Concern over Belmarsh security breach
A report into HMP Belmarsh, which houses some of the UK’s most dangerous prisoners, has condemned security at the jail after prisoners were found with mobile phones.
The prison in south-east London opened in 1991, holds a total of 880 inmates and has a high security unit holding exceptional risk prisoners. It also houses seven suspected terrorists, held under the Terrorism Act without trial.
Four mobiles were discovered hidden by inmates in May 2003. They are banned from the prison because inmates could use them to plan their escape or run criminal empires from inside.
The report by Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, recommended that managers should supervise cell searches and regularly visit the residential units and that the jail’s security department should be restructured to improve security.
The inspectors noted: ‘One prisoner found in possession of the phone admitted that he had concealed it in his underpants during a strip search – searchers had failed to lift the upper clothing to reveal the extra pair of underpants where it was hidden.’
The report on Belmarsh concluded that it was struggling to meet the basic needs of its prisoners.
Ms Owers added: ‘On all the indices we use – showers, phones, association, time out of cell – prisoners’ experience of the regime at Belmarsh was significantly worse than the average in other local prisons.’
Ms Owers told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that part of the problem at the prison was due to staff shortages.
Belmarsh houses inmates from low-risk unsentenced teenagers to Category A inmates. Disgraced former deputy chairman of the Conservative party, Lord Archer, was held there for the first 22 days of his sentence for perjury and great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs is currently in its healthcare unit.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said: ‘We constantly review our security procedures to ensure they are robust.
‘Mobile phones present a problem because they are small, made of plastic, and are being smuggled into prisons internally, but we do not have the authority to do intimate searches on people entering prisons.’
The report also recommended that young adults aged 18 to 20 should not be held alongside dangerous, convicted adult inmates and called for better support for those detained at the prison under the Terrorism Act.
