Prisons now so bad even ex-con can't believe 'scale of drugs and sex with wardens'

A former criminal, who spent years in and out of jail, spoke of his shock at the state of British prisons after a female warden was filmed on an illegally smuggled mobile phone at HMP Wandsworth having sex with an inmate while his friend appeared to smoke drugs.

Reformed Crook Samson Bee, known as Yammy B, spent years in and out of prison for robbing drug dealers, but now tries to steer others from crime through a YouTube channel.

In a video update he spoke of his shock at the Wandsworth video, which was leaked and went viral online, and claimed that coupled with last years' high-profile escape from the notorious establishment, it should soon be facing closure.

He said: "Wandsworth has had more scandals than me. it's not the first time and won't be the last, but not seen it in quite that graphic detail. I had a couple of scandals, but nothing on that scale.

"It highlights the problems with mobile phones and the culture and why, again, rehabilitation and resettlement and learning from going to prison... to come back out and not get back into your old ways of commiting crime, it would seem and is, in fact, fact that life inside prison.

"You could come out worse than when you went in, right, for the simple reason there's so many things on offer drugs, mobile phones, to a real real high degree.

"It takes your mind of the significance of why you are in prison doing time for crimes and to think about your actions.

"It doesn't look like prison is helping anyone these days, they have lost complete control.

"(Wandsworth) will probably be closed down at some stage - there have been too many massive scandals, the escape and all the other big scandals that have come out of there."

A woman has been charged with misconduct in public office in connection with the video, with the court case adjourned.

Separately, former soldier Daniel Khalife, 22, is accused of escaping from Wandsworth by strapping himself to the underside of a food lorry last year. He is also accused of leaking sensitive information to Iranian intelligence and is set to face trial in October.

Meanwhile, a former senior prison officer fears Britain could see another prison takeover on the scale of the infamous Strangeways riots due to staff shortages.

An over-reliance on inexperienced officers meant that inmates were getting too much control, with drugs and mobile phones plentiful, it is claimed.

The Prison Officers’ Association recently warned about chronic staff shortages and retention problems.

The alert came days after Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood unveiled plans for the early release of up to 20,000 inmates to ease chronic overcrowding.

Jo Taylor spent five years as a senior prison officer at HMP Wakefield, dubbed “Monster Mansion” because it houses many notorious killers such as Levi Bellfield and Ian Huntley.

She said last month’s incident – when a male convict filmed another having sex with a female prison officer while he smoked cannabis at Wandsworth jail – showed the system is out of control.

She asked: “How was she in there and where were the other staff?

“When I left the service in 2012, they were starting to get rid of experienced officers, to replace them with cheaper staff. Over the past 12 years they have lost much of the experience. So staff come in with no life experience and no life skills, and at 18 they are telling a hardened criminal to ‘get in your cell’ and it just won’t work.

“It won’t be long before they will probably lose a prison. Something will happen. If you reduce staff to next to nothing, the cons will take over and you can imagine something like Strangeways happening again.”

The Strangeways riots ran from April 1, 1990 for 25 days when inmates at the Manchester jail took control of the chapel and then the rest of the building.

There were also rooftop protests.

One prisoner died and 147 warders and 47 inmates were injured. Building repairs cost £55million.

Last week Ms Mahmood blamed the previous government for the current overcrowding of the system, which left her with no choice but to begin releasing some inmates who have served 40 per cent of their sentence.

However, last night a former Scotland Yard officer warned releasing prisoners is not the answer. Ex-Det Chief Insp Dave McKelvey said: “This sends the wrong message. There are plenty of facilities that could be used to detain low-risk prisoners, reduce pressure and keep criminals locked up while they build more prisons.”

Last month the Prison Governors’ Association wrote an open letter to political leaders warning prisons were almost full. It said lack of investment put prisoners and staff at risk of injury.