Sex, drugs and Tik Tok stars – what’s really going on inside Britain’s cushy jails
AN Albanian gangster films a TikTok video in his cell, two female prison officers sleep with the same lag, and another smuggles drugs behind bars for inmates.
This is the reality of Britain’s crumbling jails, which have become a hotbed of sex, narcotics, violence and scandal, with poorly trained staff and overcrowded cells.
Former prison governor Professor Ian Acheson told The Sun: “It seems like a free-for-all.”
The state of the country’s jails was brought into sharp focus last month after a TikTok post went viral, which seemingly showed a female prison guard having sex with an inmate in HMP Wandsworth.
A fellow prisoner filmed the scene and is heard bragging: “This is how we roll in Wandsworth.”
This month, Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, of Fulham, South West London, appeared in court charged with misconduct in public office, after the alleged incident went online.
She was bailed to a later date.
New Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has warned of the “total collapse” of the prison system and set out plans to release more than 5,000 prisoners in England and Wales after they have served just 40 per cent of their sentence.
She warned of a “total breakdown of law and order” unless urgent action was taken.
But what has gone wrong with our jails?
Ex-governor Professor Acheson warns the system is on the verge of collapse, because out-of-control inmates are often being looked after by novice guards as young as 18 with just six weeks of training.
Tattooed on her thigh
Overcrowding means stretched staff are losing control, and the probation service is so pushed that they struggle to control more than 87,000 inmates who are being allowed out early to ease the problem.
The issue that has attracted the most public attention are the sexual affairs, mostly between young female officers and lags.
Yesterday a Sun on Sunday probe revealed that jailed gangsters have openly boasted about paying female prison guards £2,000 for sex.
In the three years to March 2023, 31 female prison staff were sacked for having illegal relationships with inmates, including one who gave birth to a convict’s baby and another who had her crush’s cell number tattooed on her thigh.
Prison wing supervisor Corinne Redhead, 31, was locked up for 25 months in 2022 after getting pregnant by caged robber Robert O’Connor at HMP The Mount in Bovingdon, Herts.
And officer Scarlett Aldrich was 22 when she was jailed for ten months in April 2021 after bosses at maximum security Full Sutton, York, spotted her inking and found she had smuggled a mobile phone and sim card into the cell blocks.
Among the most scandalous cases was that of Aleesha Bates, 29, and Jodie Wilkes, 27, who exchanged thousands of messages with the same inmate during an illicit love triangle at Buckley Hall jail in Rochdale.
Bates even sent naked photos to the drug trafficker and was given two years and eight months for misconduct, while Wilkes got 12 months, suspended for two years, in March this year.
Britain’s largest prison, HMP Berwyn in Wrexham, was held up as a £212million example for the rehabilitation of offenders when it opened in 2017.
But just six years later it emerged 18 women working there had been sacked or forced to resign over illegal relationships with inmates.
They included probationary officer Ayshea Gunn, then 27, who enjoyed explicit video calls and exchanged “highly sexualised and pornographic images” with armed robber Khuram Razaq.
She even smuggled a pair of her knickers into his cell, which she concealed in her bra.
Professor Acheson says today’s prison staff are at risk of being corrupted or sexually exploited because they get so little training.
Sexually exploited
To demonstrate the point, last month a 30-year-old prison officer was jailed for four years after being duped into a sham romance with a convicted rapist who “love bombed” her shortly after she started working at HMP Forest Bank, Salford.
Hannah Angwaba, 30, tried to smuggle cocaine and cannabis to rapist Anton McPherson, 33.
She was described in court as being a “very inexperienced” employee.
Professor Acheson said: “Despite what the name might suggest, prison governors are not in charge of their establishments. They can’t even make decisions about who to hire as frontline officers or staff because they are sent people from a central national training system.
“The recruitment age has dropped to 18 and we have the shortest training probably of any prison professional in Western Europe.
“It works out at about six weeks now compared with Norway, which has a two-year training course.
‘Awash with drugs’
“Here, you could be a teenager, barely trained after six weeks and thrown into what the Prison Officers Association calls one of the most hostile working environments in Europe.
“It’s no wonder a lot of these people don’t even last to the end of their probation.
“That’s to do with putting inexperienced people with no life skills, no emotional intelligence, and throwing them into an environment awash with drugs, awash with violence which contains many predators.
“What you see then is exploitation and intimidation of young staff who can’t cope with it.”
