual report, came after the former soldier Daniel Khalife pleaded not guilty to escaping from the prison in September, where he was on remand after being charged with terrorism offences.
Board members visited the prison on 642 occasions during the year. In a highly critical report, they found:
The prison was not safe, with more than 10 assaults on staff every week. The number of available officers was rarely more than half while attacks on them increased by 25% to 1,048 in a year, the board said.
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 long and complex.
Prisoners had easy access to contraband, with the confiscation of 1,900 litres of illicitly brewed alcohol – about five litres every day – over the year.
More than 300 mobile telephones were found, with drones used to send goods over the prison walls.
The prison repeatedly had no heating or hot water during the winter months. In two wings, there were only 11 shower stalls for 265 men, who all wanted showers in the very limited time available, the board said.
Regular flooding of cells disrupted whole wings while men often endured several weeks without a full kit change.
A new multimillion pound healthcare centre remained unused, more than a year after its scheduled opening date.
The report concluded: “The shortage of resources – human, financial and physical – made it very difficult to operate a fully effective security regime.
“The management team at the prison worked very hard to deliver a regime despite very limited resources. This problem will continue until staff availability improves and facilities are upgraded.”
Khalife, 21, is accused of escaping from prison on 6 September by allegedly strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery vehicle.
He had been in Wandsworth prison awaiting trial after allegedly planting a fake bomb at an RAF base and gathering information that might be useful to terrorists or enemies of the UK. He denied those charges at a previous hearing at the Old Bailey in July.
HMP Wandsworth was built in 1851 to hold 900 men but regularly houses 1,600.
Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, last month identified Wandsworth as one of 14 Victorian-era inner-city jails that should be closed.
Conditions across UK prisons are so bad that a German court recently refused to extradite a man to the UK because of the conditions he would face.
Reacting to the report, Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers Association, said: “The government should be embarrassed by the content of this report that highlights all that is wrong at Wandsworth.
“The unacceptable levels of violence and self-harm perpetuate working and living conditions that nobody should have to endure.
“Reducing the capacity, modernising the prison piece by piece and raising wages will ensure attrition rates lower and stability gains traction. Shame on this government.”
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We have already taken decisive action to address the serious issues raised in this report, with frontline staffing having increased by almost a quarter in the last six years and investing millions into security upgrades at the prison.
“This includes spending more than £8m to roll out new CCTV and putting in place tougher gate security, with dogs working alongside specialist staff. We have also installed new windows, repaired roofs and refurbished healthcare facilities to significantly improve conditions.”
