Overcrowded, cramped and insecure: state of UK’s jails made conditions ripe for Khalife’s escape

Crumbling buildings, a lack of space inside them and the high turnover of staff paint a picture of the parlous state of the prisons service

While the sheer extent of decrepitude in the nation's schools uncovered by the crisis over aerated concrete might have been an eye-opener to some policymakers, a story that highlights the parlous state of the prisons service will have surprised almost no one.

There are two main problems with prisons, which while interlinked are not entirely down to the same causes: the crumbling state of the prisons themselves, and the lack of space inside them.