Inmates flee open prisons every 2 days
CRIMINALS are escaping from open prisons at the rate of one every two days, new figures reveal.
Some 890 cons - including murderers and rapists - simply slipped out in the last five years.
Many just failed to go back after being let out to do a day’s work.
The tally of escaped inmates includes 272 robbers, 55 on drugs raps, 11 sex offenders and 233 sent down for violence.
Some 24 are still at large, and nine of those have been missing for four years or more, according to statistics obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
‘SKULLCRACKER’
Last night David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention, said: “This highlights the risks open prisons pose to the public.
“It is time the Ministry of Justice tightened up the rules and stopped placing dangerous offenders in what seem to amount to taxpayerfunded holiday camps.”
Worst- hit was HMP Sudbury, Derbys, where 128 absconded, including convicted murderer Darren Jackson, 53, who fled prison for the second time last year.
“Skullcracker” Michael Wheatley, 58, quit Standford Hill, Kent, in 2014 and robbed a building society.
Nearly 100 escaped from Leyhill prison, Gloucs, including rapist Admi Headley, 34, who walked out last November before handing himself in.
The Ministry of Justice said: “Absconds have fallen to a record low, down 75 per cent on a decade ago.”