Prison has mould and 'mushrooms' growing on walls

A whistleblower has revealed officers working at a prison housing some of Britain's most notorious offenders are dealing with damp, mould and crumbling ceilings.

Photographs taken inside HMP Frankland, near Durham, and seen by the BBC show problems throughout the institution, whose inmates include Soham murderer Ian Huntley and serial killer Levi Bellfield.

Responding to the images, Phil Hannant, who sits on the Prison Officers Association's National Executive Committee, said "infrastructures are failing".

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said it was investing £220m in prison and probation service maintenance in the current financial year and up to £300m in 2025-26, to improve conditions.

Mr Hannant, who has previously worked at Frankland, said: "There is mould to the point where large mushrooms are growing out of the walls.

"There is water constantly dropping from the ceiling.

"Prison officers generally do get on with it, until conditions hit the level where we can't because it's a risk to our safety."

Issues with damp and mould have been documented in inspection reports on the Category A prison since 2020.

Prisoners can claim compensation if their belongings are damaged.

The whistleblower said one member of staff was sent to hospital after getting debris in their eye when a small part of a ceiling collapsed.

Broken boilers have also led to inmates spending longer in cells because rehabilitation workshops cannot be run if the rooms are too cold.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has said poor conditions in some jails would continue to have an effect on the number of inmates they could hold.

A quarter of prison places in England and Wales - 23,000 - did not meet fire safety standards and HM Prison and Probation Service's backlog of maintenance works had doubled to £1.8bn in the last four years, it said.

Mr Hannant said: "Infrastructures are failing and, ultimately, that possibly could lead to escapes when things like alarm bells or gates are failing.

"We are the forgotten service, we are behind a big wall.

"The public don't see the conditions staff are working in."

The NAO estimated it would cost £2.8bn over the next five years to bring the whole prison estate into a "fair" condition - more than double its current maintenance expenditure.

The MoJ said it planned to create 14,000 new prison places, with four new prisons to be built in the next seven years.

Changes to planning rules would allow prisons to be built more quickly, it said.

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