Wandsworth Prison performance rated ‘serious concern’ before terror suspect Daniel Khalife escaped

Wandsworth Prison’s performance was rated as a “serious concern” just over a month before a man suspected of terrorism escaped from its grounds.

A nationwide manhunt is currently underway for Daniel Khalife, who is understood to have broken out of the jail in south-west London by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery van.

The 21-year-old, who before his arrest served in the British Army, is accused of planting fake bombs at a military base and of “eliciting or attempting to elicit” information which could be “useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism”. He was on remand awaiting trial at the time of his escape.

As the search for Khalife stretched into Thursday (7 September), concerns have been raised over the security of HMP Wandsworth, with many pointing to its performance in the 2022/2023 Annual Prison Performance Ratings. Here, it was given the lowest possible rating and described as a “serious concern”.

The chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor also issued a warning about the prison back in July 2022 - particularly about the fact that there were not enough body-worn cameras for each member of staff on duty - while the prison’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) said a “staffing crisis” and “crumbling buildings” were at the heart of its problems.

Tim Aikens, chairman of the prison’s IMB, said at the time: “The board is once again expressing its concern about conditions in HMP Wandsworth, whose Victorian buildings are long overdue significant investment.

“With depleted staff numbers, degrading living conditions, and high levels of mental health need, the increasing level of violence is both unsurprising and deeply worrying.”

Meanwhile, Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, whose constituency contains HMP Wandsworth, has hit out at the government over Khalife’s escape after claiming she too voiced concerns about the prison “many months ago”.

She said she raised the issue of staffing shortages after discovering there was a night where 1,500 inmates were guarded by just seven prison guards, and also tried to draw attention to conditions following a recent incident in which the prison went without water for six days.

“What this means,” the Tooting MP said, “is that [because of understaffing], people are then asked to stay to do double shifts to make up the shortfall. Undoubtely, when you have situations like this, things are going to happen and mistakes are going to be made.”

Her comments add to those of Professor Ian Acheson, the former head of security at HMP Wandsworth, who told BBC Radio 4 that Khalife’s scape was “incredibly embarrassing” for the prison service “but not entirely surprising” given current conditions.

He alleged that Khalife’s escape was representative of a “catastrophic system failure”, which started with the fact that the 21-year-old was allocated to Wandsworth, a Category B prison, in the first place, and ended with the fact that someone accused of terrorism-related offences was ever allowed to work in the kitchen.

Earlier this year, NationalWorld revealed that “serious concerns” over the safety of prison staff had prompted the general secretary of the Community Trade Union to request an urgent meeting with the Justice Secretary Alex Chalk. Roy Rickhuss raised the issue of violence against staff - citing research from a recent report which found that one in four justice, custodial, and immigration sector workers have been assaulted at work at least once in the last year.

Meanwhile, a separate union source told NationalWorld there is “literally no space in prisons” at the moment, and the Prison Officers’ Association has also warned of widespread burnout among staff.