A maximum security prison unit opened more than a year late after bosses failed to order any locks and keys.
Planning consent for the segregation unit was given in 2017 and it was due to open in 2021 but a series of errors meant it was not ready until last summer.
Details only emerged this week in a report, which branded it “unbelievable”.
A source said: “You’d think if you were building new cells, locks and keys would be fairly high up the to-do list. It beggars belief that the project continued for so long without this in hand.”
The cells, for 30 high-risk prisoners, were being built to replace the old segregation unit, which was “unfit for purpose”.
The Independent Monitoring Board said of the mix-up at HMP Wayland in Norfolk, which was once home to Reggie Kray: “Unbelievably, everyone wrongly thought someone else was procuring locks for the cells and the building.”
Covid-related “supply chain issues” also added to the delay.
The Prison Service said the lock issue was now “resolved”.
