Series 4 Factsheets
Episode 1
Prison Break Outs
Yvonne Atkins' escape attempt failed even though it involved stolen keys, a power cut and outside help. In fact the number of prisoners who manage to escape has fallen dramatically over the last eight years from 149 in 1994 to only 16 in 2000 ( the most recent year for which statistics are available) Four out of the 149 escapes in 1994 were women, but no women escaped in 2000.
The reason for the fall in escapes is that much tighter security has made escaping far more difficult. In early 1995 and late 1996 two groups of high security male prisoners escaped from Whitemoor and Parkhurst prisons. Two enquiries into the escapes and prison security resulted in a range of new security measures including:
- Major restrictions on visitors and staff bringing anything into prisons.
- Limits being placed on the amount of personal possessions prisoners are allowed to keep in their cells to make cell searches easier.
- The introduction of thorough searching of visitors including 'rub down' searches when prison officers pass their hands over clothing and may ask visitors to remove their shoes, open their mouths and lift their tongues and run their fingers through hair (these last procedures are largely to keep drugs out). Visitors have to pass through metal detectors like those in airports and anything that is brought into the prison passes through an x-ray machine.
- Improved CCTV in prisons.
- Additional fences inside some prisons dividing areas from one another at some and additional external walls and fences at others.
The large drop in the number of escapes suggests that these measures have been successful but the additional searches and restrictions on visitors may be one of the reasons why the number of people visiting relatives, partners and friends in prison has fallen dramatically over recent years. Since it is known that strong family relationships are important in reducing the chances of a prisoner re-offending on release the fact that visitor numbers have dropped is bad news.
Keys
Locks and keys are the most basic aspect of prison security. The keys to the main prison gates are different from the keys to the internal locks or gates inside the prison and from the cell keys so that even if a prisoner gets hold of internal keys from an officer on a landing or in a workshop they won't be able to get out of the external gates with them. All prison staff have to hand their keys in every time they leave the prison. When keys go missing, or if any one suspects that prisoners have had access to keys to copy (e.g. make an impression on a bar of soap), draw or memorise, the security of the prison is jeoparised. This usually results in all locks in the whole prison being changed which is extremely expensive and disruptive.
For further information on the issues covered in this section, please visit The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies website.