An escaped suspect is far from the only crisis for the prison system

Good morning. A 21-year-old terror suspect went on the run this week after escaping from Wandsworth jail, reportedly after clinging to the bottom of a delivery van. At the time of writing, former soldier Daniel Khalife is still at large, despite 150 counter-terrorism officers trying to hunt him down. It is just the latest crisis to engulf the failing prison system in England and Wales, with German authorities recently refusing to extradite an alleged drug trafficker to the UK because he risked being held in too poor conditions while awaiting trial.

The audacious escape has kicked off a huge row over prison cuts. An Observer investigation last month found that three-quarters of prisons in England and Wales are in appalling conditions, with severe overcrowding, high levels of suicide and self-harm and dangerous staff shortages.

To understand all this, for today’s briefing I spoke to Erwin James, who began writing a popular Guardian column called A Life Inside while serving 20 years for double murder. He was released in 2004 and has campaigned for prison reform ever since, publishing his life story, A Memoir of Darkness and Hope, in 2017. Until last month he was editor-in-chief of Inside Time, the prison newspaper.

But first, this morning’s headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘We need prisons – but we need to change the philosophy’

The UK’s prison system is partly devolved, with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in Westminster only responsible for prisons in England and Wales. It is these jails which are the focus of today’s briefing.

How rare are escapes?

Increasingly. From 2021 to 2022 just one prisoner managed to escape from a closed prison, compared with 88 between 1995 and 1996.

“Most people don’t actually think about escaping,” says Erwin James, who once witnessed a group of IRA men try and fail to escape from Long Lartin high security jail when their ladder collapsed. “Most prisoners are thinking: how do I get through today? They want to get their head down, get on with it, and get back out.”

That said, James thinks that most inmates will have cheered on Daniel Khalife, a former soldier and suspected terrorist who absconded from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday morning while awaiting a trial for allegedly planting a fake bomb at an RAF base.

“Every New Year’s Eve in prison, just before midnight, people get any hard object they’ve got to hand and bang on their cell doors. I bet you anything they were doing that at Wandsworth on Wednesday,” says James.

It is thought Khalife escaped via the kitchens, dressed in a chef’s uniform, before strapping himself to the bottom of a food delivery van. Former prisoner Chris Jones, who was in Wandsworth with Khalife, described the 21-year-old as an “odd sausage” who used to say he would be famous one day. He told BBC London: “We always used to joke about that lorry; jump in it and drive off, but there was a lot of security staff around the kitchens so it is a surprise he got through there.”

The Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism commander Dominic Murphy said he was keeping an “open mind” as to whether Khalife had received help from somebody to escape prison and whether he had managed to leave the country.

What are conditions like in prison?

Wandsworth prison is notoriously grim, says James, who was sent there in 1985 after being found guilty at the Old Bailey of robbing and murdering two men. “I went to visit someone in Wandsworth two or three years ago and saw my old cell and thought, Jesus Christ, nothing’s changed, except there’s now a toilet instead of a bucket, and there’s a telly. It still stank. The air was still fetid.”

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said that “in an ideal world” Wandsworth would be shut, citing staffing issues and the fact that another inmate managed to escape in 2019.

Many prisons can no longer keep prisoners safe. At Woodhill high security prison in Milton Keynes, more than 800 self-harm incidents were recorded in the last 12 months, with violent incidents up by 64%.

Staff shortages are a huge problem across the prison estate, though the MOJ says there are now 4,000 more prison officers than in 2017.

The job is not respected, says James. “I’ve been to Norway a few times to look at their prison system and it’s like chalk and cheese. There, you do a three-year degree to be a prison officer. Here you train for eight weeks. You can be a milkman one day and eight weeks later you are in charge of a wing full of 100 human beings.”

How full are our prisons?

Extremely. Last Friday there were 87,124 people in prison in England and Wales, up almost 6,000 from a year ago. Under the MoJ’s own definition of safety and decency, the prison estate should not hold more than 78,050 people, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform.

The most overcrowded jail in England is HMP Durham, which is at 172% of its “certified normal capacity”. Second on the list is Wandsworth at 171%.

The government said it would provide 20,000 extra prison places “by mid-2020s” across the existing estate, as well as six new prisons. The MoJ projects that the prison population will have risen to between 93,100 and 106,300 by March 2027.

Why do we lock so many people up?

A combination of factors, including political decisions to increase certain sentences, a backlog in courts following Covid closures and the long-running barrister strike which has kept more prisoners on remand awaiting trial, plus an increase in police officers.

Last week a United Nations expert on torture called on the government to carry out an urgent review into almost 3,000 people still incarcerated on endless Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences. My colleague Sammy Gecsoyler reported on one such case, of a man in prison since 2012 for stealing a phone.

Most people in prison know they deserve to be there, says James. “I was convicted of terrible, terrible crimes, but I was given a chance. We need prisons, we need punishment and we need rehabilitation. But we need to change the philosophy so that there’s an ethos of hope, progress, personal development. The challenge is to help people who have hurt us, otherwise they will hurt us again and again and again. I’ve got a mantra: hate the crime, hate the criminal if you want, but give the prisoner a chance.”