Sex romps are not the only problems facing our justice system as prisons are flooded with drugs and inmates blatantly flout the rules by posting footage online.
A quick search on social media platform TikTok throws up dozens of videos under the hashtags #jailhouse #prisonlifeuk and #hmp.
Much of the film is relatively harmless, featuring complaints about food, while others show lags flexing their abs or performing rap songs.
Yet mobile phones are meant to be banned in UK jails.
Last month The Sun on Sunday exposed gangland killer Eugert Merizaj, 33, who was begging for cash on a TikTok video from his cell.
The Albanian — serving 32 years for the shotgun killing of a rival drug dealer — was filmed asking for cash while wearing a pair of £250 designer trainers.
Drugs are a massive issue, and in March this year it was revealed an inspection visit to HMP Hindley, near Wigan, found that half the inmates were high.
Synthetic drug spice has increasingly become an issue, which has led to increased violence.
Spice is a game-changer within prisons
Insider
A new book on Wakefield Prison, which houses some of the country’s most evil killers including Michael Sams and Robert Maudsley, reveals inmates are constantly changing their methods to smuggle in spice.
An insider told the authors of Monster Mansion: “Spice is a game-changer within prisons.
“Prisoners with no real means of money will do anything — assault others, sexual favours, steal, anything — to get high.
“If a person has an issue with another prisoner, or even a staff member, the dealer will just give them a little line [of spice] to attack the prisoner or guard.”
At Wandsworth, the centre of the latest sex scandal to engulf the service, Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor noted “ongoing failings in security, severe overcrowding, vermin, drugs, violence and rising self-harm”.
He said the day-to-day relationship between staff and inmates there was almost non-existent, with many officers being inexperienced.
Speaking at HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire earlier this month, Shabana Mahmood announced the early release of many non-violent prisoners from September, saying jails were operating at 99 per cent capacity and were weeks away from running out of space.
Total breakdown of law and order
Shabana Mahmood
She warned of “a total breakdown of law and order” as overflow police cells filled up, leading to “van-loads of dangerous people circling the country with nowhere to go”.
She added: “Soon, the courts would grind to a halt, unable to hold trials. With officers unable to act, criminals could do whatever they want, without consequence.
“We could see looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops and setting neighbourhoods alight. In short, if we fail to act now, we face the collapse of the criminal justice system. And a total breakdown of law and order.”
And PM Sir Keir Starmer blasted the former government for allowing the prison system to hit crisis point, calling it “gross irresponsibility”.
Professor Acheson, who has written a book called Screwed about the problems, says while overpopulated jails are a major issue, lack of staff discipline and corruption is rife
He said: “There’s a decline that’s not all to do with overcrowding. Not every establishment has that issue.
“Prisons need to be returned to order and discipline and control.
“One of the issues we have is that this is a national law enforcement agency which is being run a bit like the civil service.
“The uniforms are cheap, there’s no esprit de corps, discipline seems almost like a dirty word and then you will get very high-profile and extremely embarrassing events, such as the alleged sexual incident at Wandsworth.
“I think it’s all related to the fact we’re just trying to put bums on seats and boots on landings.”
Labour had ‘no option’ on lags
LABOUR have claimed they have “no option” but to release thousands of prisoners who have served 40 per cent of their jail sentences.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said it was vital to avoid the “collapse of the criminal justice system” due to overcrowding.
The emergency measure will see an estimated 5,500 prisoners back on the streets to serve the remainder of their terms on licence.
Previously, only those who had served half of their sentences – excluding those convicted of sexual, terrorist or serious violent offences – could be considered.
Labour had vowed in March not to release criminals early.
But two days before the election, Sir Keir Starmer said they would “in all likelihood . . . have to continue” with the early releases.
Labour has promised to rush through 14,000 additional prison places by changing planning laws and to train 1,000 new probation officers by March next year.
Recent Ministry of Justice data showed there were just 700 free places in adult male prisons, and that jails had been operating at 99 per cent capacity since last year.
Labour have appointed campaigner James Timpson, CEO of key cutting and cobbler firm Timpson, as their new prisons minister.
His company has hired hundreds of former inmates.
Previously Mr Timpson, who is now a member of the House of Lords, said “only a third” of prisoners “should definitely be there”.
He told Channel 4 News: “Holland has shut half of their prisons. They have a different way of sentencing – it’s community sentencing.”