A prisoner absconded from an open prison as dozens of other offenders were being freed early on Tuesday.
The inmate scaled a fence covered in barbed wire before diving into a waiting car and being sped off.
The dash for freedom at HMP Kirkham, an open prison in Preston, was witnessed by a reporter who was outside the gates to cover the early release of inmates.
Sophie Reaper, a GB News journalist, said: “l saw a man in all black, appear on top of the fence which is covered with barbed wire.
“There was a black vehicle waiting just beneath. He jumped down, hopped in the car and it sped off out of the prison.
“Within a few minutes an alarm had begun sounding at HMP Kirkham. Police vans and cars have started to arrive…”.
It came as the second tranche of mass early releases was underway at prisons across England and Wales under an emergency scheme where 1,200 prisoners serving five or more year sentences were freed 40 per cent of the way through their sentences rather than half way.
Some 700 of the 1,200 are believed to have been in open prisons where the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their cells.
‘Tough consequences’
A Ministry of Justice (MoJ) spokesman said: “We’re urgently working with the police to recapture this prisoner. Absconds are rare, but those who break the rules face tough consequences including being moved to closed conditions and extra jail time.”
More than 60 prisoners absconded in 2022/23, down from 1,301 in 2003/4. However, The Telegraph revealed earlier this year that jails had been hit by a 50 per cent rise in prisoners deemed at risk of escaping in the wake of a jail break at HMP Wandsworth in south London by a terror suspect.
MoJ figures showed that 160 offenders were on the prison service’s “escape list” requiring extra security because of their risk of absconding.
That is a near 60 per cent rise from 105 in 2023 and the highest figure since 2020 when there were 167 prisoners on the escape list.
The so-called “E-list grade” includes those who have escaped, or attempted to escape from a prison, evaded escorts during a trip to a court or hospital or have been assessed as a flight risk due to intelligence or other reports.
The numbers are believed to have increased following the escape from Wandsworth prison.
