Foreign prisoner absconders could have been prevented - Clegg

4.53.01pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 26th May 2006

Nick Clegg MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary

Responding to the announcement that foreign prisoners will be moved from Ford open prison in Sussex, after 11 absconded in one month, Nick Clegg MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary said "Once again Blair and Reid's tough talk is exposed as hot air. Foreign prisoners, who we had been assured were under lock and key, have simply taken matters into their own hands and walked off.

"Given the Government's well publicised drive to deport foreign prisoners, this state of affairs could surely have been predicted. They should have been moved to more secure surroundings far earlier.

"We need an urgent review of the inmates in Britain's open prisons to make sure more of those who should be deported do not escape.

"But with higher security prisons already overcrowded, where is the Prison Service going to put these people? This situation is in danger of reaching crisis proportions."