Do criminal gangs control Britain’s prisons?
A member of prison staff is fired for serious offences every four days, as ITV News' Sam Holder reports
Britain's prisons are effectively under the control of serious organised crime groups, two former prison governors have warned.
ITV News has uncovered evidence that those organisations are grooming prison employees and that members of criminal gangs are even taking jobs inside.
John Podmore, who was the governor at three different prisons in the UK and headed the Corruption Prevention Unit across the entire prison service, warned that prison governors and officers are no longer in charge.
The problem, according to Podmore, is being fuelled by the prison drug trade, which he estimates is worth £1 billion a year.
“Staff will be the primary source in most prisons”, Podmore said.
Meanwhile, Pia Sinha, who also governed three prisons, echoed Podmore's sentiment, telling ITV News “overrun and overcrowded” jails have effectively led to a “vacuum of leadership…filled by criminality”.
"The drug trade in prisons in this country across all prisons is probably worth about £1 billion"
Insiders who’ve spoken to ITV News have also raised questions about the vetting process, training and support for prison staff.
Additionally, FOI requests provided to ITV News revealed that the number of incidents of suspected corruption featuring prison staff has risen by 270% since 2020.
Lonely prison officers are being groomed by criminal organisations in order to encourage them into carrying out offences, such as smuggling in drugs and phones.
Both male and female officers are targeted; male officers with the offer of companionship and the promise of help maintaining order, while female officers have been lured in by fake romance.
Hannah Angwaba was jailed this year for trying to smuggle in tens of thousands of pounds of drugs to HMP Forest Bank after being exploited by a prisoner who she thought she was in a relationship with.
Stephanie Heaps was also jailed this year for secretly marrying a convicted murderer who she met while she was working at HMP Wymott. She ended up helping his criminal organisation.
ITV News has found that a member of prison staff is fired for misconduct every four days in England alone, according to FOI requests.
Mr Podmore believes that officers are being “thrown to the wolves” as a result of understaffing and inadequate training, adding: “If you are a young officer on the landing, you might be responsible for 50 or 60 prisoners”.
“Prison officers in this country are receiving as little as six or seven weeks training, it used to be 12 weeks. It's been reduced and that was a crazy decision."
In comparison, in some countries like Argentina and Norway, officers are trained for two years.
Ms Sinha said that there are significant issues with how staff are hired in public sector prisons because recruitment is carried out centrally rather than by the governors of each prison.
Former prison governor Pia Sinha said “overrun and overcrowded” jails have led to a “vacuum of leadership… filled by criminality”
She said: “They know from the moment they see this person that they are not the right person for the job.
“The worst point is the responsibility then of getting rid of these corrupt members of staff then falls on the lap of the governors”.
Governors are then “tied up, doing complicated HR processes in order to get rid of people that they didn't want in their jails in the first place”, according to Sinha, who now heads the Prison Reform Trust.
The starting salary for prison officers ranges from £32,000 to £42,000, but staff can earn much more by carrying out offences on behalf of criminal organisations.
One serving prison officer, who spoke to ITV News on the condition of anonymity, said he was offered £2,000 for smuggling in a phone.
A serving prison officer told ITV News that inmates have asked him to "bring something in" for them
He said he saw, first-hand, another officer get caught trying to bring in a bag filled with 20 phones, which would have potentially doubled his annual salary.
“I've had inmates directly talk to me and ask me to bring something in” he said. “I turned them down and their response to that was, well, other officers do it, so why can't you?”
In response to our findings, the Ministry of Justice, which has overall responsibility for all prisons in the UK, said that “the overwhelming majority of Prison Service staff are hardworking and honest”.
“We’re catching more of the small minority who break the rules. This includes by bolstering our Counter Corruption Unit and strengthening our vetting processes”.
Have you heard The Trapped? Listen as Daniel Hewitt exposes the UK's dirty secret