Following the recapture of escaped terror suspect Daniel Khalife, there will no doubt be an inquiry into the prison system and how an inmate managed to apparently strap himself to a van and be driven out under the noses of prison security. But whether another inquiry prompted by a prison escape will actually focus on the very many problems besetting the UK’s prison system is another matter altogether.
This is the first time I’ve seen this much attention paid to prisons since I published my book on the failure of Britain’s prisons a decade ago. As a former governor of HMP Belmarsh and Brixton, as well as a former prisons inspector, I am intimately familiar with the reality behind the intrigue of a prison escape.
