Criminals enjoying "high life in cushy jails"

By Andrew Hough

LONDON (Reuters) - Criminals are enjoying such a life of luxury in British jails that they are refusing to try to escape, a senior prison union official said on Friday.

Dangerous prisoners enjoy satellite television, free telephone calls and breakfast in bed in the country's "cushy" jails, Prison Officers' Association General Secretary Glyn Travis added.

Cheap drugs are readily available, he said, and some prisoners enjoy visits from prostitutes while in other jails inmates had "control" over staff. However the government said his comments did not reflect reality.

Travis said that in some cases, overstretched staff were powerless to impose order because they were frightened of breaching prisoners' human rights.

In comments published by several newspapers on Friday, Travis gave an example of a breach at Everthorpe Prison in East Yorkshire, where a dealer regularly used a ladder to scale the fence and supply inmates with drugs and mobile phones.

Inmates at an unnamed top security prison recently told Justice Secretary Jack Straw that conditions were like a "holiday camp", the media reports said.

Dismissing claims he was making a political point to get more staff and funding, Travis said on Friday the prison service was in crisis and that tough jails were too "cushy".

"What we are after is a safe and secure system that the public can have confidence in, and it has nothing to do with making a political statement," he told BBC radio.