David Lammy with newly appointed prison reviewer Amber Rudd on a visit to HMP Wandsworth. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian View image in fullscreen David Lammy with newly appointed prison reviewer Amber Rudd on a visit to HMP Wandsworth. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian Prisons and probation Drugs, drones and heat: Amber Rudd and David Lammy begin search for answers to prisons crisis Former Tory minister appointed to head review sees first-hand challenges on visit to troubled HMP Wandsworth
Scrapping early release for sex offenders could leave no capacity in jails, says Lammy
Rajeev Syal Home affairs editor Sun 12 Jul 2026 19.02 CEST First published on Sun 12 Jul 2026 19.00 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google The fortress-like entrance of HMP Wandsworth, one of the UK’s most notorious jails, has become a familiar sight in recent years.
In 2023, Daniel Khalife , a spy for Iran, escaped through the gates by strapping himself to the underside of a delivery truck, prompting a nationwide hunt. Two years ago, prisoners celebrated their freedom under an emergency release scheme in front of these gates, thanking Keir Starmer and swigging champagne from bottles.
Last year, the Wandsworth prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu was jailed after being filmed in a cell having sex with an inmate. And in November, a sex offender and a fraudster were accidentally released from the jail because of clerical errors.
It helps explain why it was in this part of south-west London that, in 35C heat on Thursday, David Lammy , the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, and Amber Rudd, a former Conservative home secretary, began a search for long-term solutions for the Prison Service.
View image in fullscreen Lammy and Rudd visit HMP Wandsworth to launch the start of a six-month review into the Prison Service. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian Rudd’s task as the newly appointed independent reviewer of the prison system is to take just six months to draw up policies which will address the underlying problems leading to such scandals.
She wants to provide “guard rails” for improvements that will tighten security, improve public safety and tackle drugs and gangs. “I think that various governments have turned a blind eye to issues to do with prisons and then they suddenly do something when something goes badly wrong,” Rudd said. “There hasn’t been an attempt to say ‘what are we going to do medium to long term?’”
About a quarter of jailed offenders across England and Wales are held in Victorian prisons such as Wandsworth. Its latest inspection report said there were 1,430 prisoners in cells meant for 894. Conditions have improved since a “catastrophic” inspection by the prisons’ watchdog in 2024 led to a pledge of an extra £100m and a cut in the number of prisoners.
Despite evidence from other prisons that self-harm incidents rise during a heatwave, Wandsworth’s prisoners are often stuck in their cells, some for 22 hours a day, with no fans or air conditioning.
Inmates are allowed to buy a handheld fan through an electronic kiosk on each landing, staff said. Prisoners are granted about 50p a day if they do not have a prison job, and prison sources said the fans cost £15.
Hot weather brings other problems, too: Andy Davy, Wandsworth’s “governing governor”, is often taken up with stopping drones from bringing in drugs. “If the weather is good we get absolutely peppered, usually between two and four in the morning,” he said.
A drone’…