Security audit found ’81 points of failure’ at Wandsworth prison after escape

HMP Wandsworth’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) said a security audit identified “81 points of failure” and resulted in “long overdue” upgrades being made to CCTV cameras which had not worked for more than a year.

Khalife fled custody in September last year while being held on remand over spy charges. He strapped himself underneath a food delivery lorry and was arrested a few days later.

The former soldier pleaded guilty to the escape on Monday partway through his trial but continues to deny all the other charges against him.

The prisons watchdog called for the category B Victorian jail in south-west London to be put into emergency measures after “deeply concerning” inspection findings in the wake of the incident.

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor wrote to then-justice secretary Alex Chalk in May to issue an urgent notification for improvement.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) later announced it would be redirecting £100 million from across the prison service to spend over five years on bringing in “urgent improvements” as well as sending in extra specialist staff after the full details of Mr Taylor’s inspection were published, laying bare a “shocking” level of chaos at the prison with staff unable to “account for prisoners during the working day”.

The findings from the IMB, published in August, described Wandsworth as a “failing prison” which was “constrained by staff absence and hindered by underfunding and lack of support from the prison service”.

Its report said the escape led to multiple reviews and actions, including “previously unavailable funding” being found for security improvements and “significant investment” in a bid to stop “illicit items” being brought into the prison.

The security audit was carried out in November while an internal review completed in December made 39 recommendations, the report said.

The MoJ is yet to publish these documents or confirm whether any disciplinary action has been taken.

The extra funding allowed “long overdue” upgrades and repairs of the prison’s “antiquated” CCTV systems, according to the IMB. This included a new system installed in the visits hall to replace an old system “which had not been functioning for over a year”.

This “immediately led to an increase in the number of illegal passes detected”.

While the IMB – made up of volunteers tasked by ministers to scrutinise conditions in custody – welcomed the improvements in security at the gate and reception, it warned it was “possible” the measures “led to an increase in drone activity, with 261 instances noted during the reporting period”, with such activity relatively rare in the previous year.

The IMB’s annual report for 2023/24 concluded the prison – which is since under new leadership – was “not safe”, with close to 1,000 assaults recorded either between prisoners or on staff, and it was “alarmingly easy” for prisoners to get hold of contraband with cell searches finding phones, drugs, makeshift weapons and alcohol.

The shortage of experienced staff – with almost half having been in their job for less than a year – “undermined attempts to make the prison run effectively” and staff absence often reached 50%, it said.

At the time the report was published, IMB chairman Matthew Andrews said: “For HMP Wandsworth and the men whose treatment we monitor, this year has been as bad as any in our memory and, by many measures, worse.

“The recently released report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons was highly critical but said little that surprised us. Many of the same issues had been raised in previous IMB annual reports and ignored by the Ministry of Justice”.

Previously, Mr Taylor described his inspection of Wandsworth as “catastrophic” and symbolising the “problems that characterise what is worst about the English prison system”.

He told how security remained a “significant concern” at the prison but said failings were “evident in almost all aspects of the prison’s operation” as he highlighted how an action plan made in the wake of the last escape in 2019 had not been completed and that prior to the latest incident “security procedures had been neglected for a considerable time”.

The security audit resulted in the prison being handed the lowest grade of “unsatisfactory” and while there was a “clear vision” of what was needed to address concerns, the “pace of improvement was slow”, he said.