Daniel Khalife has been on the run for three days. There’s a £20,000 reward for information leading to his capture and police have spent a night disturbing Richmond Park’s deer. As of Saturday morning reported sightings suggest he fled the lorry and has made his way to the Chiswick area.
Rightly, many questions have been asked about HMP Wandsworth’s failures. Why was Khalife allowed to work in a high security risk role in the prison’s kitchens, providing him with easy access to an escape route? Why didn’t Wandsworth’s gate staff check the underside of the delivery lorry with mirrors, as is policy?
No doubt the independent inquiry announced by Alex Chalk, the Secretary of State for Justice, will answer these questions in time. If the police find evidence that prison officers assisted Khalife, they will be charged. Wandsworth’s management, particularly Katie Price, the Governor, will probably find their careers derailed.
The proposed inquiry would be limited to explaining how Khalife escaped, as well as reviewing the categorisation of all prisoners at Wandsworth and of all remand prisoners charged with terror offences. But this is far too narrow.
Although Wandsworth is among our worst prisons, it is far from unique. The poor management, shortage of trained officers and general disorder that likely contributed to Khalife’s escape is found across our prison system. Understaffing, neglect, bad management and bad policy have broken the system. Last week Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, issued an ‘Urgent Notification’ about HMP Woodhill, reporting that more than half of prisoners felt unsafe: no surprise when 298 violent incidents had been recorded in the past 12 months. Staff fare little better, as Woodhill has ‘the highest rate of serious assaults against staff in England and Wales’. HMP Bristol also received an urgent notification this summer, describing it as ‘one of the most unsafe prisons in the country’ where even emergency cell bells are ‘often left unanswered’.
The Inspectorate’s most recent annual report makes grim reading. Only two men’s prisons were said to have ‘Good’ safety outcomes. ‘Many prisoners were still locked up for around 22 hours a day’, with limited or no opportunities for study, work or exercise, known as ‘purposeful activity’. This matters because we know that access to purposeful activity reduces violence and self-harm.
Education in prisons is barely worthy of the name. Not a single English prison inspected by Ofsted was considered ‘good’. High quality education and training in prison can offer a route away from a criminal life. Failing to provide that ensures that reoffending will continue to cost us over £18 billion every year.
The report goes on to say ‘[m]ajor staff shortfalls…have a devastating effect…’, ‘prisons struggled to recruit and retain staff in important roles…compounded by the absence of staff through sickness…’. Almost 15 per cent of frontline staff, more than 3,200 officers, left in each of the last two years.
Prisoners are often rewarded for behaving badly while officers are often reduced to pleading for good behaviour rather than enforcing it
Why would they stay? More than 80 per cent say that morale is poor in their prison, with those working in the highest security men’s establishments reporting the worst. Half say they don’t feel safe.
Understaffing creates a vicious circle. Prisons are short of staff, so fewer officers are attempting to maintain control over prisoners who are increasingly frustrated at the lack of purposeful activity. Violence becomes more common, staff feel less safe and are more likely to leave. The prison then has fewer, and less experienced staff who struggle to maintain order. Rules are inconsistently enforced, and prisoners quickly learn that noisy demands, or quiet rulebreaking, are rewarded.
I saw the harm of this culture in my time as a prisoner at Wandsworth. Prisoners are often rewarded for behaving badly while officers are often reduced to pleading for good behaviour rather than enforcing it. On Wandsworth’s G Wing in March 2020 I saw a particularly egregious example when a prisoner smoked a spliff on the landing. A young officer said ‘you can’t do that here’, and the prisoner just laughed then walked away into the crowd of other young men.
Daniel Khalife’s escape from Wandsworth is an alarm that the government must heed. The warnings have been raised again and again. By former prisoners like me, by those who have run prisons and by voices from all across the political spectrum. The Chief Inspector of Prisons recognises the problem. The Prison Officers Association warned about low salaries and an ‘excessively violent’ workplace while the Prison Governors Association warned of a ‘staffing crisis’ two years ago. Even the MoJ knows the situation is dangerous, though they don’t like to say so in public.
Alex Chalk has an opportunity now to order a full independent inquiry into our prison system. This must consider funding, staffing, management, education, work, rules, discipline and prison capacity. Our prisons have been neglected for too long. This is the time to make them work.
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