What else we’ve been reading

Johana Bhuiyan’s fascinating report on the US immigration systems growing dependence on artificial intelligence reveals the risks on asylum seekers when the technologies limitations are not acknowledged. Nimo

Arthur Wharton was England’s first black professional footballer, joining Rotherham Town in 1889 after a record-breaking career as a runner. Mark Brown remembers this sensational but under-celebrated athlete as a plaque is unveiled to honour his memory. Helen

20 years ago, restaurant openings were all about one impressive, famous chef helming the kitchen. That culture has more or less disappeared. For New York Magazine (£), Rachel Sugar talks to up and coming restaurateurs about the shift and what it will mean for the dining experience in the city. Nimo

Taylor Swift’s Eras tour has generated an estimated $5bn boost to consumer spending in the US, and is highly likely to break Elton John’s record for the biggest grossing tour of all time. Shaad D’Souza writes on how Taylor Swift became the world’s biggest popstar, again. Helen

There are plenty of misconceptions about vegan diets and how they compare to meat ones, so Eric Robinson decided to take matters into his own hands. As a behavioural scientist and professor in psychology, Robinson used his academic expertise to conduct a self-experiment comparing the two diets over a number of months. The results could surprise you. Nimo

Sport

Football | Manchester United have denied covering up an alleged incident of assault involving their Brazilian forward Antony. The club have said the reports in the Brazilian media that United sought to conceal an attack on Gabriela Cavallin, Antony’s former girlfriend, by arranging to have her treated by a club doctor rather than visiting a hospital are “categorically false”.

Tennis | The US Open semi-final between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova was interrupted by climate protesters, with one of the demonstrators glueing their feet to the floor of the stands at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The disruption wasn’t enough to deter Gauff, who won the match to enter her first US Open final.

Rugby union | England have named two players who were omitted from Steve Borthwick’s initial World Cup squad to start in their tournament opener against Argentina tomorrow. Alex Mitchell has leapfrogged Ben Youngs and Danny Care in the pecking order to make just his second England start while Jonny May is named on the right wing.

The front pages

The Guardian leads off with “Escape of terror suspect prompts prison cuts row”. The i says that “Fugitive terror suspect’s escape investigated as possible prison ‘inside job’”.

Elsewhere, the Times reports on the “Baby deaths ‘cover-up’ investigated by the police”, while the Telegraph says “PM refuses India’s plea for visas in trade talks”. The Financial Times headlines “Pensions poised for fresh jump as ‘triple lock’ matches wage growth”.

One year on from the death of the Queen, the Mirror carries a message from King Charles, “Thank you for your love”. Meanwhile the Mail looks at the relationship between William and Harry with “Warring royal brothers still 100 miles apart”.

Something for the weekend

Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read and listen to right now

TV
Top Boy (Netflix)
Top Boy’s final season is a potent ending that rivals the very best television. It’s comparisons to The Wire remain strongly intact, with the delivery of six tense, kinetic and moving episodes where our complex anti-heroes Dushane and Sully are pushed to the brink. Monologues and farewells are expertly delivered, and violence is depicted with the full weight of human loss. There can only be one Top Boy, but there is no shortage of reasons to recommend this powerful and potent conclusion. Leila Latif

Music
Olivia Rodrigo: Guts
Olivia Rodrigo’s debut made her a pop superstar and gen Z icon, and her tougher-sounding follow-up remains full of sharp portraiture and withering put-downs. The sound of Guts is noticeably tougher than its predecessor, as if taking Sour’s Elvis Costello-indebted opener Brutal as its starting point: more distorted guitars, a live sound underlined by the presence of count-ins and discussions among the musicians about which song they’re playing next and a hint of grunge-era alt-rock. But the most striking thing is how little global stardom has caused Rodrigo to loosen her grasp on topics close to her fanbase’s heart. Alexis Petridis

Film
Past Lives
Delicate and sophisticated Past Lives is aheart-meltingly romantic and sad movie from Korean-Canadian dramatist and film-maker Celine Song. How extraordinary to think that this is Song’s feature debut. It’s has been compared to the movies of Richard Linklater, Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig; all true. This is a story of lost love and childhood crush, the painful and dangerous access to the past given by digital media; the roads not taken, the lives not led, the futile luxury of regret. It’s a must-see. Peter Bradshaw

Podcast
British Scandal: Liz Truss
Wondery, episodes weekly
The latest series of this lighthearted political show from Alice Levine and Matt Forde looks back at the disastrous reign of the only British prime minister to be less hardy than a lettuce. It’s full of killer quotes and amusing attempts to inject bombast into the most ludicrous premiership Britain has ever seen. Alexi Duggins

Today in Focus

Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings

The Upside

There have been many horror stories, action films and thought experiments based on the idea of being trapped on a deserted island. But for some people it is a peaceful, transcendental experience that strips away the noise and chaos of daily life in cities and towns. Emine Saner spoke to those who have decided to take the leap and spend an extended period of time living in some of the most remote places in the world.

Hannah Sutton spent seven months in 2019 on Maatsuyker Island, off southern Tasmania, with her partner, Grant and they found the experience exhilarating and freeing: “It reminds you that you don’t need a lot of things. The most important things are that you’re happy and that you get along with each other; that you appreciate the amazing experience that you’ve been awarded.” The pair left the island engaged and are now married.

Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday

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