An IMB report on Wandsworth prison painted a bleak picture of conditions at the site.
A raft of issues at the prison from which Daniel Khalife is accused of escaping are “by no means unique” to the jail, the head of a monitoring scheme has said.
National chairwoman of the Independent Monitoring Boards Elisabeth Davies told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme more than half of recent escapes have been from local prisons, jails where inmates are first sent.
An IMB report on Wandsworth prison painted a bleak picture of conditions at the site, with 1,584 inmates in a building designed for 961 prisoners.
The jail, one of the most overcrowded in the country, faces chronic staff shortages, rising violence and inmates able to get contraband via drone or being thrown over the wall.
Ms Davies said: “These issues are by no means unique to Wandsworth.
“If we think of a Swiss cheese model really when it comes to an escape.
“You need the holes to line up and they don’t very often and that is why escapes are relatively rare.
“But over half of the recent escapes have been from local prisons, local prisons are the most overcrowded and IMB concerns are really that if you have more holes so that’s overcrowding, staffing shortages, safety and security issues…growing mental health issues, the needs of prisoners serving an indeterminate IPP sentence, these holes arguably getting bigger.
“If you increase the risk facing prisoners, staff and ultimately the public, then you’re creating an issue which is chronically unsafe.”
Khalife, 21, is accused of escaping from Wandsworth on September 6 by strapping himself to a lorry, which he denies.
The IMB report found that that the prison was unsafe, with 1,048 assaults by prisoners on staff in the year to May 2023, and chronic staff shortages with half of officers unavailable.
It was relatively easy for prisoners to get contraband into the jail via throw overs because the prison exercise area was close to the prison wall.
Drones could also be used to access windows in the residential parts of the jail.
In the year to May 2023 searches found more than 330 mobile phones, there were more than 210 drug finds, and more than 1,900 litres of illicit alcohol were found.
The report said: “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.”
