PRISON WARDEN CLAIMS OVERCROWDING

A SENIOR prison officer claims dangerous offenders are being transferred to
low-security prisons too soon into their sentences in an attempt to ease
overcrowding problems.

Neil Mason, national executive committee member of the Prison Officers'
Association, was speaking four days after murderer Lawrence Hughes
absconded from Hollesley Bay Prison, near Woodbridge.

Mr Mason said pressure for places in closed establishments could result in
offenders being reclassified from Grade C to Grade D - when they are
considered suitable for open prison accommodation - too early. He said
nationally prisons were being forced to allocate two per cent more
prisoners - two new prisons worth of offenders.

He said: "There are now 70,000 prisoners nationwide which is an all time
high and they have not got the staff to look after the recent increase in
population so they are having to overcrowd all prisons which has a knock-on
effect on an open establishment.

"My concern is that because of the pressure of places in closed
establishments they are re-categorising prisoners too soon."

Stuart Robinson, prison governor at Hollesley Bay Prison, said there was no
evidence to support Mr Robson's claim.

"There has been no change in the risk management and allocation procedures.
The allocation process has not been altered and the same risk assessments
have been undertaken," he added.

Mr Mason said overcrowding problems were severely affecting prisons
throughout the country, including Chelmsford Prison, where the prison's
capacity had increased from 501 offenders to 536 with no extra resources or
staff.

A Prison Service spokeswomen said: "Obviously we are well aware there are
overcrowding problems in the prison service at the moment. We are looking
in the short term and long term to try and tackle this problem.

"But the director general Martin Narey has made it clear to everyone in the
prison service that at a time like this, we should be extra careful in risk
assessing prisoners to ensure they are correctly and properly categorised.

"No prisoner who is unsuitable for a category D prison should be held in
such an establishment."

Convicted murderer Hughes has been reported missing from Hollesley Bay's
open wing since Saturday evening.

The 28-year-old Irishman was jailed for life in 1995 for killing his
girlfriend. He was last seen at 6.50pm and reported missing just over an
hour later.