'Severe security' failings blight HMP Wandsworth

An audit has found a raft of security failings at a scandal hit jail after a prisoner allegedly escaped.

- FLORA THOMPSON

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 over a year.

Daniel Khalife is accused of fleeing custody in September last year while being held on remand over spy charges. He allegedly strapped himself underneath a food delivery lorry and was arrested a few days later. The former soldier denies all the charges against him and is due to stand trial in October.

The prisons watchdog called for the category B Victorian jail in southwest London to be put into emergency measures after “deeply concerning” inspection findings in the wake of the alleged incident. Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor wrote to then justice secretary Alex Chalk in May to issue an urgent notification for improvement.

Earlier this month the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced it would be redirecting £100m 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 latest findings from the IMB, published today, described Wandsworth as a “failing prison” which was “constrained by staff absence and hindered by underfunding and lack of support from the prison service”.