University News Last updated 02 June 2015
Serco needs to provide urgent answers to serious questions about its management of HMP Dovegate after Haroon Ahmed’s escape, according to Birmingham City University criminologist Professor David Wilson.
Professor Wilson said it should be “almost impossible” to escape from a Category B prison and that a damning report by the Chief Inspector for Prisons indicates major problems at the jail.
“Haroon Ahmed is a Category B prisoner in a Category B jail, so escape should have been almost impossible. Serious questions need to be asked about the running of the prison because in 2012/13 there was just one reported case of an inmate escaping from a Category B prison – escapes are usually prisoners absconding from Category C open prisons.
“Only two days ago Her Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick produced a report into life at this prison. I have read many hundreds of reports into prisons in my time but I’ve never read a report that said that there were no staff on the wings when prisoners were unlocked.
“Ahmed didn’t just remove his bib and walk out of the prison with his visitors. He would have had to have passed through a number of checkpoints.
“From what we know about Ahmed he was on the prisons watchlist. That means one of two things – either he was dangerous within the prison and the prison suspected him of being a potential danger to others again, or he had previously breached prison conditions by attempting to escape. It is a very strange set of circumstances.
“We have a situation here where the Chief Inspector has been into the prison and is saying that there aren’t enough staff for the kind of inmate who is locked up.
"Given that Dovegate is a private prison its owners can determine the level of staff they need simply by investing in more people and in more staff training.”
Haroon Ahmed walked out of HMP Dovegate in Staffordshire last week, apparently with a group of people who had visited him. Reports suggest he immediately made his way to Spain. Ahmed has told Sky News that a prison officer actually led him to the exit.
The Chief Inspector of Prisons published a report on Friday citing high levels of violence in the jail and criticising visiting arrangements.