Wandsworth prison’s troubled history of overcrowding, escapes and mistaken releases

The harsh appearance of Wandsworth prison is enough to give grown men the shivers.

The Victorian property in leafy south-west London is one of the largest in the UK, with its thin brick walls and dark, intimidating entrance.

It’s just as scary inside. When I visited here a few years ago, I was struck by the smell of urine coming from the gutters lining the cell blocks.

I’ve been to many prisons throughout my career, but this was by far the worst.

Like many prisons, it suffers from overcrowding, nearly doubling the number of inmates it is designed to house.

The prison is not known to have robust security. Just a few years ago, Daniel Khalife was awaiting trial in detention for violating the Official Secrets Act. He escaped by tying himself to the underside of a food delivery truck.

Accidental release of two prisoners in one week The Category B prison has attracted attention once again.

A corrections officer working at the prison described security as “a joke”.

They told me: “It’s crazy out there and there are mistakes all the time. There’s a real state of panic after this blunder and I’m wondering if I can take on this job any longer when these things happen and make fools of us.”

An independent monitoring board report published last month said a third of staff did not come to work every day, while the 2024 inspection board report said safety remained a significant concern.

The prison is known as one of the worst in the country. He received an urgent notice in May 2024 following an unannounced visit from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor.

In prisons, “urgent notification” is a formal process by which the inspector general alerts the minister of justice to significant and urgent concerns. Immediate concerns included attacks on staff, overcrowding and the inability of staff to disclose the whereabouts of prisoners.

In a letter to then Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, Mr Taylor wrote: “Inspectors found significant weaknesses in many aspects of security. The wings were chaotic and staff in most units were unable to verify the whereabouts of all prisoners during the working day.”

We know very little at this stage about why and how sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was wrongly released.

The Metropolitan Police were not told of the error for almost a week and it is unclear why this was the case.

As for the second man, William Smith, the BBC understands his accidental release was due to a clerical error at the court. He has since surrendered himself.

I’ve heard from insiders that it’s likely prison staff didn’t even realize Khaddour-Cherif was missing until a few days after her release.

Sources tell me that HMP Wandsworth governor Andy Davy was not in prison on the day Khaddour-Cherif was mistakenly released.

Ironically, this was because Davy had been tasked with leading the investigation into how it happened. Hadush Kebatu was accidentally released From Chelmsford prison in Essex. I understand that the investigation is now complete.

Almost two weeks ago, Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy introduced additional checks following Kebatu’s accidental release to ensure such mistakes do not happen again.

But these checks pose a “significant burden” and “merely add to the paperwork”, according to a senior prison official. “It now takes a day in some cases to complete checks to release someone, which is not very helpful when it comes to staffing issues,” they said.

I understand that the early release scheme introduced last summer, after prisons reached almost full capacity, has also increased pressure on staff and contributed to an increase in accidental releases.

The contingency plan allows some inmates to be released after serving 40% of their fixed-term sentences instead of the normal 50%.

“There’s more coming and going now, and that means we’re dealing with more checks, more paperwork, more sentence calculations, and that means there are more errors. It’s inevitable,” one prison officer said.

More than 200 people were mistakenly released last year, and the government says this is unacceptable. Some staff were enthusiastic, saying the prison system had been in crisis for some time but recent mistakes were the reason why politicians had suddenly taken action.

One employee asked, “How bad does the situation have to be before we do something?” he asked. “This is a shitstorm.”