Prison Service in Crisis as Staff Evade Justice
A shocking investigation by the Daily Mail has uncovered a systemic practice within the prison service where staff accused of serious criminal offences are being permitted to quietly resign or transfer to other jails, thereby avoiding police investigations. This scandal emerges amidst a deepening crisis for the prison service, which has been further rocked by a series of wrongful releases that have left Justice Secretary David Lammy desperately seeking solutions.
A Culture of Cover-Ups at Britain's Most Violent Jail
The investigation focused on HMP Feltham, a facility in southwest London that houses both a young offenders institution and adult males aged 18-35. Last year, a watchdog concluded that Feltham was the most violent prison in the country. A source within the jail revealed that management deliberately 'covered up' episodes of serious misconduct to avoid adverse publicity, a practice that began after the prison was placed in special measures following an urgent notification from the Prisons Inspectorate in 2019. A follow-up inspection in August found that levels of violence remained among the highest in the country.
Specific cases of alleged criminal behaviour that were not reported to the police include:
- Two officers accused of beating a young offender and then destroying the body-worn camera that captured the assault. They resigned days before their misconduct hearing and never faced police questioning.
- Officer Jordan Trainor, who was the subject of multiple intelligence reports concerning inappropriate relationships with two inmates at Feltham. Despite this, she was allowed to transfer to Wetherby Young Offenders Institute, where the same young men had been moved. At her new post, she was convicted of having sexual relationships with the teenage inmates and was jailed for 18 months in 2021.
A Litany of Scandals and a Call for Closure
The Mail's investigation revealed a cascade of further disturbing incidents at HMP Feltham since the 2019 urgent notification:
In June 2021, after a 17-year-old inmate threw hot water over an officer, two prison officers ended up in a brawl with the boy. An internal investigation found that the two female officers pressured a colleague to hand over his body-worn camera, which they then destroyed to conceal evidence of their violence. No police referral was made, and the officers resigned before their misconduct hearing.
In a separate incident, a prison officer was charged with animal cruelty after allegedly kicking a therapy chicken to death, though the case was later discontinued.
In 2023, a complaint was made against senior governor Dean Donaghue, who was overheard asking a colleague if he would perform a sex act on a female officer for a pound. Donaghue admitted to the 2018 comment, received formal guidance, and was asked to send a written apology. The officer involved, Laura Reader, left her role due to ill health and was awarded compensation, stating the comment was symptomatic of a 'bullying and misogynistic culture'.
Another female officer was found to have had an inappropriate relationship with Arif Biomy, a man she met at Feltham who was later jailed for life for murder. She visited him at HMP Belmarsh after his conviction.
Reacting to the findings, former prison governor and senior Home Office official Ian Acheson declared that HMP Feltham should be closed down. He stated, 'The only way to really change anything is to shut it down and start again with a completely new culture. The place is beyond redemption.' He accused management of being a 'cartel' more focused on protecting their reputations than maintaining discipline and safety.
This prison service scandal is compounded by a separate crisis involving wrongful releases. Migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford last month. Just days later, on October 29, Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was wrongly released from HMP Wandsworth. These errors occurred after Mr Lammy had claimed to impose 'stringent checks'. Official figures show that 262 prisoners were released in error in the year to March 2025, a 128% increase on the previous year.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'Most prison staff are honest and hardworking, and our investment in the prison service Counter-Corruption unit is helping us catch more of the small minority who are not. Where officers fall below our high standards, we do not hesitate to take tough action.'
