HMP Wandsworth labelled ‘inhumane’ after being found to be most overcrowded prison in UK

Official data shows HMP Wandsworth is the most crowded prison in the country.

Ministry of Justice figures show the scandal-hit prison has 62 per cent more people than its design capacity.

Wandsworth, one of the UK’s largest prisons, currently houses 1,444 inmates against a design capacity of 894.

Conditions in the Category B prison have been described as “inhumane”.

The chaos at the south-west London prison has been highlighted by a series of high-profile incidents made worse by overcrowding.

According to the Howard League for Sentencing Reform, Category B prisons are the most crowded “with a constantly growing population.”

Prisons accommodate the excess by cramming two inmates into single-person cells or three inmates into cells that hold only two people.

According to the latest available figures from March, Wandsworth is closely followed by HMP Leeds (61% more prisoners than designed) and HMP Durham (59%).

Former soldier Daniel Khalife, who was later convicted of spying for Iran, escaped from prison in September 2023 by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck.

He was caught days later on a canal tow truck by a plainclothes detective.

The mistaken release of Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif brought HMP Wandsworth back into the headlines last year.

Also in 2025, former Wandsworth prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu was sentenced to 15 months in prison after having sex with a prisoner in her cell.

Footage of the event was shared widely on social media.

The prison was placed in special measures in 2024, as one of 10 prisons that have been given an urgent improvement notice since November 2022.

Inspectors said the confusion they found was the result of a “steady decline in what leaders were allowed to do” and that despite almost £900,000 having been invested since the escape, prison guards did not always know where the prisoners next to them were.

But at the last inspection of the prison in April last year, the watchdog noted that a new governor brought “energy and focus” and prioritized safety and civility.

Inspectors found there had been “significant investment” in staff recruitment and training but the overall level of experience was low.

In October, another report by the prison’s independent monitoring board found staffing was a recurring problem, with an average of a third of staff missing from work per day.

It was also found that living conditions in the dilapidated 170-year-old building were “unacceptable” and “inhumane”.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We are investing hundreds of millions of pounds to build more prisons and improve conditions to fix the broken justice system, as well as strengthening community sentencing to deliver sentences that reduce crime.”