All the locks have had to be changed at four prisons after guards lost the keys, ministers have admitted.
The taxpayer picked up the £300,000 bill to prevent mass escapes in the last three years.
It can also be revealed that since the coalition was formed prison officers have lost almost 140 sets of keys, used to unlock everything from prison gates to handcuffs used to restrain the most dangerous criminals.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has unveiled plans to shut five jails, including the historic Dartmoor Prison in Devon.
He argued it was time to replace old, crumbling prisons with modern super-jails housing thousands of inmates.
But the Ministry of Justice this week admitted to the security blunders which meant four of the country’s biggest jails had to be ’relocked’ since 2010.
The taxpayer paid out £79,525 to change the locks at the category B Swaleside jail on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
A further £173,608 was spent on new
locks for the Glen Parva young offenders institution in Leicestershire
and £84,418 on the Warren Hill young offenders institution in Suffolk.
All the locks in the 1,450 capacity HMP Birmingham were also replaced at a cost of £415,276, although the bill was picked up by private firm G4S which runs the category B jail.
Ministers are at pains to stress that ‘there were no escapes at any of the prisons’ as a result of the security error.
‘Following these incidents vigilance at the prisons was increased regarding key security and events that may lead to a prison needing to be relocked,’ said prisons minister Jeremy Wright.
However Labour said it was ‘ridiculous’ that so much money had been spent because prison staff had misplaced their keys.
Labour’s shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan said: ’I’ve heard of locking up prisoners and throwing away the keys, but losing the keys is ridiculous.
’This is breathtaking incompetence of the highest order and is money the taxpayer can ill afford to waste.’
Ministers have also admitted that in the first two years of the coalition there were 136 cases of loss of keys reported by prisons.
It included officers and guard losing or misplacing keys to prison gates, cells, handcuffs and escort chains.
Andrew Neilson, Director of Campaigns at
the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: ‘With budgets dwindling year
on year, the Prison Service can ill–afford spending hundreds of
thousands of pounds on changing the locks in our jails.
‘Prisons are overcrowded, the staff who work there are overstretched, and this is money that could be better spent on alternatives to custody, such as community sentences.’
A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘Incidents like this are extremely rare. We always investigate them thoroughly and update our security measures accordingly.’
The taxpayer picked up the £300,000 bill to prevent mass escapes in the last three years.
It can also be revealed that since the coalition was formed prison officers have lost almost 140 sets of keys, used to unlock everything from prison gates to handcuffs used to restrain the most dangerous criminals.
Blunder: The taxpayer paid out £79,525 to change the locks at the category B Swaleside jail on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent
He argued it was time to replace old, crumbling prisons with modern super-jails housing thousands of inmates.
But the Ministry of Justice this week admitted to the security blunders which meant four of the country’s biggest jails had to be ’relocked’ since 2010.
The taxpayer paid out £79,525 to change the locks at the category B Swaleside jail on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
All the locks in the 1,450 capacity HMP Birmingham were also replaced at a cost of £415,276, although the bill was picked up by private firm G4S which runs the category B jail.
Ministers are at pains to stress that ‘there were no escapes at any of the prisons’ as a result of the security error.
‘Following these incidents vigilance at the prisons was increased regarding key security and events that may lead to a prison needing to be relocked,’ said prisons minister Jeremy Wright.
However Labour said it was ‘ridiculous’ that so much money had been spent because prison staff had misplaced their keys.
Labour’s shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan said: ’I’ve heard of locking up prisoners and throwing away the keys, but losing the keys is ridiculous.
’This is breathtaking incompetence of the highest order and is money the taxpayer can ill afford to waste.’
Ministers have also admitted that in the first two years of the coalition there were 136 cases of loss of keys reported by prisons.
It included officers and guard losing or misplacing keys to prison gates, cells, handcuffs and escort chains.
‘Prisons are overcrowded, the staff who work there are overstretched, and this is money that could be better spent on alternatives to custody, such as community sentences.’
A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘Incidents like this are extremely rare. We always investigate them thoroughly and update our security measures accordingly.’
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