Jail inmates learn how to take it easy

London: Inmates enjoy such comfort in jail that they are ignoring chances to escape, a prison officers' leader claimed on Thursday.

In one example, a drug dealer regularly broke into a Yorkshire jail over a six-month period, using a ladder to climb the walls and supply inmates with drugs and mobile phones.

The intruder walked across the yard with the ladder and used it to climb up to a cell window, which had been pulled apart with a crowbar and covered with a dummy grille.

Glyn Travis, the assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers' Association, said: "It was an extraordinary case because none of the prisoners inside tried to escape when they had the opportunity.

"It tells me there's something wrong in society when people are breaking into prisons to bring in drugs, but the prisoners are quite happy to stay inside."

Inmates at a top security prison recently told Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, that conditions there were like a "holiday camp", with satellite television and video game consoles on offer as well as free bed and board.

Cheaper drugs

Prisoners receive wages topped up by bonuses for good behaviour, while drugs are sometimes cheaper in jail than on the streets.

It is understood that there have also been examples of prostitutes being brought into HMP Sudbury, a Category D prison, in Derbyshire.

Nick Herbert, the shadow justice secretary, criticised what he called another example of a "failing prison system".

He said: "Prisons should be places of hard work and restoration, preparing offenders to go straight.

"Instead we have overcrowded jails where drugs are rife, prisoners are too often idle and there is little purposeful activity. It is time for a fundamental shake-up of our failing prisons system." Travis said the break-ins he described were uncovered in January at HMP Everthorpe, which holds about 700 Category C inmates.

A spokesman said that inmates at Everthorpe were all in their cells at the time the drug dealer broke in.

Travis blamed under-funding for leaving prison officers' morale at "rock-bottom", as they struggled to cope with an overcrowding crisis that meant conditions were verging on "anarchy". "Drugs are coming into prisons at a rate that's so dramatic that drugs in prisons are actually cheaper than on the outside," he added.

"Prisoners receive a wage for being in prison, they receive a bed, a television in all cells, Sky television in most areas for recreational use, free telephones, breakfast in bed on many occasions, cash bonuses for good behaviour. And prison staff are forced to deal with them in such a subservient way. It's ridiculous." A spokesman for the Prison Service said it was aware of a security breach. "Immediate action was taken with extra fencing, the removal of trees, extra CCTV cameras, and the transfer of the offender involved to another establishment," he said.

Need for balance

"Access to televisions is a condition of acceptable behaviour. Television sets purchased for in-cell prisoner use are paid for by the weekly rental fee of £1 paid by prisoners. Televisions can and will be removed from prisoners whose behaviour is deemed unacceptable," he added.

He added: "The National Offender Management Service recognises that a careful balance must be maintained between the concerns of the public that prisoners should not benefit from their criminal behaviour and the need to ensure that, wherever possible, prisoners are rehabilitated."