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Just two months ago, inspectors warned that HMP Wandsworth was “crumbling, overcrowded, vermin-infested” – with inexperienced staff struggling to keep tabs on more than 1,500 inmates.
Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, issued an urgent notification for the medium security category B men’s prison, calling for intervention to reverse systemic and cultural failures which had caused a “shocking decline”.
On Monday, Linda De Sousa Abreu appeared in court charged with misconduct in public office after footage emerged allegedly showing a prison officer having sex with an inmate in a cell at the southwest London jail.
The 30-year-old prison officer, from Fulham, was charged following a Metropolitan Police investigation into the alleged video which was posted on social media.
It is the latest in a string of scandals at the troubled prison, where terror suspect Daniel Khalife allegedly escaped custody in 2023 – sparking a nationwide manhunt.
The 22-year-old former member of the Royal Signals is accused of strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery van in an escape bid. He was arrested four days later in Chiswick after he was pulled from a bicycle by a plain clothes counterterrorism officer.
Khalife is due to stand trial at the Old Bailey in October after pleading not guilty to charges over his alleged escape, as well as breaches of the Terrorism Act, Criminal Law Act, and Official Secrets Act.
Despite the alleged incident last year, Mr Taylor noted there were still “significant weaknesses” in security measures at Wandsworth in a letter to the justice secretary on 8 May.
“Wings were chaotic and staff across most units were unable to confirm where all prisoners were during the working day,” he warned.
“There was no reliable roll that could assure leaders that all prisoners were accounted for.”
His urgent notification letter came after Mr Taylor called for Wandsworth, built in 1851, and other crumbling, overcrowded Victorian prisons to be closed in The Independent last year.
In his latest letter, he said despite 10 self-inflicted deaths since the prison’s last inspection in September 2021 and soaring rates of self-harm, around 40% of emergency cell bells were not answered within five minutes.
Almost seven in ten prisoners told inspectors they did not feel safe and more than half said it was easy to get illicit drugs in the prison, where the smell of cannabis was “ubiquitous”.
In the most recent confirmed random drug test results, dating from February 2024, 44 per cent of prisoners tested positive.
The letter said the prison was badly overcrowded with most prisoners locked up for over 22 hours a day.
“Living conditions were very poor, cells were cramped and ill-equipped, and the prison was still too dirty,” the urgent notification letter continued. “The fabric of the buildings and facilities including showers and heating still needed significant investment to bring them up to a decent standard.”
Mr Taylor also warned that inexperience across “every grade of operational staff” was hampering much-needed improvement at the prison.
“Staff were not wilfully neglectful, they simply did not understand their role and they lacked direction, training, and consistent support from leaders,” he said, adding that there a degree of despondency amongst prisoners he had never come across before as an inspector.
He wrote: “For this troubled prison to begin to recover, Wandsworth needs permanent experienced leaders at all levels who are invested in the long-term future of the prison to improve security, safety and guide their less experienced colleagues.”
The government had 28 days to respond to Mr Taylor’s urgent notification warning, but the publication of their response has been delayed due to the pre-election period.
